What would be the proper tool for this?

[Dirty Harry]

I don't think a four wheeler or even a small tractor would pull those weights out because they will bite into the ground too much. What you might try is getting an old pickup truck hood. You can put that on the ground, upside down, and put the weights on it, one at a time. That will distribute the weight and help from biting into the ground. It sounds like you have plenty of trees in the area so if you have chains and a come-along you cound winch them out to where you can hook on to them with something else. It's slow but it's free.

 

[pinkfox]

worse comes to worse do it how the egyptians did for those huge great building blocks, round logs laid flat in a row, hoist item onto logs and roll as it rolls off one onto the next pull it out and put it in front repeat untill its in an area clear enough to be a little easier to get to.
your essenitlaly making a conveyer belt...

 

[Flytyer24]

look for bottles that have blue glass. If the have threads they probably are junk but if they are pop tops they might actually have some value...

 

[Joel_BC]

I don't think a four wheeler or even a small tractor would pull those weights out because they will bite into the ground too much. What you might try is getting an old pickup truck hood. You can put that on the ground, upside down, and put the weights on it, one at a time. That will distribute the weight and help from biting into the ground.

Yeah, people around here who use an inverted old car or truck hood for a purpose like that call it a "stone boat".

The weights are so heavy, and their path seems so narrow and long, that I think a winch with a long cable would maybe be the only fully mechanized solution. A come-along might work, but would be extremely slow due to the necessity for multiple chain-ups (to trees) along the path. That would take extreme dedication, but might be possible. Depends, though... could be worth it.

 

[FranklinStreetWest]

There's a landscaping company on Mackinac Island in Michigan that takes lessons about moving objects straight out of Davinci's Notebooks. The landscaper is challenged to move impossibly large boulders, COMPLETELY without power equipment, onto fussy-rich-home owner lawns.... The island doesn't allow any motor vehicle, and they don't make exceptions for big rocks. There's probably a way to do it on the cheap, it just might take a lot of care and effort.

 

[~gd]

I just hsve to ask, what kind pf rig used counterweights of this huge size? you would need power equipment to mount or dismount them.

 

[Wannabefree]

Bridge building cranes. DH's grandad co owned a bridge building business around here half a century ago. Some pieces were huge. The last one we done had a massive weight, but it was hollow and filled with punchout, VERY old equipment. The rigs have been sitting in our woods since DH's grandfather retired, and he is now deceased. From what we can estimate this stuff is better than 40 years old...or well..at least it quit being used 40 years ago

ETA: Meant to say I lost count at 21 buckets of punchout from the one we just finished. Each 5 gallon bucket weighed in at 150 pounds on average.