Rock Harvesting

Jibber · Mar 28, 2004

Ahh, that time of year. Time to dig up icebergs in the lawn. This one started out about the size of your fist protruding from the lawn.

GregJ · Mar 28, 2004

That thing is huge...... Did your 3130 and BH90 handle it OK?

Greg

Jibber · Mar 28, 2004

It was wedged in between other rocks.. my property is extremely rocky. That made it a bit tricky. I had to change tractor positions several times, but after about a half hour It popped up. What really amazed me was the fact that the loader easily picked the thing up. I did a number on the lawn moving it to it's new home in the front yard. The lawn is still soft and the added weight put some good tracks out there. But it wasn't the first time. Here's another shot of it going into it's new location.

JayC · Mar 28, 2004

That is a giant rock! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

GregJ · Mar 28, 2004

That's one incredible machine!

Greg

Nasty135 · Mar 28, 2004

Jibber , So it sounds as if you would have been caught between the proverbial ROCK & Hard place
if not for that powerful unit you a sitting on, BTW is that a look of awe on your face or are you
concerned that your back wheels are going to come of the ground? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Isn't it nice to have equipment to handle the job...

TBAR · Mar 28, 2004

Wow.............what a job!!!

I knew someone that had one like that. They decided to jack hammer 12" off the top and overfill with dirt.

TBAR

raynman · Mar 28, 2004

Jibber,

Wow, well two weeks ago at my place up north I did about the same thing, moving small rocks with the FEL. I found one that was sticking out about 12", after playing with it for a 1/2 hour I got it out of the ground, but also bent the top edge of my new bucket trying to pick it up. Wife kept telling me I would never pick it up, but that just made me work on it harder. I did finally move it to where it is resting now and will soon be part of a flower bed boarder.

Great pictures, /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Nice tractor /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Jibber · Mar 29, 2004

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Isn't it nice to have equipment to handle the job... )</font>

You said it!

Two years ago, life before TLB, I spent the better part of three days working a rock half that size out of the ground. I actually had to use a hydraulic jack just to get it to ground level so that I could drag it off with a movers dolly. That's what convinced me to invest in a tractor with a loader. The backhoe was added last fall, and this is my first real rock removing season. This past weekend, I removed 7 large rocks and numerous smaller ones. I had one that wouldn't physically fit in the loader bucket so I had to use the backhoe to "roll" it to a new location. Time consuming, but it beat dragging the thing. I need to fashion some sort of skid for moving these rocks.

I WAS concerned about bending the bucket because I have the standard duty square back bucket. But it held up well.

Not sure what a rock like that weighs, but I wasn't worried about doing any "handstands" on the front tires. Between the loaded tires and the backhoe I should have plenty of counterweight.

boustany · Mar 29, 2004

Big rock like that I dig a deeper hole beside it, nudge it in, and cover it up. A couple feet below the surface & nobody knows.

I've got loads of rock. Not far from me is a hoidy toidy development where then pay thousands for big rocks. I'm thinking of starting a 'pick your own' rock garden.