Front-End Loader Rock & debris bucket

KYDan · Jan 22, 2012

Thanks for the input. I have considered custom buckets with wider tine spacing as heavy clay tends to hold together. I don't have an abundance of smaller rocks, but rather large ones for the most part. Where I am building lawn rather than pasture I plan to use composted pond muck for the topsoil and will sift it prior to spreading. Many of the rocks I intend to remove are flat surface rocks about 6 + inches thick of varying sizes from dinner plate size to several feet in circumference. This is an on the job type of adventure and I appreciate and I openly seek OJT advice. At 50 HP and 5600 lbs. I am somewhat limited in what attachments I can use. Ideally, I could use a big 150+ HP tractor pulling a Schulte boulder picker and a rock wind rower, etc. Alas, this is a small time, relatively low financed project. It is a retirement "job" that I enjoy and living within a budget. I have picked thousands of pounds of rock manually and with my loader buckets over the years and hand loaded a lot of them into the buckets. Hopefully, I can pick and scoop with a rock bucket and eliminate some of the hand picking. I am using some of the larger rocks in steep cut and hillside landscaping projects and others for base fill extending my runway.

jenkinsph · Jan 22, 2012

The larger rocks are easier to collect than the smaller ones in that the larger spacings make it much easier to drop out the soil. Three inch spacing should work better if you have the 6" rocks to pick up. The higher the clay content the harder it is to make any of this work.

In my case I have less clay and various sizes of rocks in a sandy soil to separate so I am working on a vibrating rock bucket with closer tine spacing. Lots of trade offs but sorting rocks from lawn areas is an ongoing battle for me.

Something I think would help with a rock bucket would be a vibratory shaker mounted to the bucket. With some isolation mounting from the tractor and using a hydraulic motor plugged into the auxillary fel port to turn the eccentric weighted shaft. You could scoop up a load of rocks then shake it to release most of the dirt.

This is something I am currently working on and trying to get all figured out. Currently considering an enclosed shaker similar to what is used on an drilling rig shaker screen.

jinman · Jan 22, 2012

jenkinsph said:
Something I think would help with a rock bucket would be a vibratory shaker mounted to the bucket. With some isolation mounting from the tractor and using a hydraulic motor plugged into the auxillary fel port to turn the eccentric weighted shaft. You could scoop up a load of rocks then shake it to release most of the dirt.

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:
Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

KYDan · Jan 22, 2012

Interesting ideas, keep us posted on your progress.

jinman · Jan 22, 2012

BTW Dan, the Bradco grapple attachment for their rock bucket is very pricey. I would buy a thumb style single grapple like mine from eBay and either mount it yourself or pay somebody to fit it up. That way, you can put a grapple on your bucket for less than $1k including hoses if you have a spare hydraulic remote. A full-width grapple is just not needed. All you need is something to stabilize your load or clamp down on brush. In my opinion, I wouldn't want one much bigger than the one on my bucket.

KYDan · Jan 23, 2012

Thanks Jim,

I am going to try it without the grapple and see how it performs. That was sort of my plan anyway due to my budget and priorities. Originally, my plan for must look at and have items was a new rotary mower and lift harrows. I can do without either of them for awhile as my old 5 foot rotary is useable, but really too small for this tractor. And, I have an old set of lightweight pull behind lift harrows that I can make do with if necessary. However, this time I am shopping for the rock bucket, new box blade, and new rotary mower. Maybe later in the year I will add the rear remotes and grapple.

Rob-D · Mar 22, 2012

Well I read through this thread, thanks everyone for the great honest info on rock buckets you answered a lot of my questions. I'm putting in a new garden this year about 100x75 feet, give or take, and I'm getting creamed with rocks. My poor tiller digs up the soil but my EA landscape rake doesn't do a good job of collecting the rocks from the loose soil. I finally took out my hands and did my pea row by tilling and derocking (is that word, it should be!) then tilling more, etc. I got it pretty clean but this place will push up rocks again next spring all over again. Lots of them!

It looks like the rock bucket isn't going to help much so I'll have to find another avenue to fix the problem.

Rob

jenkinsph · Mar 23, 2012

Rob-D said:
Well I read through this thread, thanks everyone for the great honest info on rock buckets you answered a lot of my questions. I'm putting in a new garden this year about 100x75 feet, give or take, and I'm getting creamed with rocks. My poor tiller digs up the soil but my EA landscape rake doesn't do a good job of collecting the rocks from the loose soil. I finally took out my hands and did my pea row by tilling and derocking (is that word, it should be!) then tilling more, etc. I got it pretty clean but this place will push up rocks again next spring all over again. Lots of them!

It looks like the rock bucket isn't going to help much so I'll have to find another avenue to fix the problem.

Rob

As I see it the problem with using a landscape rake to separate rocks from the soil is that the tines are 50% of the overall spacing. That will hold too much dirt imo, If you remove every other tine the result is 3" spacing which will allow a lot of smaller rocks to pass through. If you have much trash it will still load up the rake and you wind up with a mixture of trash soil and rocks of all sizes. You may see some improvement in separating the rocks out but it leaves a lot to be desired.

Simply put you need a way to mechanically shake and sift out the rocks from the soil to get good results. For small areas you can use screens to sift it but it is a time and money consuming project. Harley rakes can help windrow the rocks close to the surface reducing the labor time and cost if you have enough use for it. I would like to buy a Harley rake soon, just don't have enough projects to offset the costs right now.

For now I till up the plots for lawns, use the rock bucket to pick up the big stuff, till and repeat. Then smooth out the soil and rake by hand making small piles to pick up. Very labor intensive. I would hope that a vibrating rock bucket and a Harley rake would reduce alot of this manual labor.

GreatWhitehunter · Mar 23, 2012

I've got a harley rake and a rock bucket. The best combo is the harley and the 4in1. After I rake up piles, I can grab the spoils with the 4in1. The rock bucket is moderately useful but it's pretty tough on the loader IMHO. If I were screening a pile of stuff I'd opt for the rock bucket but if I had a large are to deal with I'd find a way to pile or windrow it then use the rock bucket. I've found a landscape rake has it's uses but raking rocks really isn't one of them. I really like them for spreading materials and raking trails in the woods but not for real earth moving.

Matt

Rob-D · Mar 24, 2012

Thanks guys,
I really can't justify the cost of a Harley rake for what I do. I'm looking at the rock buckets as that's all that seems left besides doing it manually.
If it was a one time things I would see about hiring someone with a harley rake to do it but we remove rocks and every spring we have more rocks so it's a yearly task.

Rob