How big of a rock/boulder can a 60 HP tractor push on relatively flat dirt?

[oldnslo]

The pictures in post #17 show rocks a 50 HP tractor should be able to move and probably even lift. Careful pushing and lifting rocks with loader since real easy for weight to shift and pucker factor goes full power in a heart beat..

Yes stone boat works great if you can get rocks rolled onto them.

 

[ruffdog]

Yes stone boat works great if you can get rocks rolled onto them.

An old car hood works good for a rock sled.

 

[Jrasband]

Better to push from behind with a scrape blade. Just try and see what it is capable of.

 

[oosik]

I have lined my inner driveway with some large basaltic lava boulders. The rock weight chart I found on line says this one weighs around 3000#. I never tried pushing it. It would simply tear up to much land. I lifted it with my grapple - kept it right at ground level - moved it half a mile cross country to its current location. It's 4' wide - 2.5'deep - 2.5' tall.

 

[TimberFarm]

This will give you an idea of what I mostly deal with size-wise. The second picture is of those on the larger end. Of course I hit some outliers that are bigger but not often.

View attachment 751031View attachment 751032

60HP should handle them no problem. What you see isn't even half of what I dug out of piles of dirt and small trees.
All done with a JD 3203.
Largest was about 54"x30"x8". Others 54x20x20.
Bucket would only lift about 4 or 5" off the ground.
Pushed some of the big ones too.
Most of the smaller stuff, hand thrown in the bucket then dumped.
I probably moved about 75-100 tons when it was all said and done. Brownstone.

 

[Torvy]

The short answer to the original question is, 'it depends'. What is the density of the rock?

 

[mikester]

You can move bigger ones using forks than you can with a bucket...

 

[future_vision]

I have lined my inner driveway with some large basaltic lava boulders. The rock weight chart I found on line says this one weighs around 3000#. I never tried pushing it. It would simply tear up to much land. I lifted it with my grapple - kept it right at ground level - moved it half a mile cross country to its current location. It's 4' wide - 2.5'deep - 2.5' tall.
View attachment 751077

Well, that is encouraging. Your tractor is a bit more powerful than the one I am getting but pretty close. If I can fist this size then I should be good for most of the rocks I need to deal with.

 

[future_vision]

You can move bigger ones using forks than you can with a bucket...

You would think the weight distribution of using forks might be hard on the forks but I guess that depends on what your forks are rates for huh? But I can definitely see that forks would do a good job of getting under the full width of a large rock compared to a bucket.

 

[future_vision]

The short answer to the original question is, 'it depends'. What is the density of the rock?

According to Wikipedia

"New Hampshire is known as "the Granite State", but less than half is underlain by granite; much of it is schist or gneiss, both of which are metamorphic rocks."

Even though I used to collect rocks as a hobby growing up I couldn't really tell you what each of these rocks are.