Hi, I'm new to the site and are interested in tapping into the vast pool of experience that some of the members are showing. I have a farm that has piles of rocks on it that are in the 3 to 5 ft size and probably amount to about 2,500 cubic metres. about 5% of the rocks are 5 to 6ft in size. i'm looking at getting an older excavator that could handle rocks of this weight, and gently put them into a steel bodied tipper. i was thinking of a 15 to 18 ton machine that has no more than 15,000 hours on it. If you were faced with this job, what would your approach on a excavator be?
When you say a 5 foot rock, do you mean 5 feet diameter?? That's a heck of a rock - let alone a pile of them!! Or do you mean the rock is 5 cubic feet? That'd be about 1.7 feet diameter... Maybe I'm having an english-to-english translation problem? Andrew
Yes that's right, 5 ft in diameter, with the biggest being 6ft across and 2 to 3 ft thick, all with rounded edges. Maybe i need to think about a rock breaker attachment, as well as the grab.
Well the average bucket width on a 15 tonner is usually 36 inch, may be hard to grab some of the rocks. I've loaded out a fair bit of armour rock (what we Call 4-6 foot rock here) and I wouldn't want less than a 20 tonner doing it. A thumb would make life a lot easier, but I've never had one to load trucks with.
I think I'd be looking for a roll off truck more than a dump truck. With a roll off you can set the box down and swing the gate open and roll them in if you have too, a lot safer than having a 10 ton boulder hoisted up 13' high right in front of you waiting to slip out, bounce off the box and smash the excavator... A picture is worth a 1000 words but I feel any decent 120 sized excavator with a hydraulic thumb can handle this job. For that matter I have handled rocks that big with a takeuchi 53fr, which is only 6.5 ton. another option is a skidloader, tine grapple, and hydraulic breaker for the big ones.
dreaded double post...
5-6ft is a large size for a rock. If you assume it's a perfect sphere then a 6ft diameter rock is 4.2 cubic yards, a 5ft one will be 2.4 cubic yards. Assuming it's limestone @ a little over 2 tons/yd the larger one will weigh close to 9 tons, the smaller one around 5 tons. That's more than a big mouthful for any excavator around the size you're talking about. Drop one of those and it'll cause serious damage. I would imagine the best way would be to break the rocks first and then load them out. Within your budget can you get hold of an excavator equipped with auxiliary lines for a rock breaker..? That way you could first knock the rocks into a more manageable size then switch the breaker for the bucket and load them out. Another alternative would be to load out what you can with the size of machine you buy then break or manhandle what's left. Even though it will reduce the load on your truck I'd take the tailgate off and load anything with potential to cause major damage if it fell in through the back rather than over the side. Another thought would be to load out all the smaller stuff first as before, then for the big ones use the excavator to create an earth ramp up to the back of the truck (or dig a hole for the truck to reverse into, or a combination of both) then use the excavator to slide the larger rocks up the ramp and into the back of the truck. That way you're not lifting anything heavy.
Another thing I've done with rocks too big to move or lift is to take a rock that you can lift and drop it on the bigger ones and bust 'em. Just be super careful, flying pieces of rocks WILL find a way to get to you so make sure your windows are closed!
30 tonner
My neighbour had something that big in his field. Granite. Crane operator estimated it was in the 15Tonne range when he picked it and place it on a float. Rocks can be deceiving. I wonder about a large wheel or track loader???
Well, a 20 ton will get the 4 ft rock, and some larger, but if you want to load the 6 ft a 30 ton will barely do the trick. weight goes up fast with the rock size, and getting/keeping it in the bucket is a chore with big rocks. A thumb is handy for the small an medium size rocks, but no help when the rock is too big for the machine. It is added weight to pick, plus it restricts the opening of the bucket so the big rock can't get all the way to the back. Trying to move 6 ft rock with a 15 to 20 ton machine is a good way to get someone hurt, and to tear up the machine as well as what you are loading with it. To load big rock, set up a bench high enough where you can scoop under the rock and get it balanced in the bucket and lift it to where the bucket is no higher than the lower 1/3 of the cab, then back the truck under it. The excavator has the greatest lifting power when the bucket is from maybe 5 feet below the tracks to maybe 5 feet above. This varies with the size of the machine. For the big ones, remove the tailgate from the truck and you can back it in with the bucket close to the floor so as to not drop the rock from any height. Position the machine with the tracks at an angle to where the truck will back in so when you reach out, you are over an idler for max stability. At an angle over an idler is more stable than centered over the front, and far more than over the side. When you do this, you can pick over the right idler, and load over the left one. This keeps your vision to the truck better. Keeping your footing even and firm is important, and for the heavy picks, a SLIGHT uphil angle, maybe a foot to a foot and a half, will give some added lift. More is not better though, as you still need to be able to swing freely. Lift with the boom while keeping the stick close, then stick out when the truck is in position. Another good thing about loading from a bench is that when (not if) you drop your rock, it will not roll into your machine and damage it. It also gives a slope to crowd against to get the rock to balance on the bucket. Sometimes I will dig a slot and roll the rock to the slot so it straddles it, leaving room under the rock for the bucket to get under without moving it until you are ready to lift. Here is a picture of a bigger hoe loading bigger rock, or in this case concrete footings, to show an example. The concrerte in this picture was about 35 ton by calculation.
40 ton minimum specially if youre shopping in in the back rows, pick your truck real carefully.10 ton rocks can mess up an on road tipper big time. a 6ft diameter will not only roll down a deck, it'll roll down your sides as well, a flat deck tipper with a rock grissly might last a bit longer. A good option, if youre not going on road or too far, is drag them on a sledge with a large tractor.
Owen, get a breaker for the 30 tonner or get Stumpjummer83 with his 120 and Takeuchi on the job
When the rock gets to big to load on the truck I dig a deep hole & bury it ,done this allot with limestone using a dozer or an excavator.I would think a 15 to 18 ton machine would work fine using this method.Bury all the big rocks & haul off the small rocks on the tipper.Good luck with the rock project OwenskiVic.
KWD, that wasn't meant as much as can do as it was as did do. These are pics of a landscaping job I took. I pulled the rock from a farm pasture, loaded the 30 yd can, unloaded the 30, and placed those rocks. All with only my tak tb53fr & thumb...
Nice work Stump
thank you...
I'm with Td25. Load out the small stuff then dig a big hole and bury anything that might do damage to a machine or truck. There's more then one backyard in my area that I hope for their sake they never decide to put in a pool.
Have you thought about, a grapple truck(log truck) or something along those lines? If you're loading larger rocks out of a pile a good sized grapple truck will handle anything from about 1 foot in diameter to 5 or 6 depending on the shape. Here's a link to a building where I placed some pretty decent sized rocks, as round as blasting will let them get and they're by cars to give you some idea of the size: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=44.4...3.116347&spn=0.000418,0.000889&num=1&t=h&z=21 If you zoom out and go to the northwest corner of that building you will see the gates at the driveway and some more of the boulders. I also had a customer who used a open bodied log truck with some logs chained down on the bottom and a couple chained to the uprights to move a lot of bigger stuff(3-5' I'd say) and then place it on a riverbank where it was washing out. https://maps.google.com/maps?q=44.517433,-72.931024&num=1&t=h&z=20
The problem is that if the area suffers any sort of cool conditions the field will "grow" rocks. Seen this happen before. There will be ways & ways of moving them, it'll just need a bit of ingenuity.
Nice pictures. Great truck and nice tons of rocks. I think you have done a good job in that scenario.