rock picker mod

[whtbaron]

I bought a well used stone picker a couple years ago with a hydraulic reel drive, and it's worked well but I hated it when the rocks got tossed over the back. Slowing down the reel speed helped some, but the reels are spring loaded so some rocks would get launched into the air. Newer machines had a skirt at the back to stop the errant stones so I decided to update mine to the newer style. Of course the new pieces would need paint and the old finish was half rust so it turned more into a painting project than a welding one. I used old combine pickup belts for the back and side extensions, new metal for the frame and fixed some cracks from the hydraulic pressures while I was at it. Discovered when I went to get paint that enamels are no longer being sold up here so I was cleaning up old stock and not getting the products I wanted, but it turned out ok for a machine that will get beat with rocks.

[roadkillbobb]

dam, I need one of those!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! whats the cost of something like that new?

[whtbaron]

My prices are Cdn. so u could likely do better. New for a similar size is about $22 to $24k, but I have seen used ones sell at farm auctions up to $26k (I don't know why either). I bought this one in it's well used but working condition at a strange consignment sale where they lost half the crowd for $3.8k. It's the only decent one with hydraulic drive that I have seen sell for less then $5k, and I don't like the pto drives. Based on what I have seen at this year's auctions, I would expect it to sell for around $10 to $12k in it's present condition.

[dbotos]

Nice - looks almost new. What size rocks (min/max) will it pick up?

[roadkillbobb]

I poked around online and some used ones are in the 6k to 10 k range.... 3.8k was a steal.....

[skyboltone]

This comment is off topic but there sure is a lot of weird farm equipment that most of us have never heard of. I saw an ad in the local nickel ad sheet in Craig Colorado for a "Cow Oiler" once. What in the world? That one still has me scratching my head. Now a rock picker upper. What will they think of next.

[whtbaron]

LOL.... my father in law used to sell cattle oilers at one time.... Kept the horns from squeeking! Actually they were to protect the cows from flies and grubs that would burrow into their skin and lay eggs.
The rock picker is capable of picking anything that will physically fit between the reels if the hydraulics have enough oomph too keep it moving, but I don't like pushing it like that. The smallest would be around 4" since the reel tooth cuts the clearance between pickup teeth in half. I have a couple of bucket type pickers ( a third I've already worn out) that I use to pick up rocks between 2ft and 4 ft. Over 4ft we use a stone boat, which is just a big flat sheet of metal that we push the rocks onto with a blade. I've had rocks big enough on that one that we needed 2 tractors to drag it off the field. For places where there are a lot of small stones in high density you can buy (or rent) a rock windrower which would put them into a row you could pick up with this machine.

[M J D]

We used to use an old car or truck hood for a stone boat. Good times trying to roll a huge rock on them tho.

[snowbird]

first class work sir.

[Sharon Needles]

So this machine is for clearing the rocks from fields?

[whtbaron]

Yep, then we dump them in piles and try to convince local contractors or government agencies to haul them away for construction projects. I've tried to sell them but no takers.
Thanks Snowbird.

[manning]

Great job with the modification. Any idea how well the ground drive reels work?

Here in PA, if you dump your rocks near a road the stone companies will buy them from you. They don't pay much, but they make it worth your while to bring them there instead of the hedgerow. A crew will come out and stack them neatly on pallets. Often, you will find that your wife will have purchased these rocks for a garden project for much more than the stone company paid you. Banging your head on said rocks doesn't help much.

I would love one of these, but right now my kids are just getting to the age where I can sit on the tractor and point to rocks for them to put in the loader bucket.

[MinnesotaDave]

Great job with the modification. Any idea how well the ground drive reels work?

Here in PA, if you dump your rocks near a road the stone companies will buy them from you. They don't pay much, but they make it worth your while to bring them there instead of the hedgerow. A crew will come out and stack them neatly on pallets. Often, you will find that your wife will have purchased these rocks for a garden project for much more than the stone company paid you. Banging your head on said rocks doesn't help much.

I would love one of these, but right now my kids are just getting to the age where I can sit on the tractor and point to rocks for them to put in the loader bucket.

Awful

In the field they are just rocks, at Home Depot on a pallet = future yard art

[whtbaron]

I'm too far from the larger population centers in the province to sell them into the landscaping market (I've tried that too). There's gravel pits closer to Winnipeg full of big rocks so transportation becomes an issue. There was a dam project closer to Carman that used a lot of our stone piles back in the early 60's. Dad managed to get a few piles cleaned up when they covered the side of a half mile dam with rip rap. I was involved with another reclaimation project near here that took 17 semi loads, and I've buried a few piles with high hoes, D9's, and scrapers. My grandfather picked these stones, my father did, and I've been at it since I was 10 so grabbing a few with a bucket isn't an option.
I don't like the PTO drives because they use slip clutches to protect the tractor's driveline that don't stand up. When guys replace them with big shear pins, the shock loads back to the tractor are worse and tend to break parts. I've never used a ground drive, but the big advantage to the hydraulic one is that you can reverse them quickly and easily when a rock gets stuck in the pickup forks (which is often) and the hydraulic lines absorb the shock. You can also adjust the speed of the reels to the conditions, which you can't with ground drive. If I had to switch, I would probably take a ground drive over PTO though.

[dbotos]

Pretty slick - definitely better than doing it by hand. Action starts at 0:31:



Now you need a rock crusher to make your own gravel.

[OLDMERC]

We ha a couple of those that we bought gently used and a rock rake . Where we are in Saskatchewan the rocks just keep coming to the surface it seems , been picking rock on some sections for over a hundred years .

[whtbaron]

We're victims of climate change. The last ice age scraped most of our top soil down into the American corn belt and left us all the rocks to pick when the glaciers retreated.

[OLDMERC]

Still the crops grow pretty good between the boulders

[dumb as a stump]

If a fella had one of those I bet the neighbors would pay him to go over their fields..

[whtbaron]

Around here everyone pretty much owns their own because we're all busy using it at the same time of the year. Unfortunately they work best around seeding time when the amount of straw is the least and the ground has been levelled more than it would be after fall tillage.

[Joker11]

Looks like you could pick up potatos with that badboy too!

And now Dan Quayle is in my head.

[whtbaron]

Only if the potatoes are dug and laying loose on top of the ground. If you try to dig down with one of these the rotating reel will fill the bucket with dirt and straw instead of rocks.

[drujinin]

An older one sold down here last spring at an Auction. I thought it looked beat and worn out, figuring it would sell cheap. It didn't! Started at $1000 and went up! We have rocks down here from the Glaciers, so don't feel bad, thinking you are cornering the Market!

[vwguy3]

Would it be considered redneck to skid a rock down an asphalt road on a sheet of steel behind a pickup truck?......guilty

[whtbaron]

Yep.... and it's also why the center of my stone boat is wearing out. I brought a very tired Model A home with it years ago... still haven't started working on the car.