I found this link a while back, check it out. They don't charge, just a donation....hope they are still around for you. Cheri Here is a link that might be useful: horse hauling

Well, it happened! We did it! Yesterday the rocks "magically" moved to my house. Last week I went to my friends house and Farmer Ed used his loader to pull the rocks from the woodsline. I was worried because I thought he had a farm tractor, but it was a heavy duty loader and it treated the boulders like they were bowling balls. Once he got them all out of the hedgerow, there were a few more than I thought - 26! Probably 5 or 6 BIG (bathtub sized) 12 Medium (32 inch TV) and the rest Small (microwave sized). Seeing how easily he handled these rocks was very reassuring, so I made arrangements for the loader, truck driver, and unloader for the following week. The weather was terrible here all week. We had a tremendous windstorm with gusts up to 65 mph that uprooted a few of my newly planted trees. Then we had a very heavy rainstorm. Then a spell of our first "winter weather" - 40 degrees, crisp, biting wind. But Saturday dawned warm and sunny and still, a great day for moving rocks. Farmer Ed and his son both arrived with loaders. For some of the big rocks, one loader would push the boulders into the other loader. You could see that the smaller one would not have been able to lift the heaviest of the rocks. They were quite skilled at what they did, I took my four year old son to watch and he loved it. Mike the truck driver was great. Acted as if he did this every week. He said he had hauled some very unusual things in his time, and raw boulders was another on the list. He took longer to tie everything down than it took to load. He was very thorough and professional. Made a phone call as we were leaving so Dick the backhoe driver would be there when we arrived. Dick and Brian were waiting when we arrived. Just immediately drove up in the backhoe and started tugging them off and they rolled away. It was slow and steady work, but happily was done without incident. Just like that! Wow! Now we still have the work of moving them from behind the barn to be placed in the backyard, but that seems a lot more doable than having them magically move 30 miles south. With the fall rain we've had the ground is rather soft for heavy equipment. We'll move them next summer. So watch for another post then asking how to move them into position. But for now I am quite happy! I'm sure enquiring minds want to know, how much did it all cost? Things improved from my initial conservative estimates. The $150/hour was for a quarry loader, which we didn't need because the farmer's loader was one of those BIGGGG ones. Farmer Ed did me a huge favor and did all the loading for $150 plus various baked goods and bottles of wine. Really he was being nice to my friend who owns// owned the rocks. Truck driver Mike was very professional and very reasonable, I thought, for $250 since it took his entire afternoon. Dick would only take $100 for his work since "it didn't take him very long" and he lives just around the corner. So total transport cost was $500 for 25 very nice sized granite rocks. $500 isn't a small sum of money, we've just blown the landscape budget for 2006, but at $20 rock it seems fantastic to me when I think how much work was done. I'm still working on getting a very nice something for my friend too, who was so fabulously generous with her stones. What a long winded post, as you can tell, I'm excited. Here's some photos, I've never done photos before so we'll see how they work.

Bill, You will eventually bend your drawbar hitch if you put a ball directly on it. Plus you will bang the heck out of the rear frame with the minimal clearance. You won't be able to pull other attachments without first unbolting the hitch, and the ball will be very low to the ground. I know it's expensive, but I would consider buying one of these multi-hitch adapters from Hayes Enterprises. Then it will just be a matter of sliding the hitch out of your truck's 2" receiver and using it on the tractor. There are also 2" adapters for sleeve hitches if you have one or plan on getting one in the future. -Chris Here is a link that might be useful: Hayes multi hitch

Canguy is right on the money as to fines for unsecured load. Here in the States, the federal standards for securing transported cargo require that the securing point on the transported object, the securing devices (chains, ropes, straps, etc.), and the securing points on the transporting vehicle, be substantial enough to withstand impact generated forces "a MINIMUM of 6 Gs" (G-forces). This means that (for example) a tractor weighing 600 pounds must be secured with a system that will withstand 3,600 pounds of force in order to be "legal" by U.S. DOT standards. To determine the "minimum" rating needed, multiply the weight of object by 6. That will give the minimum rating needed. It is recommended that you use a system rated for 10 times the weight of object in actual practice. It is doubtful that a private individual hauling a GT or LT on a small trailer would be stopped and have the securing system evaluated for compliance by the local constabulary, but encountering one of the State DOT compliance units (who inspect transport loads as their primary function) could lead to a citation if you have not prepared a good "tie down" system. These folks also have portable scales to weigh the transporting vehicles to see if the gross weight (vehicle & load) is in compliance. If one of these guys inspects your "rig" you can bet he will look at things you never dreamed of. My point with this is: Why invite an inspection by having no visible tie down system. And if you were to be involved in some kind of collision or other highway accident where your (transported object) was released therein, a "thorough investigation" would follow. Don't forget that in the event the example 600 pound tractor is released at sufficient speed in a collision, it could exert the destructive force of a 3,600 pound (or greater) object when it strikes another object (mini-van filled with a kid's soccer team for example). I don't think hauling anything unsecured in an open truck bed or trailer is something to boast about, considering the potential consequences and/or fines/lawsuites. JMHO plus some facts.