I have an idea.....

[Callred1975]

I’ve done a little prospecting over the last few years and I’m moving to Arizona next week, so obviously all I can think about is all the gold I’m gonna find...

I had an idea. If I take a few pipes and make a diy heavy duty tripod, I could attach a pulley to it and using the winch on my atv, lift small/medium boulders up enough for me to check under them for gold with my detector.

I was thinking I could use climbing anchor bolts to quickly and easily attach a line to lift the boulders.

Has anyone tried this? Was it successful?

 

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[3cylbill]

a tripod and a winch...your a genus.....

 

[Goodyguy]

I’ve done a little prospecting over the last few years and I’m moving to Arizona next week, so obviously all I can think about is all the gold I’m gonna find...

I had an idea. If I take a few pipes and make a diy heavy duty tripod, I could attach a pulley to it and using the winch on my atv, lift small/medium boulders up enough for me to check under them for gold with my detector.

I was thinking I could use climbing anchor bolts to quickly and easily attach a line to lift the boulders.

Has anyone tried this? Was it successful?

No need to lift a boulder with a tripod, just use the winch and a tow strap or tire chain to roll it over, much easier than lifting.
A snatch block pulley would come in handy as well but you wont find any trees to anchor it to.

When digging a shaft down into a wash we used tire chains and come-a-longs to secure widow makers, and they did a great job.
We also used your tripod and winch idea for hoisting buckets of paydirt to the surface as well as using tire chains as a secure way of hoisting boulders out of the shaft.

Here is a photo of the start of the shaft before we added the tripod and started using tire chains.
The tripod and winch made a huge difference.

The winch was mounted onto a heavy truck with a 500 gallon tank of water in it
plus we used a snatch block which gives you twice the work with half the effort.

If you have never used a snatch block before then google it, you will become a believer after that.
Especially useful when using a small atv winch.



Good luck beepin' for them nuggets, they are out there ......somewhere.
Just takes lots of perseverance.


Go for the Gold
GG~

 

[smallfoot]

Soon, you'll realize how small a boulder will lift the end of your atv....

 

[Callred1975]

Thanks for the responses.

Good point smallfoot. Maybe I could change the angle of the line coming into the atv winch using a second pulley somehow? That way the angle of force would be more horizontal than vertical? Might keep the front end of the atv on the ground.

I’ll probably just stick to detecting around the big stuff instead of trying to move them. I have a lot of back/joint trouble and was just trying to think of an easier way to lift heavy stuff in the field without killing myself. lol

 

[smallfoot]

If you're going in on an atv, you could probably carry a 6' pry bar that would move more than the atv could lift. That along with a 3 way chain sling could move a pretty good size rock.

 

[smokeythecat]

A sturdy 10' prybar and a rock to use for the age old lever and fulcrum thing. Will cost less, but that prybar will need to be 2" in diameter, heavy steel and long. Been there, done that on small boulders. It works.