Go Bottomsubsoiler for rock removal
 | Eric Edwards
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2001-04-14 26696
I'm thinking of investing or welding together a subsoiler like a tufline single tine jobber for use in a new garden area. Does anyone have experience with this product. I'm hoping to bring to the surface a lot of basketball size rocks in a half acre area recently converted from forest. An excavator has removed the really large stuff(read..car size boulders). I'll be using a 40HP JD1070 and am wondering if the draft control can be configured to help lift the rocks even though I know this is not it's intended purpose. And, will a heavy duty subsoiler like the moline tufline unit actually lift rocks at all. One fellow told me to plow it but I think the plow would be ruined with all the rock. Those not familiar with the southern Maine coast have no idea what really stony soils are like. Not to mention the outcroppings of ledge everywhere. I plan to build up the soils over time but buying loam at $50./Yd is not an option. Raised beds are not my idea of fun either. I would appreciate any ideas that you good folks might have concerning implements to turn up rocks so that a tiller can be used in the future. Thanks, Eric in ME
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| kay
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2001-04-14 26697
I use a single subsoiler tooth on my 3pt arms, but do not use the top link (this top link is in compression and doesn't seem to work for me, although the draft feature may be a thought that would work). My tooth bar is 1" thick steel, with a tooth on the end. I drilled a hole in the bar and run a chain to the drawbar to pull on the tooth. I remove about 50 to 100 boulders (8" to 30" across) about every three years from my 3+ acres of lawn (gifts left here by the glaciers that keep coming to the surface because the frost gets under them). The single tooth works very, very well. Much better than the pick, shovel, and stone bar I used 30 years ago. Usually the rocks can be hooked, then rolled up as you lift the 3pt arms. Then scoop them up in the loader bucket. This is a custom made rig. It also works great when laying electrical line, or gas line down to about 15-18 inches deep. A single tooth doesn't take much HP (20+). Short of tearing up everything (plow, or equivalent), its the best way I know to dig boulders out. I also have some limestone near the surface (I sit on the terminal moraine of the glacier, so have both worlds), and it works good for that too. I hope this helps. ....
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| Eric Edwards
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2001-04-14 26709
Thanks for your input Kay, it sounds like this could also work for me. I would like to clarify your tine configuration though. How deep do you go and how long is the tooth and at what angle. The reason I ask is that the tufline product I've seen cuts in at an angle which would pull the rig under and it goes quite deep. Actually the shape of the tufline tine is not straight but has a quarter moon crescent shape. Tufline specifies somewhere around 40 HP for 1 tine which seems a lot to me. My last question is how thick(wide) is the tooth and of what material. I'm thinking that you must run only a foot or less on each pass or you'd miss alot of stones. I've never run the draft control so that should be interesting as well. ....
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| kay
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2001-04-14 26712
Eric. I don't go after all the boulders within a certain depth, but only go after those that poke up enough to get knicked by the mower blades. Then I hook them, and roll them out with the subsoiler tooth if they are not too big. The angle is controlled by the length of the chain. The shape is crescent (sp?) like what you describe. The tooth is about 2" in width. The distance between the passes that you take will determine the size of boulder you will detect. Have at it. ....
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| Eric Edwards
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2001-04-14 26714
Thanks Kay for the additional information. As soon as the snow melts (only 1 more foot to go) I'll get into it. Thinking about it is always worse(more technical) than the doing. And of course, success combined with the building of an implement or whatever is the fun part. ....
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| keoke
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2001-04-15 26746
Northern Hydraulics sell a single tooth sub-soiler made by Howse for less then $200. I use one on my JD970. I had to beef it up by adding a fin under the plate that holds the tooth.
george ....
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