Peeling back Sod

[johnk]

My Son-InLaw wanted to know if I could peel off some sod in an area of roughly 15X40 feet. It would be no problem to do it but he wanted to reuse it after he raises the area with 6 to 8 inches of topsoil. Whats the best way to attack this. Plain bucket edge, bucket w/toothbar, boxscraper or rent a sod buster. If I remember a few years ago by accident I had my scraper blade down with the top link lengtheded it it rolled the sod nicely. Only problem is my backblade isn't here it's at my cabin.. Suggestions????

 

[Highbeam]

If you really want to reuse it I would rent the cutter. It will be very tough to skim it off in a reusable manner.

 

[willfick]

I relocated some for my neighbor a few years ago. Centipede grass that had spread into a field and made pretty good sod. I used the regular front loader bucket and it rolled up right well. I could cut pieces 5 1/2 feet wide and three or four feet long. Certainly well enough for what he was doing, not in a hurry for perfect. But I can know that a real sod cutter would have gotten a more consistant thickness.
My loader bucket is better suited for that than a lot I've seen, too. A sharp lip and the back of the bucket is half-moon round, no angles.
Wm
An edit - I hadn't mentioned this before, but if you right click on the image by my name and then click "View Image" it will show you a full size view of the bucket. Everybody else's shows the image the same size as what you see on this page. Wonder what I did wrong? /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif