Oh, my ACHING back!!! You're quite *the man* Don, for sure!

Excellent tutorial, again! :o)

Great use for an old Ford hood. Wonderful tutorial, Don. Your photos and illustrations make it look so easy. Where'd you get a piece of such a wide conveyer belt? That would store better then the Ford hood, me thinks.

-Babka

I like the sled idea, it is easy to drag behind a yard tractor. I know it might work easy on snow, but what in the summer time. Are you using some form of rollers underneath.
Manfred

"Where'd you get a piece of such a wide conveyer belt? That would store better then the Ford hood, me thinks."

I got a whole bunch of conveyor belt remnants from a local company that manufactures it...various sizes, thicknesses, and colors...great stuff! It doesn't take much space to store my stone boat, I just roll it up and put it on a shelf in the garage.

"I like the sled idea, it is easy to drag behind a yard tractor. I know it might work easy on snow, but what in the summer time. Are you using some form of rollers underneath."

I personally prefer a stone boat rather than a sled because the sled runnners would tear up my lawn. The conveyor belt and car hood slide across the ground easily. I don't use any rollers under them.

are you part Egyptian??? building pyramids and all .. lol ...

ken

I hope you are around if a car ever falls on me.

I use a similar idea-A 12' x 24" piece of steel roofing that I sandwiched 2 24" 2 x 4s on the end with a hole to anchor a chain. I've hauled a lot of stuff with this and a tractor, mainly in the summer, over the lawn, with no damage.

Countrygarden wrote,

"I'm confused as to what you are doing with them. Do you plan to place them here and there, perhaps in groups, or just as they are? There sure is a lot of potential."

I use rocks in a variety of ways: retaining walls, walkways, as specimens in my flower gardens, etc. In the pics below, I've used them in mass to cover a large area at one end of my house...all of which are 3 ft. and bigger. It required an awful lot of boulders to get the "wow factor", and the project is only about 75% completed after working on it for several years. I still need about 50-75 more big rocks in order to finish it! (As I've said, I find the rocks and haul them all in myself.)

In this pic (which I took today) you can see the end of my house.

Don,

That is really good information. I have always wondered how you move those boulders around without heavy equipment. Thanks for the tutioral.

Regards
Jerry

this is what i use - with forks or a bucket

wasnt there supposed to be a third post about heavy equipment???

merry Christmas and happy new year don ... and the rest of you

ken

Yeah,
I wanted to get a few more pics for the third post on how to load rocks...and then the snow hit! I guess I'll post what I have now, and get some more pics next spring??? Don

PS Merry Christmas to all, and to all a lot of sweet hosta dreams!

So, Don, aren't you about due for a visit to the East coast? We could use your expertise around here. DH and I envy your hillside and although we could use some boulders that size, reality is we'll never manage it!

Looking forward to more vicarious living when you post again in spring. Happy, happy to all!

Bump to top.

Don, Thanks again for the piece of conveyor belt. I'm about to start using it here in upstate NY. Two questions. Have you tried "slippery side up and down to determine which side slides better? Also a girlfriend is concerned that once the loaded belt starts to slide, especially on a hill it will be hard to stop with the obvious problem of crashing into things/people/pets. It seems to me there's enough friction in the system but thought I'd ask. Also I'm planning on two attachment points with a 'V' of chain for directional stability. Thanks a third time. Lee

Finally got to use our rock sled and build

a small wall. Thx for the help - VT

I don't have any rock nearby and I wanted the "natural" look. So I went to a local nursery that had some Field Stone and bought 615 pounds worth. I loaded it from the pallet, into a wagon, out of the wagon onto a scale for weighing, and then into the back of my wife's Nissan Murano. When I got home I then unloaded all of them. No bad for a guy who had back surgery in November.

This is a great thread. I've been moving rocks for the past two weeks and have only been using a dolly. Love that sled idea and will have to give it a try.

This site gave us the idea- that's why I posted the pic. It was fun shopping for car hoods at the salvage yd!

VT

Don Rawson did also other great postings about moving rocks :

Moving Rocks With a Stone Bar (Part 1)
Hauling Rocks on a Stone Boat, Sled, or Dolly (Part 2)
Loading Rocks Onto a Truck or Trailer (Part 3)

I have hired a boat transport company for hauling load. they used Wagons with large pneumatic tires which can carry large amount of heavy load.

About heavy loads like a very heavy hosta, I use my grandson's plastic sled and pull it across the lawn. Did you watch the TV show 'Mountain Men' on the History channel? There several guys fell trees, make a sled out of that wood, load the sled with other wood and let their two large horses pull the sled through the forest.

We have fieldstone free for the hauling from our local farmers. My husband does the picking up & unloading with our pickup, but i use a wheelbarrow & handtruck to place them...these pictures make me look like i don't move much @ all! They look great!