How to Move Boulders without Heavy Equipment! 

Excellent video! The apparently "small" boulders that I wanted to move turned out to be grossly "overweight" and the strap method that you propose is a fine example of using one's brain instead of one's muscles. Thanks. 2024/05/31. Ontario, Canada.

Between this guy's strap/rachets, and others lay down some pipes to roll the boulder(s) over, this should be mighty helpful, for those on level land.

Thanks for the tip!

Yes it does! Thanks

Good question!

because they see the world their parents brought them into, and they realise its not worth it. our hard work doesn't reap benefits like your hard work did then

Thanks 👍

May I suggest, if the space available allows it, to bring a vehicle equipped with a trailer hitch and use said hitch as the attaching point? The vehicle must be in "park" mode and the hand-brake fully on, with its engine stopped. In order to avoid damage to the vehicle's transmission, I recommend not using it to try to pull the boulder. 2024/05/31.

It really depends on the type and size. A 3ft. dia. Blue Stone is going to weigh considerably more than a Sandstone Boulder. Most 3ftx3ftx3ft boulders are going to weigh less than 8000lbs. But if you start getting larger than that you will jump over in weight.

That is a good question. If your boulders are a similar variety then they probably weigh between 2000 and 4000 pounds. I'm assuming that your posts are 4x4 and probably just pushed into a 6" or maybe an 8" hole? I would think that as long as the concrete is reaching down the full 2.5 foot depth that choking low on the post you could flip the boulders. Now if you tried to drag them that will take way more toll on the post and if I were to try that I would be watching the post very closely.

@@BabblinginmyBackyard This is extremely helpful, thank you!

I would, without question for safety, anchor a 6 x 6 post in a 12" caisson set 32" deep at minimum in hard concrete and as said below try and do the majority of all your pulls from the bottom of the post near the ground. The more you raise up the pulling point higher on the post, the longer the fulcrum / arm weighting point which significantly increases the weight forces. And depending on the weight of the rock moves combined with that (fulcrum location) it could crack and or catastrophically snap the post.

Hi there! I move boulders for fun and my landscaping regularly. You'll need a large rock bar. Some 4x4 blocks/landscape tembers anything from 4-5" long to a foot. A long pipe, and two short iron pipes. A couple feet to three feet long will do. Just jam the rock bar dawn and keep jamming until you find the bottom/corner of the boulder. Pry back until the boulder lifts up. Throw in a bar or something to wedge it up. Now use a block to pry off of, and this time the boulder should lift atleast 4 inches up. If it doesn't add a pole to the bar for more leverage. It should lift up. Slide in one of your 2-3 feet iron pipes right about in the middle. Oh you'll need a big strap as well. I like the big blue Crain straps but any ol strap will do. Just put it around the butt end or the down side and pull and it will roll just a few inches then tilt down towards ya. Put your weight on the side that came up and the front will lift. Slide your other pipe and let the boulder down on it carefully. Now you cam pull with your strap and it will roll a foot or so. I like just alternating two pipes. Sure you can pull a longer ways with more pipe but often the larger boulders on uneven ground roll off the pipes and its more complex and difficult for me using multiple pipes.. Ecspecially if your rolling a boulder up a incline. So for me just two is best. Of you can also easily use a bar to change the direction of your boulder and or a strap.

I got them on Amazon. I will put links in the description for you.

Helicopter? Wait, no, a catapult! HA! make a video, I want to see that one.

A little bit at a time

I'd be interested to see how you do it. I know of a cool cut stone in a creek bed on my property.

I hook the tow strap up to the hitch on my pickup (4wd is necessary most of the time, low range helps to crawl along, but is not needed) and have moved quite a bit larger boulders than shown in the video hundreds of feet (i.e. from my yard to the rock wall surrounding my property). Works pretty well, but does leave drag marks.

Are you a robot?

I just used one to move a decent-sized boulder. The ground was much more level for that and it was still very difficult to get the thing tipped and rolled to where I wanted it. But it works for smaller boulders.

A two wheel dollie works just fine. If you fasten ratchet straps around the upper and bottom portions of the Boulder(and the dollie) it makes tipping the dollie back very manageable.