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Rear-Mount Rock Bucket
"Several years my father and I bought a Rock-O-Matic rock bucket for our front-end loader. We wanted something that would let one person pick up rocks alone, especially rocks that were too big to drive over with planting equipment," says Daniel C. Wagner, Campbellsport, Wis.
  "The problem with the front bucket was that we couldn't see what we were doing over the hood of the tractor. We decided we wanted to put the rock bucket on the back of the tractor but we couldn't find a rear-mount loader for a 100 hp. tractor, so we decided to make our own.
  "The main frame is made from an old front loader off a tractor that had a narrow front end and straight lift arms. My father made brackets that bolt to the rear axle of the tractor. They are basically a clevis that the lift arms connect to with a pin. The brackets stay on the tractor all the time and are not in the way. The only other part that is attached to the tractor is a cross beam that runs across the 3-pt. hitch arms.
  "There is another pin and clevis bracket where the lift arm of the rock picker attaches to the beam. It keeps the arm from binding as the rock picker goes up and down because the axle pivot and 3-pt. hitch pivot are not exactly the same point. The bucket has a pivot point on the fork that is different than when the bucket was on the front-end loader. The bucket tips with two 24-in. cylinders.
  "The whole unit is easily visible by the driver. It works best to skim along the ground. Dirt shakes out through the spaces in the teeth. You can pick rocks one at a time or keep picking up more rocks until the bucket is full.
  "The bucket lifts high enough to dump into a pile several feet high.
  "You can also use the bucket to dig a bigger rock out of the ground by working the teeth down into the ground. It's surprising what it'll dig up.
  "Some manufacturer should put a unit like this on the market. It's very simple and strong, because all the pushing is done by the lift arms attached to the axle brackets."
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Daniel C. Wagner, W4748 State Road 67, Campbellsport, Wis. 53010 (ph 920 269-4895).


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1999 - Volume #23, Issue #2