"rock rake/scoop" for FEL with 4 in 1 bucket?

[joea99]

Kubota B21 with a WR Long 4 in 1 bucket. Got some very rocky soil, some call "glacial till", but all I know is the rocks are many and vary in size from softball to 55 gallon drum size some are sharp, some rounded.

I was hoping my new EA "rock rake" would be enough, but, while it is willing and seems able to take it, it is slow going and gets a bit "exciting" when some of those bigger fellers get reluctant to roll or skid and those tines get some serious exercise. If I am dragging seems the could launch with all that spring and be a problem.

So, been debating if I can build some kind of "finger rake or grill" for the bucket so I can scoop up some, open the jaw a bit, or a lot, and let the dirt fall out as it may, or, go out and poke and beat to get the dirt to fall out. I doubt I can "shake" the bucket on that one, being a 2100 psi system, sufficient to get the dirt to fall out.

I suppose I could do that without the bars/screen and just note open jaws wide will dropping the dirt, then drop the rocks where I want.

Thoughts?

 

[nyone]

How much area?

 

[joea99]

How much area?

An acre or two at this time. Maybe more later if it turns out well.

 

[nyone]

What are your goals with the land?

55gal drum sized rocks are prety darn big so I'd would start with those if there at surface layer.


If you just want it mowable, plant something shallow rooted and have acess to free wood chips I would just cover the whole area in a few feet of chips.

 

[joea99]

What are your goals with the land?

55gal drum sized rocks are prety darn big so I'd would start with those if there at surface layer.


If you just want it mowable, plant something shallow rooted and have acess to free wood chips I would just cover the whole area in a few feet of chips.

Most are football size to suitcase size.
One goal is to clear up enough for a barn or large shed with a "hard" floor, which means a monolithic slab or something like that. Which does not really need what I originally asked about.
The other is to clear enough to garden in, or on, but it seems to look like raised beds might be a better idea.

 

[Smokeydog]

54” wicked rock and root grapple on B26.

 

[Vigo327]

So with the huge range of rock sizes it sounds risky trying to do all that with FEL given the likelihood of some 'surprise' hard stops when you find immovable objects. I know it's a B21 and not like a b8200 with a loader like i have, but i still think that's risky work to do with the FEL. I know the b21 had a 3pt but i dont know if you have the pieces or if taking the backhoe off is a huge PITA (if you have a backhoe), but i would be tempted to switch to a 3pt implement for the first stage of this. A box blade or land plane with rippers might not go deep enough for you, or it might. A 'subsoiler' type ripper would be fine but slow going since you'd probably want to make your passes only 2-3ft apart from each other. A spring-type chisel plow (with actual coil springs, not just springy tines) might be ok for this. Im just thinking use a pull type implement to loosen everything that will move and find everything that won't move. Worst thing that's going to get damaged would be draw pins on a box blade/land plane, shear bolt on a subsoiler, hopefully nothing on a spring plow. After that, sifting with a root rake on FEL should be fine because you know where all the things that could damage it are located.

Just my thoughts, i have not attempted this type of work although i do have a pile of rocks about the size/volume of a half ton pickup that i have sifted up off my land. Biggest piece was maybe 800-1000lbs. Most are around fist sized. They don't really endanger my equipment if im being cautious, although i can see them damaging my box blade or angle blade if i was going fast enough.

If you want to build something for your 4n1 to sift rocks, i think you pretty easily could.. im picturing a piece of flat bar bolted through the floor of your bucket with some round or square bars welded to it that would extend out the back and contact your back wall/moldboard/blade area (not sure what to call that part), holding the bucket 'open' a bit and leaving a bunch of square/rectangular openings for dirt and smaller rock to fall through. It would be sort of like having 'debris forks' on the back edge of your bucket lid, except since they wouldn't be prying or digging they wouldn't need to be anywhere near as strong. I would honestly build this idea with 3/4" rebar or T-posts just to keep the price down.

I drew on a picture of a 4n1 to show the idea, but i couldn't find a pic of a 4n1 only open ~4" at the bottom, so picture this but with the bucket only open maybe 4-6" and much shorter 'tines' on the sifter to match.

You'd just scoop up and then rock back and forth to let all the small/loose stuff fall out the opening. Could still open the bucket to dump the large objects. Probably couldn't 'grab' anything with this in place without bending all the tines unless you actually made them out of something strong. But it should be a very simple thing to build. Just like debris forks but half the length and half the strength, should be fine. It doesn't have to engage the bucket 'edge' and could just bolt or pin to the sidewalls or middle of the floor somewhere.