Need advice to move 1-1/2 ton pallet of rocks

[William1]

Thanks Shaun.
Fortunately, I can spread the project out over a long time. 99% of the year, the stream is only 3" deep and 2' wide and with a rocky base that you could wear sneakers and walking carefully, not get you feet wet. But that other 1% of the year, it can be 4' wide and three feet deep.
Because of the location, getting any size of trailer other than a garden tractor trailer back there is near impossible. Which has a lot to do with why I bought the BX25D. There is just enough space between trees to get about and I can make to a 180 with five or six back and forth turns.
I figured at first and suspect it will be as discussed earlier in this thread. Bucket flat on the ground against the pile that is dumped by the delivery truck. Then 'hike' the rock into the bucket. Drive to the side lay the bucket down, stand in the stream and take rocks out of the bucket and place them and build up the wall.
Down stream to my pond, I built this wall, took nine months, when I was younger and healthier.
No picture of the area but if you look to the left of the first picture, you can see the curve (just past the sand bags). The ground to the right is being excavated out about 30' in.
The first picture shows the completed wall and a a bridge I made to cross the stream. 75' upstream (behind me when I took the picture )of the bridge is where I want to place the rip rap.

 

[skeets]

That is freekin awesome !!!

 

[William1]

Funny tidbit. For years (since built the stream walls) I had just a 2X12X8' fir plank crossing the stream at that point. I'd walk across with the leaf blower or weed wacker a few times a year. I had plans for an elaborate curved bridge but I did not feel like making the investment of money or time into something that was somewhat hidden from view, being back in the corner behind a lot of trees. Well, last spring, my wife bugged me because she was uncomfortable 'walking the plank' and wanted a real bridge. So I decided to go ahead, make something simple and functional. I talked with a friend ho has a CAD program for building and we discussed construction and I realized to grossly over build the bridge (10 ton capacity) was not a big expense. Double up on the stringers, reduce the width to 12". So about $400 worth of lumber and screws and three weeks, working a few days a week made the bridge. A month later, I decided to get the BX25. I am so glad the bridge was not built just for foot traffic!

 

[ShaunRH]

Whoa, okay, wow, nice little channel you have going there. I was picturing something entirely different in my head!

My OCD side would insist I do that all the way down my property... my wallet would scream an entirely different thing to me... then my wife would scream at me in agreement with my OCD side and I'd be off in the barn crying with my wallet!

 

[ShaunBlake]

My, my, what a wonderful setting -- and a magnificent job on the wall.

I think your assumption is correct: bucket flat; push in; curl back. However, what I found with the rock I bought is that I was unable to pick up much rock; my B6100D doesn't have the torque or the weight to be able to cut into a pile of rock. It just occurred to me that if I had piled the rock in a long mound, no wider than the sides of the bucket, I would have been able to scoop it up. I didn't think of it then, and had to mostly hand-load the rock when I had to move it.

I hope you are considering that the shape of rip-rap is very irregular and won't stack like your existing wall. (And sadly, stack stone is horribly expensive.) I suppose you are planning to make your wall pretty vertical at the bank, and slope out into the stream bed at the steepest angle you can get it to stack?

 

[William1]

The wall does run the length of my property, about 875' long to my pond. Height (from the rocky base to the top varies from as low as about 3' to as high as 10'. All on a 18" concrete base fully rebarred. Ten years and no cracking. Only a few of the caps have been worked loose due to soil compaction and hitting with the edge of the mower. Idiot lawncare guy. Yet my wife stated married to him.
The area I am going to put the rip rap is actually not my land. I just want to ensure the water is coaxed to go down my canal and not start to try and erode it out from behind.

 

[William1]

My, my, what a wonderful setting -- and a magnificent job on the wall.

I think your assumption is correct: bucket flat; push in; curl back. However, what I found with the rock I bought is that I was unable to pick up much rock; my B6100D doesn't have the torque or the weight to be able to cut into a pile of rock. It just occurred to me that if I had piled the rock in a long mound, no wider than the sides of the bucket, I would have been able to scoop it up. I didn't think of it then, and had to mostly hand-load the rock when I had to move it.

I hope you are considering that the shape of rip-rap is very irregular and won't stack like your existing wall. (And sadly, stack stone is horribly expensive.) I suppose you are planning to make your wall pretty vertical at the bank, and slope out into the stream bed at the steepest angle you can get it to stack?

Yeah, it will be a job to hand move the rock. I do not expect beauty I just want to provide a surface other than soil for the rare rushing waters to hit against. My plan is to make it as vertical as it will stack. I am excavating out the opposite side close to 30' so any stream bed that I consume will not be a problem. You are on the same page with me.

I've removed a lot of tree stumps by hand. Days, if not weeks. The challenge.
I lived near Doris Duke many years ago. Story had it that a mountain blocked her sunsets. So she had it moved. If an old heiress can move a mountain, an old guy can move some rocks. One at a time. I just think of the pity my wife will have on me and wonder how long I can stretch it out for......