Best rock removal

[thunder86]

What is the best way to remove these rocks? Yes I'm able to dig them up but it's one after another and doesn't end. I feel like I could be here rest of the year. Got to be a better way. Looking to till this land up for a food plot and plant shrubs on the hillside like blueberries and blackberries.

Kinda want a rock bucket but afraid on my tractor it wouldn't dig in enough to make a difference. Kubota b2601. View attachment 655184

 

[thunder86]

You know where I'm located at. Southern Indiana, I've tried changing it many times and it will not let me.

 

[i7win7]

My B2650 lifts about 200lbs more than B2601. This Bradco built bucket is a little larger than recommended, perfect for the next tractor. Where I live can't have LTL deliveries (semi's) showing up. If you can, Tomahawk makes a rock bucket that maybe what you're looking for. I get cement truck washout (cheap fill material) and separate the boulders from the fine stuff. Ask dump truck driver to keep rocks under 500lbs, cement co. has a general idea about the max size.

 

[JasperFrank]

Take a hammer and knock off a chip. Is the fresh surface a dark bluish black? If so, you might have a layer of fractured basalt. You are never going to plow that. And don't think you'll ever "remove" the rocks: Cause that's mostly what you have and the rocks only get bigger the further down you go.

 

[mikester]

Get a set of forks and move one at a time. If you cant lift it then get a sling and drag it out of the way hitching to the draw bar.

 

[Roadworthy]

If that's your entire "collection" you could try putting one or a few at a time into your FEL. That's how I moved my "collection".

 

[thunder86]

No, there's way more in the ground yet... I may be fighting a losing battle. I have a guy coming to dig a trench for a pipe, may see if he has skid steer with a rock bucket??? Not sure how long it would take and I don't want to fork out a ton of money for rock removal....

 

[thunder86]

This is at a local rental place in town. They have skid steers that weigh over 8,000 lbs. This would have to be an easier way?

 

[johncanfield]

I have a 4720 Deere and a grapple with filled tires, I can pick up and move one ton rocks. Digging a trench is more efficient with an excavator, if there's large rocks an excavator with a thumb can move those to the side.

 

[thunder86]

I'm not looking to dig a trench here. This is a food plot I've been working on and this spot here I was hoping to put a cabin on one day. I've never seen big equipment work so I have no experience of what they can do or how fast.

 

[Egon]

For the size rocks shown a dozer with rock rake may be an option.

[video]https://www.google.ca/search?q=dozer+rock+rake&client=safari&hl=en-ca&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiE4az5u7jpAhVBnuAKHadDBlsQ_AUoAXoECAwQA w&biw=1173&bih=833#imgrc=o5fY7_mQZbPmWM[/video]

 

[RSR]

I have had incredibly good success using a Sundown GR40 log grapple (do you have a third function?). They aren't as popular as the EA attachments rock grapples most people have, but I think they are superior. They are lighter (you lose less lift capacity) and are narrower (it's easier to get under one rock without getting hung up on another) and cheaper ($1,300). You pay a little penalty in not being able grab brush quite as well, but even that is not a problem (see pics).

I am in the process of digging back a dirt bank that has dense clay soil, and a minefield of boulders. I use the grapple to dig out the rocks and loosen the dirt, then use a bucket with toothbar to move the dirt.

Pictures show the rock pile I have accumulated so far. (2'ish hours of work).

The small rocks were removed by hand.

It's pretty much all heavy granite.