Moving rocks with the BX1860

[armylifer]

I have mentioned a few times in this forum about using my BX1860 to move heavy rocks on my property. I have never provided pictures or details before. Well, it is time that I fixed that. Today I was moving rocks again and I stopped to take a few pictures.

I estimate this load to be ~650 lbs. If I took the weights off from the back of the tractor this load would have lifted the rear wheels off the ground. I know this because before I added the weights this regularly happened. The rear tires have about 7.5 gallons of water in each one of them. I estimate that to be about 105 lbs. The weights on the rear are another 230 lbs. Even with this much ballast the rear tires slip on the wet grass (but not on dry grass) so I have to drive in 4wd in low range. If my property was not so flat I would not attempt to move this much weight. BTW, the front tires are also loaded with water but they do not provide ballast as they are actually the pivot point when the bucket is loaded. However loading the front tires provides me the ability to carry these heavy loads without causing the front tires to compress too much.

Before anyone comments that this looks unsafe please remember what I said about my property being flat. Therefore I do not experience any problems with load instability.

 

[85Hokie]

Mighty good load you got there,
I had to move three large chunks of freshly cut tree oak trunks up a long grade last year, I could get the bucket up, but no higher than about 12" off the ground and that was AFTER bumping up the hydraulics to almost 2000 psi! - I was movin' might slow! Amazing what these ol' girls can do !

 

[armylifer]

85Hokie, When I first got this tractor and learning the real limits that it has I more than one time loaded the bucket so heavy that when I got on and tried to raise the load it actually brought the rear of the tractor off the ground without budging the bucket off the ground. These days I have learned to estimate my load weight before I attempt to load. I have some rocks that are so heavy that just one rock is too heavy for the bucket to handle. I end up skidding those where I want them or in one case, I skidded several into a circle and called it a bonfire pit.

As you stated, these tractors are amazing but you have to know the limits.

 

[85Hokie]

85Hokie, When I first got this tractor and learning the real limits that it has I more than one time loaded the bucket so heavy that when I got on and tried to raise the load it actually brought the rear of the tractor off the ground without budging the bucket off the ground. These days I have learned to estimate my load weight before I attempt to load. I have some rocks that are so heavy that just one rock is too heavy for the bucket to handle. I end up skidding those where I want them or in one case, I skidded several into a circle and called it a bonfire pit.

As you stated, these tractors are amazing but you have to know the limits.

I wish I "could" estimate gravel on a trailer as well as you can rocks!.........


now I've got a story of "gravel, it is not all that heavy, put a little more on it"

couple of years ago I went to the quarry with a trailer that is rated for 2000 pounds and the scales said there is 5600 on it .......never did wonder why the tires rubbed the fender wells!

that really sucked having to SHOVEL 2000lbs of gravel to another trailer, TWICE, and I was 20 miles from home.......

But - thats how we learn........ learning from a mistake and NOT doing it a second time!

 

[Grouse Feathers]

That's wonderful, but it looks like you are working to hard just to put a little extra load on your tractor. How do those rocks get heaped up on the bucket like that, you aren't picking them up and setting them on the bucket are you? The whole idea of the tractor is to make like easier not harder. One back strain lifting those rocks by hand and you end up off the tractor for a week or more. Fewer rocks, more trips equals more tractor time and no back pain.

 

[armylifer]

I wish I "could" estimate gravel on a trailer as well as you can rocks!.........

Crushed gravel (depending on the type and size) is about 2750 lbs per yard. Many trailers can handle much more volume than one yard but one should not overload a trailer. That said, I often carry two yards of top soil in my trailer. Top soil is slightly lighter than crushed gravel but it is still overweight for most utility trailers. I have a modified M116 military trailer that I use for this task. It works only because I beefed up the springs. The surge brakes work well even with that heavy load so all is well.

 

[armylifer]

Larry, Those rocks are all picked up by hand and put into a wheel barrow. I then dump the wheel barrow into the tractor bucket. I have tried to dig the rocks out of the ground with the bucket but I end up taking too much dirt with them.

There does not seem to be a bottom to the rocks in my yard. I have a vein of what is called glacial till throughout my whole property. The rocks range in size from knuckle size to as big as my tractor.

I have used a 3 point post hole digger (Country Line from TSC) to dig post holes on my property. I have actually bent the auger screw trying to dig the holes with it. I have rocks to at least a three foot depth everywhere I have dug on my property. I only know this because I have used a Johnson bar and almost every other tool that you can dig with to at least that depth. There is just no getting around lifting these things out and into a bucket or wheel barrow.

I have given up on removing rocks that are farther than 100' or so from the house. Nowadays we are just removing them from the gardens and where we want some real grass to grow. Oh, and wherever we have planted or are planting fruit trees and Doug fir trees.

Believe me, I am heeding your warning about back strain but human muscle power is what is getting these things out of the ground.

 

[Grouse Feathers]

I know what glacial till is. Crawford County Michigan is 2 inches of topsoil on 100 feet of glacial till. I don't even try to remove rocks unless they are on the surface. If you try to dig out a rock you find three more rocks to dig out and those three rocks hide nine more rocks and......

 

[Howling]

I have been smoothing my yard and keep pulling out rocks.

Have a row that I can't pull with my BX2370.

Gathering a pile of rocks that I will need find a home for.

Amazing what you can do with these small machines.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

I found moving my boulders that for the smaller ones, the safest way I could move them was "hiking" them like a football between your legs. Somehow that loaded all my muscles below their limits and I never pulled anything. If they are too large for that, try this...

Dig out on opposing ends. Slip the straps around the boulder edges. Use a steel lining bar if you have to lift the boulder to put blocking under it to give you room to get the sling on... then lift out.

Be safe but have fun!!!

Ray

 

[Grouse Feathers]

If I was moving a lot of rocks a long distance or over rough ground and the rocks had to be manually loaded, I would use the 3 point hitch. For large rocks in a strap sling a boom pole would work, and for smaller rocks a dirt scoop with dump capability would work. The 3 point hitch has more lift capacity and puts the load on the non pivoting rear axle.

 

[Howling]

For rocks too big to pick up have been using shovel and bar to get chain around them and drag from hiding place to the rock pile.

 

[Lil Foot]

Using a skid works also.

 

[RonBoyBX25D]

Wish you were closer, have to buy rocks for landscaping a road and patio that I am putting in.

 

[Howling]

Using a skid works also.

Bigger toys - bigger rocks.

I have few that size and bigger that I can't move with my BX. Decided they look good there.

 

[armylifer]

Wish you were closer, have to buy rocks for landscaping a road and patio that I am putting in.

Send a truckload of topsoil from Blue Earth MN out to me and you can take back any and all of the rocks from my property that you want.

 

[JustJeff]

I could have sworn I saw in my owner's manual that the maximum lifting capacity of my loader is 500 lbs. or so. And you're saying that your 1850 will lift 650lbs. +? I'm confused.

 

[skeets]

Just wondering if you ever panned out any of the dirt you picked up with the rocks? Yall know theres gold in thar hills, and glacial till

 

[bucktail]

Wish you were closer, have to buy rocks for landscaping a road and patio that I am putting in.

I've got a couple you can have on my future build site up by Nowthen.

 

[armylifer]

I could have sworn I saw in my owner's manual that the maximum lifting capacity of my loader is 500 lbs. or so. And you're saying that your 1850 will lift 650lbs. +? I'm confused.

Let me see if I can clear up your confusion. First, you are probably right about the amount of weight that the LA203 can lift from the ground, but it is capable of holding much more than that 500 pounds once the bucket is raised. To explain how I got more weight in the bucket than it could lift, you have to know that I raised the bucket after loading to lift capacity, then my wife and I loaded the rest of those rocks in the bucket by hand. I could not have gotten that load raised from the ground otherwise.

If I did not have the water in the rear tires and the 230 pounds of weight on the Quick Hitch, the back of the tractor would have been off the ground, and the bucket would never have left the ground. I know this by experience because a few years ago when I first started this project I tried loading the bucket first then raising it. That did not work with this much weight. I found that by first loading the bucket to lift capacity and then raising the bucket before loading more rocks on it, that I could get more rocks in the bucket than it was capable of lifting otherwise. I hope that this clears up any confusion or seemingly fantastic weight factors.