I had a rock problem in my arena. A HUGE rock problem. And when I searched online for answers, I mostly saw ideas like "hire little kids" and "do it by hand little by little", and a few mechanized rock pickers that I knew from watching wouldn't work for me. I rented every conceivable piece of rock-picking, landscaping equipment available, and all I got was a lot of dust and still lots of rocks. So I spent two years thinking and designing, and looking at pictures and videos of the old 1920's Thomas Rock Picker that is enormous but works the way I thought it should.
And this is what I came up with. Designed and built from scratch by me, and it works. After lots of failed prototypes and breakdowns from using substandard materials (they were prototypes, after all - I wanted proof of concept before I spent big bucks on the finished pieces and parts), I got it right. It works like a dream - it's just SWEET. It digs up the top layer of dirt and rocks, shakes the sand and dirt through, and tosses the clean rocks out the back into a big "stone boat" (a big tub that glides over the ground like a sled). When the stone boat is full I disconnect everything and drag the stone boat to the rock pile, dump it, and then drag it back and hook everything up again and collect more rocks. And it collects rocks from bigger than my fist down to about 1/2" to 3/4", all the rocks that make my uber-sensitive OTTB dressage diva trip and stumble.
The three key parts are (1) the hook chain conveyor belt, (2) the commercial bird netting over the hook chain, and (3) the PTO drive off the tractor which is very robust.
I've posted a basic how-to-build-it at www.mhleather.com/picker.html
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