Moving Boulders

[jajiu]

I have been getting lots of rain and with my gravel driveway I get a lot of wash out especially on the sides. I have used logs for some of the driveway but right now I don't have any available. The one thing I do have a lot of is boulders. I have tried using pallets but they last one or two trips before being trashed with the weight of the boulders or trying to take them off with the BH, OOPS to much down pressure will do it in. Thanks to my Nephew who deals in used car parts, he had an old car hood he couldn't get rid of and was in his way, BINGO!!! What a wonderful Nephew! Gave it to me for free and now I have been moving boulders all day today.

 

[GrizBota]

Good use for an old hood. I hope it is a fairly old one so it will last more than a few trips.

When I was a kid, Dad would tow me and brother around the wheat field as we sat on an old car hood. Our job was to pick up rocks (most sub 12 inches as I recall) and put them on the hood. Then when it was full, he’d tow us over to the rock pile and we’d pitch them onto the pile. We use the old 8N for this.

 

[Lil Foot]

Car hoods work well for a while, but I needed to move hundreds of large rocks, so I upgraded.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

It looks like those 'boulders' you posted would fit inside the bucket, so wondering why you didn't do that ?
I've hauled 100s of them in my BX23S this year, though I call them 'stones'.
A 'boulder' to me is a chunk of rock that won't fit the bucket or is too heavy for the BX23s to lift. Those get dragged.

 

[jajiu]

It looks like those 'boulders' you posted would fit inside the bucket, so wondering why you didn't do that ?
I've hauled 100s of them in my BX23S this year, though I call them 'stones'.
A 'boulder' to me is a chunk of rock that won't fit the bucket or is too heavy for the BX23s to lift. Those get dragged.

I agree those are "small" boulders but I was getting them out of the woods and no place to put them except the hood which glided right over the Poison Ivy and other things as I pulled them to where I would use them. I had to get them out of the way to get to the larger ones underneath. I should have taken a few pictures of the BIG boulders I moved, but was getting tired of jumping out of the tractor just to take a few pictures.

 

[GrizBota]

Believe it or not, the State of Oregon’s DOT has a definition of a bolder. A rock fragment larger than 12 inches. I’d call those boulders. The other ones being described are BFRs.

 

[GrizBota]

Did you upgrade to a metal plate? Or is that UHMW plastic? Both?

How many BFRs did the car hood last for?

 

[WoodKutter]

What you have is an improvised "stone boat". I grew up using stone boats made in the 1800's to move heavy borders around the property.

 

[D2Cat]

What you have is an improvised "stone boat". I grew up using stone boats made in the 1800's to move heavy borders around the property.

Did you bring that from Egypt?

 

[GrizBota]

What you have is an improvised "stone boat". I grew up using stone boats made in the 1800's to move heavy borders around the property.

It appears there’s more than one way to haul a rock.

 

[Lil Foot]

Did you upgrade to a metal plate? Or is that UHMW plastic? Both?

How many BFRs did the car hood last for?

It is 1/4" mild steel; the steel supplier called it a mill end.
Apparently it is the start or end of a run of flat sheet, & that leaves it with the compound curve- the curves are just how I picked it up.
It is 48" wide, but it was a little short, so I added the tailpiece from my stash, just bolted on top with 5/16-18 bolts.
They had 4 or 5, and I took the longest one. When I went back maybe two weeks later, they had none.
As soon as I saw it, I knew it would make a perfect skid. (or rock boat)
It's only disadvantage is that it is too heavy to move by hand, but I have a tractor for that.
I had used a car hood in the past, but they don't last long, and are full of sharp edges.
The hood I posted above moved maybe 20-22 big rocks, but soon after that pic, it started to tear, and it started to scrape up dirt, gravel, & cinders.
The steel one has been flawless, and pretty much flattens anything it runs over.

 

[Lil Foot]

Final homes for the moved rocks:

 

[skeets]

outstanding,,, we used one to skid logs out of the woods too,, and as a sled when the snow got deep enough

 

[GrizBota]

It is 1/4" mild steel; the steel supplier called it a mill end.
Apparently it is the start or end of a run of flat sheet, & that leaves it with the compound curve- the curves are just how I picked it up.
It is 48" wide, but it was a little short, so I added the tailpiece from my stash, just bolted on top with 5/16-18 bolts.
They had 4 or 5, and I took the longest one. When I went back maybe two weeks later, they had none.
As soon as I saw it, I knew it would make a perfect skid. (or rock boat)
It's only disadvantage is that it is too heavy to move by hand, but I have a tractor for that.
I had used a car hood in the past, but they don't last long, and are full of sharp edges.
The hood I posted above moved maybe 20-22 big rocks, but soon after that pic, it started to tear, and it started to scrape up dirt, gravel, & cinders.
The steel one has been flawless, and pretty much flattens anything it runs over.

I just realized that you and the OP are not the same poster, but both had photos of rocks on car hoods dragged around by orange tractors. Sorry about that OP.

Lil Foot, nice job on the placement of those rocks. Just done get anything with fancy rims or paint too close to them (save that for the guests). That had of taken a fair bit of planning, patience, work and timing. Yes, that mill end was just the right shape, good find. I suppose it did a fine job of smoothing out the non-rock surfaces it was dragged over.

 

[Lil Foot]

Lil Foot, nice job on the placement of those rocks. Just done get anything with fancy rims or paint too close to them (save that for the guests).

Thanks, but most of them got almost covered up with dirt/fill.
Here is a link to the full project:

Raising my driveway...

My place up north has always had a little water across the driveway when it rains heavily, but the county has recently re-graded the roadbeds, ditches, & culverts. We used to get runoff from a couple blocks, now it's more like 1 1/2 miles. A 16" county culvert brings all this water across my...

www.orangetractortalks.com

 

[GrizBota]

Thanks, but most of them got almost covered up with dirt/fill.
Here is a link to the full project:

Raising my driveway...

My place up north has always had a little water across the driveway when it rains heavily, but the county has recently re-graded the roadbeds, ditches, & culverts. We used to get runoff from a couple blocks, now it's more like 1 1/2 miles. A 16" county culvert brings all this water across my...

www.orangetractortalks.com

Ok. I thought the pictures looked familiar. So you ended up filling between the rock walls and raising the vertical grade to alleviate some flooding concerns.

 

[jajiu]

Did you upgrade to a metal plate? Or is that UHMW plastic? Both?

How many BFRs did the car hood last for?

So far I have used it for one full day. It is holding up nicely and I like the hood skeleton for holding the boulders from rolling off. I can see wear from dragging on the gravel drive and hope it holds up long enough for me to finish my project. I have moved a few boulders that take up most of the size of the hood, moved them with no problem.

 

[jajiu]

Final homes for the moved rocks:

View attachment 109828 View attachment 109829 View attachment 109830 View attachment 109831 View attachment 109832 View attachment 109833

That's a lot of work! Nice job!!

 

[Mrlunchbox]

Yankee ingenuity!

 

[WoodKutter]

My old "stone boat"