Sorting rocks

[veedub]

Not really sure where to put this question. I have a huge pile of spoils from a foundation excavation I did. It’s a mix of rocks from baseball to maybe 16” most anything bigger than that I set to the side during excavation. Soil is a lot of clay from the deeper part of the dig and sandier stuff from the first 3’ or so. Anyway I’d like to sort most of the rocks out of it before I backfill and change the grade with the pile. I’m going to be doing the work with an older (86) Case 1845C skid steer. I was going to build a gravity style sorter the type with bars set at a steep angle that you scoop onto and the rocks roll off the back and the smaller stuff falls down inside. But then I was wondering if I might be better off with a rock/skeleton bucket for the skid steer where I can just scoop and and sift in one move rather than having to scoop the rocks back up after they roll off the back of the sorter. Also thought a bucket like this might be nice to use extended the teeth on to break up the clay pile that’s been sitting all winter packing. I’ve never used either of these things so I’d like to hear thoughts if anyone has used both.

 

[Fawteen]

I got several yards of ditch debris when the state cleaned out the ditches along the road near me. Unsurprisingly, it contained about every kind of debris you can imagine.

I bought a skeleton bucket specifically for that project and it worked tolerably well. I did have to stop every once in a while and clean the weeds, brush, sod, rags, plastic and other "stringy" stuff out of the tines but it was WAY faster than trying to do it by hand plus cheaper and more generally useful than a screener.

The only reservation I'd have in your case is dealing with the clay. My pile was largely sand and sandy loam. Clay, especially if wet, is going to stick to things and hold the rocks. But then again, that'd be true even with a traditional screener.

Last picture is dumping the rocks and debris after cleaning up.

 

[Tony in SD]

Ive used a rock bucket or as some call it a skeleton bucket for a skid steer. I worked remarkably well for my task. Just scooped up a bucket of rocks and shook the dirt out of the bucket then dropped the rocks in the desired location. I was able to go 6" to 9" deep to get a few subsoil rocks removed.