Rock Picker

rusty6 · May 26, 2019

I was just thinking while editing this video, how far we have come in rock picking technology since I first started helping my dad in the 1960s. Hand picking every rock and throwing it onto the flat top wagon. Then unloading every rock by hand at the rock pile. Now I add to those same rock piles using the hydraulic drive, tractor powered rotary rock picker. I don't think you truly appreciate how wonderful these machines are until you have put in a few years picking rocks by hand.
Crown Rock Picker

BillinCentralMO · May 26, 2019

That?s really pretty neat how it works. Almost no rocks on our farm in mid Missouri. A few around the creeks. Looks like it sure beats doing it by hand.

db4600 · May 26, 2019

Many hours logged on a Shulte apron type picker. That was our spring harvest. Digger, rock rake, rock picker. Then we could ready the ground for seeding. Pa put a D-8 grille screen on the platform which cut down on all the egg sized stones wedging in the platform bars, increased apron bushing life, and brought a lot more quackgrass back to the rock pile which soon showed up in the amount of quack during growing season. The Sculte would pick from an egg to a bushel basket size. The neighborhood was blessed as 2 of the neighbors had Harley pickers and the other had a Hay-Buster.

casecollectorsc · May 26, 2019

Have a Leon rock picker that was built in Canada. Bought it brand new in 1975. Haven't used it for some time as I use a packer to roll bean ground and it pushes them down....plus the fact I don't rent that rocky ground
anymore. The Leon doesn't have a reel.

rusty6 · May 26, 2019

(quoted from post at 18:34:13 05/26/19) Have a Leon rock picker that was built in Canada. Bought it brand new in 1975. Haven't used it for some time as I use a packer to roll bean ground and it pushes them down....plus the fact I don't rent that rocky ground
anymore. The Leon doesn't have a reel.

Yes, Crown also made a picker with no reel. They are best for the big rocks that are too big to go through the reel. Leon Manufacturing started out just a few miles from me. I've got one of the early dozer blades they built back in the early 60s.

BarnyardEngineering · May 26, 2019

Rock pickers are pretty much useless around here. When you can park a 4x8 dump trailer and fill it with 3 tons of rock from a 20' radius and have it look like you've done absolutely nothing... In those conditions your average rock picker would go about 5' and be full.

rusty6 · May 27, 2019

(quoted from post at 18:55:04 05/26/19) Rock pickers are pretty much useless around here. When you can park a 4x8 dump trailer and fill it with 3 tons of rock from a 20' radius and have it look like you've done absolutely nothing... In those conditions your average rock picker would go about 5' and be full.

With that amount of rock in the soil I'm guessing you don't grow crops on that land.

SVcummins · May 27, 2019

I always wanted a rock picker like that but still haven?t gotten one

showcrop · May 27, 2019

I always enjoyed doing it by hand so I never got a picker. The farmer that I worked for as a kid had one built from car axles. the axles were bent almost 90 degrees and welded to a channel stock frame. They were spaced maybe four inches apart. He had it on his Ford 960, and he would rake up a basket full then drop them in front of the loader of his 841. His son and I would pile them into the bucket, then dump in the dump truck, then when the truck had a load we dumped it at a low place.

Rock Picker

rusty6

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BillinCentralMO

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db4600

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casecollectorsc

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rusty6

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BarnyardEngineering

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rusty6

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SVcummins

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showcrop

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