I want this rock

[ruffdog]

I have used old car hoods to skid big rocks on before.

 

[ning]

I hope you mean a compact telehandler. Mine would pick it up easily: Compact telehandler

I get what my rental yard has

in this case, they don't list a "compact telehandler"; last time I needed something similar I got the 5k telescopic, which was this thing

If I recall we had it for a day; with the delivery (I only have a now-older one-ton truck so couldn't get it myself) I recall it costing a bit over $400.

Cross-referencing pics on the web looks like this is a Genie GTH5519 which has a max lift capacity of 5500#, 4400# to max height.
Checking vs yours, looks like this is about the same thing as far as the forks & maneuverability so I suppose it's a compact TH as well.

​

 

[ruffdog]

My neighbor's Cat TH460 is real easy on the turf like any telehandler is.

 

[Mtsoxfan]

I've moved many a stone that was too heavy to lift. Rolling logs were by far the easiest. And, I feel they will move a heavier object, but have no proof of that. It does take two additional people to move logs. Using something like a car hood eliminates that. The very first one was damn big and heavy. Used a wrecker to lift it. Front tire were barely touching though, making it hard to turn.

 

[ning]

My neighbor's Cat TH460 is real easy on the turf like any telehandler is.

I wish I had useful neighbors.
One seems to be farming scotch broom (invasive, explosively flammable), and another likes to light things on fire that make him run around trying to put it out before I've had enough and call the FD.

 

[etpm]

One seems to be farming scotch broom (invasive, explosively flammable

Not only invasive and explosively flammable it is exceedingly hard to bush hog. My neighbor and I bush hogged 5 acres of scotch broom and it was like trying to mow down steel cable. Beat the crap out of the bush hog, it needed weld repair after that job.
Eric

 

[ning]

Not only invasive and explosively flammable it is exceedingly hard to bush hog. My neighbor and I bush hogged 5 acres of scotch broom and it was like trying to mow down steel cable. Beat the crap out of the bush hog, it needed weld repair after that job.
Eric

This is the perfect time of year to pull it here, but that takes time and still a lot of effort (and gains you exposure to poison oak).
I find that to be more "permanent" than cutting, but with how long the seeds last and how many bushes there are on the neighbor property it's a battle.
It's said you should cut stuff bigger than 1/2" to avoid ground disruption but I figure that's for grounds that aren't often visited by pullers; I make rounds of my land and yank the stuff regularly in the moist months.

 

[ponytug]

I wish I had useful neighbors.
One seems to be farming scotch broom (invasive, explosively flammable), and another likes to light things on fire that make him run around trying to put it out before I've had enough and call the FD.

I don't know whether the appropriate response is "Yikes!!", or "Wow!", but either way you have my sympathies.

Congratulations on finding a nice rock. If it is mostly level to your desired spot, I would consider building a lopsided frame that you could then use log or steel pipe rollers to move into place and then use the long arm of the frame to pull the point to the vertical, and then wedge it in place with rocks or concrete before removing the frame to keep control of it.

FWIW: I use forks on my tractor to rip poison oak out of the ground. It hates to have its roots pulled on, and I have found popping them out the ground is almost always fatal on the first try, especially for large clumps. The quail are always reseeding it from the neighbors, but the cows generally do a good job of keeping the young poison oak to at best an 18" stub.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ning]

I don't know whether the appropriate response is "Yikes!!", or "Wow!", but either way you have my sympathies.

Congratulations on finding a nice rock. If it is mostly level to your desired spot, I would consider building a lopsided frame that you could then use log or steel pipe rollers to move into place and then use the long arm of the frame to pull the point to the vertical, and then wedge it in place with rocks or concrete before removing the frame to keep control of it.

FWIW: I use forks on my tractor to rip poison oak out of the ground. It hates to have its roots pulled on, and I have found popping them out the ground is almost always fatal on the first try, especially for large clumps. The quail are always reseeding it from the neighbors, but the cows generally do a good job of keeping the young poison oak to at best an 18" stub.

All the best,

Peter

It's flat... but the rock is over here and I need to get it to the other side of the house; there's a path to the house but not around & beyond the house on the same level it's going to need to be picked up and taken 20' up in elevation, then 50' flat, 40' down the road in elevation, then back up 20' elevation up the driveway - ie the long way around. I think it if was on plywood skidding that it wouldn't damage the roads (dirt first, then blacktop, then exposed aggregate concrete) but it would suck for that to happen.

I didn't get a chance to experiment with the tractor to see how heavy it feels - and probably should just bite the bullet and do a finely detailed measurement of it to get a better estimate of weight. Strong suspicion is that it's going to be waiting for the compact telehandler - at least that gives me yet another reason to get my butt in gear and finish the new gate & arch - three years in the "yeah I need to do that still" list should be almost long enough.

Poison oak: I may give that a try except that my worst spots are on a 60% slope so messing with forks could be iffy just because they're 48" out there and could easily flip the tractor back. I do have a new grapple that while less of a surgical dig I have a big patch (about 30'x40') of major clumps so I could probably sacrifice and just dig the whole area up with the lower part of the grapple without as much front-of-tractor lifting potential. At the very least my goal this spring is to at least grab all the above-ground stuff, even if there's regrowth handling it next year will be less traumatic because it won't be a dense 8' tall jungle of the stuff. It's seriously frightening even though I only get a bit of a rash any more, I just know I'll get scratches from stuff like that.

I've been pulling a lot of it by hand; I find that if I give a light tug and it comes out easily, it has a root network that's right under the duff and above the dirt with little hooks in the dirt and by pulling that out you find a lot that hasn't sprouted yet (this time of year). It's almost like a spiderweb of networked poison oak under the duff and you can actually get most of it without disturbing the duff much. I definitely do eventually find something bigger which I either yank harder or (so far) cut with loppers. I don't know if it'll grow back or not - blackberries would, but they have something that's almost a tuber; smaller shrubs of poison oak definitely grow back if cut/picked (nice bouquet, thanks!) but I'm not sure if the same holds for the inch-plus trunks?

 

[2manyrocks]

A compact track loader might struggle with that rock.

I lightly mist poison oak with triclopyr brush killer. Give it 2-3 weeks to work.