Rock, rocks, and Boulders

   / Rock, rocks, and Boulders #1  
M

Mountain Hill

New member
Joined
Apr 5, 2013
Messages
9
Location
Nova Scotia, Canada
Tractor
Kubota L3800HST
I have an unlimited supply of rocks and boulders, now I just trying to find out the best way(s) to move, collect , sort, clean and use! We live atop a drumlin, and with my newish L3800, I've started the process of making roads, pasture and garden plots.

The ground is about 30% rock from the size of grand of sand to boulders size of my tractor, there a fair bit of clay, with an organic cover if 18" or so, mostly, softwood, ferns and Blackberry. Right now, I'm able to dig, and move material with FEL and 65"box blade. Then there is the rocks, some I just go around, wait for the excavator, but what is best way to gather 3" to 10" rocks? I'm gettin to old for hand to hand combat with 20 acres of rock.

I can use the rock also, for French Drians, walls, road beds, etc. So any ideas on use , sorting would be appreciated, especially homemade tools or rock rakes that works.
I'll take some photos and attach to thread.
 
   / Rock, rocks, and Boulders #2  
Like you we have rocks and lots of them. I use the BH and thumb for bigger ones, and the FEL to scoop up too, then a landscape rake for the smaller ones.

With your L3800 do you have the QA bucket? If so I would look seriously at a grapple - they make a rock grapple but also regular ones with like 3-4" spacing. This would allow you to rake and stack the bigger ones.

Then you're left with 1-3" ones and use a landscape rake or Box blade for these.
 
   / Rock, rocks, and Boulders
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Yeah, have the quick release, I ll check out the grapple for rocks, sounds effect. No BH maybe next year.
 
   / Rock, rocks, and Boulders #4  
Sounds like you need a big shaker with different sized screens to separate the rocks by size.

I have similar post-glacial landscape here in NH and have gotten fairly adept at rock wall building. However, there are a few that are just too big for my tractor. I've got one 4 ton job that I'm playing with a hydraulic jack and tossing rocks underneath it to roll it about 4 feet into place in the wall. I have no idea how they managed Stonehenge and places like that with wooden poles and muscles only.
 
   / Rock, rocks, and Boulders #7  
I am in a similar situation. Started clearing a building site this weekend and its full of boulders. I am going to build a winch mount and try and skid some of these boulders. There is still frost in the ground so I was hard to move even 18 inch diameter rocks. I have a 10,000 lb winch and two pully blocks so hoping I can move some of the six footers.
 
   / Rock, rocks, and Boulders #8  
Dave,

Suggest getting an excavator for your house foundation and get the big ones where you want them, then fill in with the little 1-2' leftovers with your machines.


I'm sure you have plenty of these!


Carl
 
   / Rock, rocks, and Boulders #9  
I have a year to prep the site so will play around a bit. I may even move to another hill side. Funny thing about glaciers, Large areas of sand and clay and then this bolder field right were I would only have to bring hydro in 200 feet. I would love to rent a big excavator with a thumb for a weekend but not sure you can get one without an operator.
 
   / Rock, rocks, and Boulders #10  
Dave,

Get an excavator with the operator - you won't pay that much more than renting one and they know how to move rocks. Around here a mini ex (10K Lbs) with operator is around $500 a day. A big machine (40 tons) with operator is $800 a day plus $150-200 loading in fee.

Also let them know you will be needing more work in a year for house etc maybe you can work out a deal for a few days of their time. It's also the transport and moving of these machines is time and $ so getting someone for a 1-2 day job when it takes 4 hours to load/unload/reload and transport is part of the cost, so a bigger project this cost is spread out.
 
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