Will a Rock Picker git'r done?

[RanchGirl]

I have 3 acres of land that was used as a dumping ground by the previous owners- you name it, they tossed it. They ran a tree service, so they dumped tree rounds, wood, and wood chips; they "collected" vehicles, and left them out to rot; they decided to make a fortune breeding, selling and boarding "show pigs" for 4H kids... yep, it was a mess. I've removed over 100,000lbs of tree rounds, wood and debris, and 4 buildings so far, but now I'm faced with a tougher cleanup task. The wood chunks, bark pieces, trash, chunks of cement, broken tools and smaller debris needs to be separated it from the topsoil. Will a rock picker do the trick? I've thought about plowing and sieving the soil, but that seems like it would be a great deal more effort and time than using a rock picker to remove soil debris. So, advice, anyone? I have a JD 3038e, with rear top'n tilt hydraulics, so I'm pretty well set up to pull an hydraulic "soil debrieder", if I can find something that will work. Any and all suggestions welcome!!
Cav

 

[wolftree]

What if any implements do you have now?

 

[spruce Deere]

I say yes to a rock picker, but with some caveats...

Driving over some of that debris could be hard on tires. A 'rock bucket' mounted on the loader to pick and sift stuffs from soil would help, except for smalls like nails and other stuffs. A rock bucket fills up fast and is limited by loader capacity, that means more trips. My rock bucket has 3 inch spacing between the sifter bars which means anything 3in and bigger gets gathered up and sifted from soil and it does not take long to gather enough stuff from the soil for the loader to protest...

A rock picker is pulled and will have more capacity for debris being picked up and pick smaller objects and do a more complete job, But one must drive over everything.

A power rake also can be used when angled to 'windrow' debris or rake completely off to one side of piece being worked... One also has to drive over everything to use a power rake and then gather debris in a second operation if removal is preferred.

A 3pt landscape rake requires the same methods and generally is not as thorough as a picker.

Maybe a person could hang one of those 4 or 5 foot magnets from the bucket of the loader AS they pull a rock picker and then after picking the sight.

 

[JJZ 109]

Rent a skid steer with landscape rake. Keep in mind that these aren't rakes in the traditional sense. They are hydraulically powered and spin the rocks into the loader bucket. When it's full you just go dump it.
But it sounds like some of your debris may be bigger than what this machine is intended for. Bobcat Landscape Rake - YouTube

 

[leonz]

What you neeed to do is hire or rent a a bull dozer
to scrape the the three acres of ground clean.

THEN rent a a small portable screener and a skid steer
to sift the the material that is not obvios to the naked eye.

Its your money but your time is better spent hiring a
dozer to simply scrape then you can rent a
portable screener for a few days.


The question remains whether you should simply pile it, bury it,
and be done with it.

 

[Creamer]

Don't know how big the pieces are but i would certainly consider a landscape rake on the 3 pt. turn it around backwards and push if you have to - I know that is not recommended on the 3 pt but if you are careful it is fine. It is amazing what this tool will do - just play with it and see what works.

What are you planning on doing with the land afterward? If you are planning on farming it you may want a toothed blade to go in 6-7 inches to roll up anything underground. If it is going to be pasture or grass just get it level and plant it and let nature take its course.

 

[RanchGirl]

Box scraper, rotary cutter, subsoiler type plow, landscape rake attachment so far. I don't think the debris will be hard on the ag tires I have on the tractor, as most of it is between the size of a tennis ball and the size of a dura-flame log. Probably 90% of what I have to pick up is wood chips, chunks, and piece of bark left over from the dumping and splitting of wood. A great deal of it has been pushed into the soil by being driven over for years. I don't want to remove the topsoil, as the soil studies show a thin layer to begin with (24-36 inches) over a clay base. The wood chips and chunks cause the soil to hold huge amounts of water, making it all but impassable even in a 4wd tractor during the rainy season, and they aren't breaking down because so much was dumped. I was thinking that a rock picker would be the best option as it would pick through the soil and remove the debris, rather than having to load the soil into some sort of sieve to remove the debris then replace the soil. Almost the entirety of the 3 acres is now accessible to my tractor (after a lot of initial clean up). My plan was to break up the soil where its packed with the plow or box, then run the rock picker over it. The teeth on the landscape rake are too close together to allow the soil here to pass through, and I end up dragging a dirt wall behind me. I've also considered renting a power screener, but I can't find one anywhere locally!! (SF North Bay). So, if a rock picker is the answer, what kind, size, and rent or buy?
Thanks
Cav

 

[rinconryan]

You could take every other tine off your landscape rake and try that. It would give more space for the dirt to pass but get the larger pieces.

 

[Renze]

You probably need to go deeper to get all the trash out...

schudbak.avi - YouTube

 

[Reg]

A close relative of the rock picker (or rock hound) is the beach cleaner.
If you are in or near a town with beaches you may be able to find the town's beach cleaning contractor.
Inland lakes need this service too, it isn't just for ocean front towns with beaches.

Brief description; shallow rototiller that pulls the soil and debris up onto a sieve to separate broken glass, rocks, etc. and lets the sand (or soil) drop back through.
Yes, beaches get cans and bottles, it is an everlasting problem and hand picking (by people doing "public service") doesn't solve it in a lot of places.
I read up on them a long time ago - a Harley rake web tangent, GlenMac makes or made them.
Not sure, but I think their brand name was something like "Chester".
Anyway, you wouldn't want to BUY one, you would want to find a beach cleaning service that has one - the screens are changeable, obviously you wouldn't want your soil reduced to particles the size of grains of beach sand - make that CLEAR to the contractor (-:

EDIT:
Just searched around, the name is Cherrington;
http://cherrington.net/
Several sizes, self powered and tow behind PTO driven models.
At a guess even the smallest one could make short work of 3 acres, just know where you want the collected trash PUT (or contract for it to be hauled away at some extra co$t).
:END EDIT
As you may notice - there is a very Harley Rake'ish pre-sceening powered roller.