Are rocks heavy or what ?

[Treemonkey1000]

markct,
The car hood seems to be the faster way of getting the job done!
Now the question is Ford or Chevy?

We all know that Ford hoods are the only good thing to use them for..
Before anyone jumps on me I am only teasing...If you want some real metal try a Mercedes or Volvo hood.....

 

[ehchvac]

The easiest, most durable stone boat I ever made, and still have 25 years later, was made from cutting an old home heating type 275 gallon oil tank to the desired shape.
Took about a 1/2 hour to figure out what I wanted and to cut it out with the torches.

 

[markct]

I don't think it would be a good idea to hook to the 3 point! Use the drawbar for safety.


Jack

yea i meant the 3pt drawbar not the toplink! with the 3 pt and a short chain you can get a little lift on the front of the stoneboat to help with traction and keep it from digging in.

 

[Steve_Miller]

Earlier this fall I went down back to get some big rocks out of my blueberry field.I only have my FEL to work with ,but still was very impressed with what I could pry out of the ground.I was dissapointed that I couldn't pick them up though. Most of the rocks where about 2' -3' in size. After cranking up the HP had no problems rolling them over by rolling my FEL , but still would not pick them up. Yesterday I went down [after the ground froze ] and pushed them over to the rock walls that border my field. I guess the weight of rocks can be deceiving. I know that when my flail mower came I picked it up, and that was around 700lbs. It lifted that like nothing. So what was that saying "How much does a hen weigh?"

Just as a rough figure to use, rock weighs somewhere around 180 - 190 lbs per cubic foot. Porous rock such as sandstone will be less and lead/zinc or iron ore will obviously be heavier. Concrete is somewhere in the vicinity of 150 lbs per cubic foot.

Steve

 

[jinman]

The car hood seems to be the faster way of getting the job done!
Now the question is Ford or Chevy?

The best hood is the one you can steal off the pickup in your neighbor's driveway when he's not lookin'.

 

[studor]

If you have a lot of hills or are going over uneven terrain, go for the style with runners instead of the hood or flat sled type. While in most cases the weight of waht you are pulling will make it a non issue, it is better not to have a heavy weight at ninety degrees to the back of your tractor on very slight side hill!
Don't ask me how I know!

 

[First one]

If you have a lot of hills or are going over uneven terrain, go for the style with runners instead of the hood or flat sled type. While in most cases the weight of waht you are pulling will make it a non issue, it is better not to have a heavy weight at ninety degrees to the back of your tractor on very slight side hill!
Don't ask me how I know!

O.K. I've got to ask What happened? It sounds like maybe you might have some good advice on what not to do!

 

[markct]

ok i can understand the warning about sidehills, but wow ya must have a greased lawn or something, i never could get anything to slide that easy! usualy on a sidehill the thing just towed a bit to the side, still plenty of drag. had the rock roll off a few times but never the stone boat take off sideways!

 

[mtg65]

A stone boat sounds like the ticket. Would like to make one out of wood ,but have never seen one . As far as the size and what to use -like 2x10s or what? I'll have to find a pic. of one to see how to do it, thanks!

I used a stone boat before I bought a tractor with FEL. It was very effective in moving large heavy stones. I would roll heavy rocks on to it using a pry bar and would pull the boat with my JD1010 dozer.

I found this book: The Art And Craft of Stonescaping: Setting & Stacking Stone very helpful in explaining technics on moving and setting stones.

 

[mtg65]

My "stoneboat" is very expensive, but effective. Even so, I've sure had some rocks that humiliated me and my tractor. Here are some photos of one of the largest I've moved any great distance, from the woods to my rock garden. It was 6' wide and over a foot thick.

Also, in the last two pictures, I show how I tried to lift one rock with a chain from my rock bucket. In the first picture, I had the chain wrapped around the front of the bucket tines and my loader couldn't lift the stone. In the second picture, I moved the chain back toward my QA adapter and that made the stone managable. My rock bucket and grapple weigh about 750 lb, so I could easily have lifted the rock if I had removed the grapple, but I like a challenge.

Ok..the heck with the stone boat..get what jinman has! That rock bucket is awesome!

 

[studor]

I had an old truck hood (80's chev -- the older Fords and Chevs are all to rusty to hold anything)that I thought was great for moving really heavy rocks around with but I found out once that it did not take much of an angle or bump for either the rock to roll off or the whole load to slide sideways to the tractor. Luckily, when it slid sideways to the tractor the rock would usually roll off but once it managed to pull the chain right against the back tire which was a real PITA until I realized I just needed to brake that side and turn downhill
It just seemed to be a lot of work to get the rocks to stay on and towed to the new spot
An elderly neighbour told me to use his "drogue"to move rock. It is made out of oak and hemlock and looks like it was part of the Ark. The runners have strap iron and the design was much the same as posted earlier in this thread. I found that the thing never slid and the rocks never came off on any slope I was willing to try with the tractor (and I do not like slopes). I did return it after I used it but not before I kinda memorized the construction
Just my experience --yours may vary!

 

[Ridgewalker]

Thanks for the tip of using an old car hood as a stone boat! That is a great idea.

If anyone is in my neck of the woods and needs a hood send me a note, I have access to my step dads old junkyard that he ran years ago, my mom still has 300 or so old GM and Ford trucks, 70's and 80's stuff and a bunch of 80's era GM junk cars. Finding a hood is not a problem!

 

[First one]

Ok..the heck with the stone boat..get what jinman has! That rock bucket is awesome!

You know, I like the way you think ! It's just talking the wife into it that's stoping me, oh ya and cash.
She's really good to go on the car hood though .
That bucket is awesome no doubt. I'm wondering if you could use it for picking up brush or what ever?

 

[jinman]

That bucket is awesome no doubt. I'm wondering if you could use it for picking up brush or what ever?

The bucket and grapple with associated hoses was a little over $2100, so that's a significant purchase when you consider the minimum cost of an old beat up hood. Of course, the rock bucket is great for picking up anything from construction debris to brush to telephone poles as shown in the attachments.

 

[neucam]

Rocks do seem to be dense , I can lift 500-600lb easily with loader but when try to pick up a rock 16-18in diameter it won't move it, have to roll it where I want, but I wanted to lift it to move it. So how heavy are these?

 

[First one]

The bucket and grapple with associated hoses was a little over $2100, so that's a significant purchase when you consider the minimum cost of an old beat up hood. Of course, the rock bucket is great for picking up anything from construction debris to brush to telephone poles as shown in the attachments.

jinman,
I'm glad you wrote back, I was wondering how much a set up like that would run . Yes, that is a good price to pay ,but look at all the things you can do with it !!
Do you think that my L3240 could handle something like that ?
I see your tractor has more hp than mine, so that would make a big diff. in what I'd be able to lift.
Thanks again for the pic's !
Scott

 

[boatyard]

Stone boats around here have runners to keep them from sliding sideways and to help keep them from overrunning the Oxen. Oxen are still used a good bit around here. They are gentle on the forest floor when dragging logs and using the stone boat to haul rocks. But best of all they do not tip over on a sidehill
The truck hood and the metal plate sleds look like a great and simple idea but would not work well on our hills.
But Oxen do not have bucket loaders for moving snow

 

[studor]

I guess you must have oxen in pairs so that one can lift the rock while the other grazes

 

[melonhawg]

Funny!
I just got a new windshield installed and asked the shop owner if he had any old hoods around... he took me around the back and pointed me to a pile of beat up auto parts.

I asked him how much for one... FREE!!!
It's 45d X 65w and now I just need to weld a couple of D-Ring shackles.

 

[RadarTech]

Ok folks-- I read this and had to ask, rocks not heavy?
or is everyone else some kind of super rock hero?


anyway--- just curious...

J