Rock Bucket?

[annies_pappa]

I'm in the process of building a riding arena. I used a tiller to breakup up the grass ( and bring up some rocks too). Has anyone had any experience with a rock bucket such as this?

http://www.equipmentland.com/products/mds/rockbuckets/index.shtml

The tines spaced at 1 3/4 inches. I would like to use something like this if it is effective at removing the rocks and sod clumps leaving behind most of the dirt. Unfortunately I cannot rent one to try it first. Our soil here would make purchasing one a good idea as rocks are always coming up.

I know this won't get the small ones, but should do well on the larger stuff.

Any thoughts or alternative suggestions?

Thanks
Greg
Case DX-34

 

[jinman]

Any thoughts or alternative suggestions?

Greg, I think your DX34 is too small for that grapple. I have the 5' model and it is all my TC45D can handle. The way I have it equipped, it weighs about 750#.

My Rock Bucket and Grapple

By the time you add the adapter (150# to the bucket at 500#) you will be up to 650# and you haven't lifted a single rock. Plus, the tines stick out about 42" instead of the normal 24" of your bucket, so you will lose a bunch of curl power on your LX115 loader. I think you can find a lighter rock bucket for your job. I'd hate to see you spend about $1500 and find out it would not perform as you thought.

I love my rock bucket, but it sure gives my tractor a workout. Anything less would be overworked, I'm afraid.

 

[annies_pappa]

Thanks Jinman. Good point. I will go with the 4ft version instead. Will not need a graple. I "think" the 4ft one should be safe as I will not be getting many large rocks. This is mainly for a riding arena that I already tilled. Most rocks are softball sized and smaller. Thats why I like the model you got as it has the closest tine spacing of any other brands I have seen.

After initial use getting sod clumps and most of the rocks out, it will still get periodic use for rocks as I live on an island that is basically one big rock pit. They just seem to grow from nowhere.

Thanks again
Greg

 

[RonMar]

Over here we call them "Sequim Potatoes". I would reccomend a landscape rake with gauge wheels(probably less expensive than that bucket. Used with gauge wheels and "floating" the 3PH it will act like a road grader and help move the high spots into the low ones without digging in too deeply. A landscape rake with equal tine spacing(1.25" tine. 1.25" space) will capture just aboput everything the tiller brought up, down to about 1.25" If run at an angle, it should windrow rocks even a bit smaller than that depending on the speed that it is pulled.

 

[annies_pappa]

Thanks Ron. Unfortunately I tried that already. Ended up gathering way more than just the rocks and would bog down very quickly. Tried raising it a bit but then would miss the rocks in the soft dirt just below the rake.

Greg

 

[john_bud]

Hey Jinman!

Would your rock bucket work on your old 4000 HD Industrial Ford?

(Yes, I HAVE been using the search function and reading the old posts)

You posted that it had some what less than perfect traction (LOL!!), did you have loaded tires and wheel weights? Anything on the 3pt? Chains? I have a lot of rocks and may build a rock bucket, but my little L3410 is too small handle one, but the Ford should have enough lift.

What are your thoughts?

jb

 

[RonMar]

Well if it picked up more than you wanted with a landscape rake, then it will most likley do the same thing with the rock bucket you showed.

I am sorry I didn't elaborate more but There is no quick way to do this unless you pay someone with a powered rock picker to come clean out the rocks and breakdown the chunks of sod. It is not particularly labor intensive using a tractor, but it is time consumeing.

Since you rototilled a grassy area there is probably a considerable ammount of sod and other plant roots that are binding the soil together. What you described sounds like these root wads(and the attached dirt) won't pass thru the rake and fill it quickly to the point where the whole thing acts like a rear blade. Think of the rake as a screen on a shower drain, if it is clogged with hair, then the water(soil) backs up.

The key here is to keep at it with the rake, particularly in this warm dry weather. Set the rake at an angle and let the material spill out one side or the other into rows, then go back and hit the rows again and roll/tumble them again and again. By disturbing those clumps of root and soil and rolling them around, the soil in the roots drys out and the movement causes it to fall away leaving a light clump of root to be more easilly collected with the rake. The rolling action of the rake tines causes the lighter organic material to come to the top once the soil is broken out of it.

You could also try a drag harrow to help breakdown the clumps of root/soil. You could also use the rototiller some more, just not going so deep as to pull up more undesturbed soil. This is basically what the powered rock picker I mentioned does, it shakes and breakes the material so it will pass thru a filter screen returning the soil and leaving the rocks and other large debris behind in the picker.

As the sod root bundles get broken up, the soil falls thru them leaving the root wad on top. You then set the rake for a light pass removeing as much of this root material as possible without loading the rake up with dirt. Here is where the gauge wheels come in handy as they allow you to more precisely control the depth of the tines as the tractor moves up and down over the as yet unleveled arena(doing this will start to level the area). As these root clumps are removed and the soil is broken down into individual grains like sand, you will be able to go deeper and deeper with the tines to filter out the rocks without clogging the rake with soil.

Untill you get the rootwads broken down and out of the soil, anything with tines that you drag thru the soil will collect these clumps of roots and they in turn will act like hair on the shower drain. This can even happen on much wider tine spaceing. I built a 60" fork bucket last year for working on getting material onto and reforming older brush piles. It has eleven 2" boxtube tines with 3.75" spaceing between the tines(seen on my avitar pic). I can easilly fill it with dirt that has enough organic material in it to cross the gaps in the tines.

Once the soil is broke up enough to pass thru the rake, then you can start moveing the rocks to the surface with the tines and bunching them for more easy removal.

You also might search this forum for "screen filter". There are several posts about ones members have built to filter soil. Basically a mesh screen at a 45 degree angle that you dump material onto near the top with the loader. As the material tumbles down the screen, soil falls thru, rocks and debris continue to tumble and drop off the end. This would get the smaller rocks that the rake will not.

Good Luck

 

[jinman]

Thanks Ron. Unfortunately I tried that already. Ended up gathering way more than just the rocks and would bog down very quickly. Tried raising it a bit but then would miss the rocks in the soft dirt just below the rake.

Greg

You will get a lot more than rocks with the rock bucket too. I've even used mine to dig with in slightly wet soil. I was digging a grave for a dead goat and the rock bucket gave me a chance to dig a lot deeper than the regular bucket. it worked fine.

So if you have any kind of dirt other than loose sand, you will get about 1/3 dirt and 2/3 rocks. That's just the opposite to a bucket where you get 2/3 dirt and 1/3 rocks. Even with loose sand, you will have to shake the bucket to get all of it out. That is hard, hard, hard on a small tractor because of the mass of the bucket and its load.

I wish you could try one before buying, but these things are so rare that is not possible. If you were close to me, I'd sure let you try mine. Again, they are great, but very heavy and unwieldy because of their extended length.

 

[jinman]

Would your rock bucket work on your old 4000 HD Industrial Ford?

(Yes, I HAVE been using the search function and reading the old posts)

You posted that it had some what less than perfect traction (LOL!!), did you have loaded tires and wheel weights? Anything on the 3pt? Chains? I have a lot of rocks and may build a rock bucket, but my little L3410 is too small handle one, but the Ford should have enough lift.

John, if I had the rock bucket on the old Ford, I could probably change the rear tires without jacking them up. They sure would not have any weight on them. The old Ford 4000 had loaded rear tires and a boxblade on the 3PH. It was still too light in the rear with anything over 1/3 full in the bucket. I've never seen such a poorly designed loader-tractor combination. The best thing I ever did with that tractor was to sell it.

Do you have one? I'd sure put my bet on the L3410 before that Ford. I'm convinced that I'll never own another 2wd tractor with a loader. I suppose some of the bigger tractors would be okay, but I'll never own anything that big anyhow.

 

[john_bud]

Jim,

Yup, I have one. Actually, it's not as bad as you make out. I can get a heaping bucket of wet sand/gravel/clay and move it around pretty good on flat ground and go forward up hills, but not back wards. It does spin the tires easy going into a pile. Without the backhoe on it and no counter weight it is silly light in the rear. For comparison, the Kubota with a bucket about 1/2 the capacity, will move dern near 2x the dirt in the same time. 4wd and HST make a big difference.

From what you said here, I think you were unknowingly the issue more than the tractor. (Nothing personal). I bought original sales lit for the 712 loader. Do you know what Ford wanted for counter weight MINIMUM? It was a wee bit shocking to read the first time, they want at least 3500 pounds. Yikes! So, you would need filled tires (800-1000#) and a 2500+ pound 3pt implement. You were probably 1800-2000 pounds under weighted. No wonder it was a poor loader. On mine, even with the big backhoe I think I will have to either fill the tires and/or find a set of pie weights too, to get the full use of the loader.

Here's my tractor. It went from this:

To this:

And finally to this: