Heavy Duty Tractor-Mounted Rock Boxes

Heavy Duty Tractor-Mounted Rock Boxes ROCK PICKERS Rock Pickers 23-4-10 Old hog farrowing crates and other scrap material can be used to make heavy-duty rock boxes to mount on tractors, says Ray Obrecht, McCallsburg, Iowa. He first made a tripping rock box for the front of his 1984 Deutz DX 160 tractor. It's 30 in. sq. and bolted to a subframe on the tractor that was originally designed to carry weights. It has woven panel sides (off the farrowing crate) and a floor that's made from heavier woven panel. The floor is hinged at the back and has a trip handle on front that allows Obrecht to drop the bottom out to dump rocks. "It holds a heck of a bunch of rocks and is built heavier than most commercial rock boxes," says Obrecht. "Another advantage is that dirt can fall through the woven panel floor and it won't hold water. I spent less than $10 to build it. I've been picking up rocks on my farm for 40 years so most of them are now about the size of a coffee cup. I keep a spade in the box for digging out larger rocks." Obrecht also made a rock box for his Deere 4630 tractor. It's 6 ft. long and 2 ft. wide and is mounted under the frame of the tractor, extending out both sides. The frame was made from an old front mount Deere cultivator and the 8-in. high sides are made from woven hog panel. The bottom is made from corn crib wire. A pair of hangers off the field cultivator are used to secure each side of the box. The hangers are welded to the box and bolted to the tractor frame. "There's about 7 in. of clearance under the tractor frame so it can't be used to carry real big rocks," says Obrecht. "I couldn't mount a rock box on front of this tractor because there's a 60-gal. fuel tank there. It'll hold about 1,000 lbs. of rocks. My son uses this tractor to plant so the box also comes in handy for carrying extra bags of seed corn." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ray Obrecht, Rt. 1, Zearing, Iowa 50154 (ph 515 434-2017).

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