Skid Steer Picks, Packs And Piles Rocks
Barry Anderson’s skid steer attachment picks up individual large rocks, loads them into the bucket and when the bucket is full, piles them as high as the loader can go. Best of all, it requires no bucket or loader modifications.
“I didn’t want to drill holes or make other modifications to the bucket like other pickers on the market,” says Anderson. “I also wanted to be able to dump rocks in a pile. Other, smaller, pull-behind pickers seem to have trouble dumping in piles more than 2 ft. high.”
Nearly 70, Anderson credits a bad back with forcing him to think about alternatives to picking rocks by hand. “I had work done to fuse vertebrae, and picking rocks had become difficult,” he says. “Sometimes I could only do it for an hour or so.”
Anderson figured his old skid steer was the answer. He just needed to figure out how to roll rocks into the bucket. When he replaced a garage door opener, he salvaged the rail, cutting it into teeth for a rock fork. To keep the rocks from rolling off, Anderson cut off the last 25 percent or so of the teeth and welded them back on at an angle.
Angle iron from an old bed frame was repurposed for the picker frame. In order to bolt it to the bucket, Anderson removed the hardened bucket edge to expose pre-drilled holes.
He bolted the picker teeth to a short length of steel pipe using U-bolts and mounted the pipe to the angle iron frame that extended out past the edge of the bucket. The pipe rotates in place with the help of a hydraulic cylinder.
The cylinder mounts to a piece of square tubing that is bolted to the picker frame and extends over the rear of the bucket. The ram’s clevis pins to a steel arm fixed to the pipe.
“When I extend the cylinder, the teeth extend down into the dirt under a rock, and when I retract it, the teeth rotate back to drop the rock in the bucket,” says Anderson. “When the bucket is full, I can drive to a rock pile, raise the arms and dump.”
Anderson notes that getting the hydraulic hose lengths right was one of his biggest challenges. He used steel pipe for a rigid set of connections from the cylinder to near the bottom of the bucket. This considerably reduced the length of hoses needed.
“It took 3 or 4 tries to get the lengths right, but now it works fine,” he says. “I can sit in the skid steer and pick rocks much longer than I could by hand.”
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Barry Anderson, 170 Skyline Dr., Granite Falls, Minn. 56241 (ph 320 564-4500 or 507 828-0613; bkanderson1@mchsi.com).
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Skid Steer Picks Packs And Piles Rocks ROCK PICKERS Barry Anderson’s skid steer attachment picks up individual large rocks loads them into the bucket and when the bucket is full piles them as high as the loader can go Best of all it requires no bucket or loader modifications “I didn’t want to drill holes or make other modifications to the bucket like other pickers on the market ” says Anderson “I also wanted to be able to dump rocks in a pile Other smaller pull-behind pickers seem to have trouble dumping in piles more than 2 ft high ” Nearly 70 Anderson credits a bad back with forcing him to think about alternatives to picking rocks by hand “I had work done to fuse vertebrae and picking rocks had become difficult ” he says “Sometimes I could only do it for an hour or so ” Anderson figured his old skid steer was the answer He just needed to figure out how to roll rocks into the bucket When he replaced a garage door opener he salvaged the rail cutting it into teeth for a rock fork To keep the rocks from rolling off Anderson cut off the last 25 percent or so of the teeth and welded them back on at an angle Angle iron from an old bed frame was repurposed for the picker frame In order to bolt it to the bucket Anderson removed the hardened bucket edge to expose pre-drilled holes He bolted the picker teeth to a short length of steel pipe using U-bolts and mounted the pipe to the angle iron frame that extended out past the edge of the bucket The pipe rotates in place with the help of a hydraulic cylinder The cylinder mounts to a piece of square tubing that is bolted to the picker frame and extends over the rear of the bucket The ram’s clevis pins to a steel arm fixed to the pipe “When I extend the cylinder the teeth extend down into the dirt under a rock and when I retract it the teeth rotate back to drop the rock in the bucket ” says Anderson “When the bucket is full I can drive to a rock pile raise the arms and dump ” Anderson notes that getting the hydraulic hose lengths right was one of his biggest challenges He used steel pipe for a rigid set of connections from the cylinder to near the bottom of the bucket This considerably reduced the length of hoses needed “It took 3 or 4 tries to get the lengths right but now it works fine ” he says “I can sit in the skid steer and pick rocks much longer than I could by hand ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Barry Anderson 170 Skyline Dr Granite Falls Minn 56241 ph 320 564-4500 or 507 828-0613; bkanderson1@mchsi com
