I am looking for a rock picker to tow behind my ATV. Does anyone make such a beast? I have a few acres to plant grass on but have lots of stones, way too many to pickup by hand. Any suggestions?

The local farm suppy places rent them for use behind a farm tractor but they want $450 per day rental. Surely something smaller exists that will work behind the ATV.

DJ

 

Rock picking is generally a high horsepower application because you have to go beneath the surface to be effective and get the rocks. If it is gravel sized, you may be SOL. I think you are stuck with renting a tractor, and making friends with someone who actually has a rock picker

 

man, if i picked all the rocks from benith my lawn I wouldnt have any soil left.. we just got 2 VW bettle sized bolders out of our future shop pad!..the wonders of living on a volcanic hill

 

Greetings,

Maybe a low-tech solution would work. For that much money you could hire eight or ten day laborers to walk through the field behind a wagon.

Also, if there are enough rocks, someone may actually want them and may even help with a solution. Some farmer or county agency may need them for erosion control or rip-rap for a stream (conservation set-aside programs have recently gotten a boost from Congress). Our local garden shop sells landscape rocks for 50-80 cents a pound depending on size -- amazing.

 

Horsepower is not an issue. I have an Oliver 1370 (60HP) farm tractor.

Last weekend I ran the back blade over the newly filled areas, then pulled a harrow around. Most of the stones turned up are not huge (6 inches and less). There are a lot in the 1 to 3 inch size.

Maybe I should poll the local farmers as suggested. I would rather barter with one of the local guys than pay the farm supply dealer $450 per day for the rock picker, or $350 per day for the rock rake.

I was also going to try to locate a landscape rake. Some have suggested this may be useful for wind-rowing the stones.

DJ

 

Deej, You may try a grader box. The kind that has the sides on it. You just drive around and float the hydraulics, as the rocks get stuck in the box, the dirt comes out or under. Just an idea. This should be much cheaper to rent than a rock picker.

 

Deej, I do it the hard way on my acreage, dragging a blade on my Massey to surface the rocks and then throwing them into a quad trailer. I have seen several different implements (including a steel rake) for ATVs in the Northern Equipment catalog. BTW, I've been on the lookout for ATV rental shops. Only found one in Anaheim, but there quads are pretty old and rough. Jim

 

Lots of good ideas. Guess I'll spend the weekend experimenting. Maybe a few cases, a bunch of folks, and my dump trailer are the answer after all.

mtngoat, keep'in your eye out for ATV rentals! Awesome! If we ever get this land cleaned up and the house built we may end up down your way this fall. Our friends are bugging us to get there.

DJ

 

Here was the solution to the rock picking:

I back bladed the entire area with my Oliver 1370 tractor. I pulled a harrow behind the back blade. This levelled the ground and lifted literally thousands of rocks.

I let the ground dry over a few days and went back with a small International B275. The B275 has a 7 foot homemade aluminum snow blade on the front. The blade is so light it doesn't dig in at all. I angled the blade and windrowed the rocks, then pushed them into piles. The piles were picked up using the loader on the Oliver. The job is not done, but well under way.

As suggested this was a job for bigger horsepower. The ATVs were used to get to the cabin for lunch and afternoon siesta, thats it!!

DJ