Need a gantry crane for a one time use.

[Flyinfool]

It was dragged by a farm tractor to its current location in the last few years so there should not be much hidden.

There are already a lot of little buddies around.

Every time I went up to the farm I brought home the biggest rock I could lift into the back of the truck. You can tell the vintage by the size, they seem to get smaller and smaller as the years go by.

 

[Flyinfool]

I looked at a facebook marketplace add for local rocks. The poster claimed to have a lot of rocks in the size I want. I asked where he was located and when I could come to look at some to pick one out. He said customers are not allowed on the property, HE will pick one out for me. I have to prepay online. Would not give me the company name or location. All of my scam detectors are just screaming at me right now. This has about every red flag I can think of.

Back to the drawing board......

 

[extropic]

What a bottom feeder. Trying to scam people who want rocks. That's a new one for me.

 

[SouthernChap]

Okay, maybe it's because I come from a European cultural background, but this feels not that far off putting in punji traps to keep local kids off a front lawn.

Maybe the corner is such that it's impossible to gain enough speed to be dangerous, were the driver to hit your rock when going round that corner.

However, I've seen enough car wrecks wrapped around trees or in ditches on corners where you'd have to be crazy to go the speed the damage to the cars suggests the most plausible explanation was that the driver simply was unaware of the road ahead (which meant, of course, they were still going too fast, in any case). So I reckon that justification is out.

Now, it's one thing for there to be a pre-existing 'barrier' of some sort (say the rock was already there or there was already a very solid wall), and be thankful it deters people cutting the corner or more relevant to my point, see some idiot come a cropper on it and feel sad that there was a crash because of the combination of someone else's actions and the pre-existing 'barrier'.

It's quite another to deliberately put a feature in that could result in someone's injury or worse. Honestly, even if that feature only ever just damages vehicles, you could be causing a life event that could have serious knock on consequences for that person (and in these days of litigation, maybe even possible knock-on consequences for you, too).

"That person should have been more careful then"

Well yes, they should have, but so should we all.

All of us at some point will have, through inattention, tiredness, stress, or plain (often momentary) laziness, done something inconsiderate, stupid and sometimes dangerous in our vehicles.

There's a reason new road signs and street lights in the UK these days tend to be built to fail and crumple when involved in a collision.

Most of the the time, the angels (metaphorically speaking) that are tasked with looking after people behaving like an idiot (and pretty much all of us behave like idiots at some point, and most of us have behaved that way often enough for it not to be a once in a lifetime thing) just tut, shake their heads, and let us get away with it, with no consequence.

But not all the time.

How are you going to feel if, for whatever reason, someone has a crash on that rock that you have placed there deliberately, that seriously injures them or worse cripples them, or even worse kills them?

What if that person is not the driver, but a passenger who has no part in making the bad choices that lead to the crash. What if that person is a child passenger or an elderly person?

Sure, you want your frontage to look the way you want it, but do you want that enough to ignore the risk of causing those kinds of consequences?

Stupidity or inconsideration (especially the temporary sort) is tiresome, and sometimes enraging, but it's not a capital crime.

Maybe the difficulty getting your vehicle destroying rock is God, Yahweh, Allah, Providence or the universe (delete as applicable) telling you this isn't a good idea.

The earth berm is the best solution I've seen so far, but it does need to be built such that it wouldn't likely flip a vehicle (sensible due diligence here would be reasonable enough, but the more precautionary effort the better).

Honestly mate, I get that every time you see tyre tracks across your property, it must make the contents of your bladder boil, (in your situation I'd be like a locomotive at full chat), but you have to ask yourself: "am I callous enough to ignore the potential consequences of my current plan?".

 

[WobblyHand]

Okay, maybe it's because I come from a European cultural background, but this feels not that far off putting in punji traps to keep local kids off a front lawn.

Maybe the corner is such that it's impossible to gain enough speed to be dangerous, were the driver to hit your rock when going round that corner.

However, I've seen enough car wrecks wrapped around trees or in ditches on corners where you'd have to be crazy to go the speed the damage to the cars suggested so the moat plausible explanation was that the driver simply was unaware of the road ahead (which meant, of course, they were still going too fast, in any case). So I reckon that justification is out.

Now, it's one thing for there to be a pre-existing 'barrier' of some sort (say the rock was already there or there was already a very solid wall), and be thankful it deters people cutting the corner or more relevant to my point, see some idiot come a cropper on it and feel sad that there was a crash because of the combination of someone else's actions and the pre-existing 'barrier'.

It's quite another to deliberately put a feature in that could result in someone's injury or worse. Honestly, even if that feature only ever just damages vehicles, you could be causing a life event that could have serious knock on consequences for that person (and in these days of litigation, maybe even possible knock-on consequences for you, too).

"That person should have been more careful then"

Well yes, they should have, but so should we all.

All of us at some point will have, through inattention, tiredness, stress, or plain (often momentary) laziness, done something inconsiderate, stupid and sometimes dangerous in our vehicles.

There's a reason new road signs and street lights in the UK these days tend to be built to fail and crumple when involved in a collision.

Most of the the time, the angels (metaphorically speaking) that are tasked with looking after people behaving like an idiot (and pretty much all of us behave like idiots at some point, and most of us have behaved that way often enough for it not to be a once in a lifetime thing) just tut, shake their heads, and let us get away with it, with no consequence.

But not all the time.

How are you going to feel if, for whatever reason, someone has a crash on that rock that you have placed there deliberately, that seriously injures them or worse cripples them, or even worse kills them?

What if that person is not the driver, but a passenger who has no part in making the bad choices that lead to the crash. What if that person is a child passenger or an elderly person?

Sure, you want your frontage to look the way you want it, but do you want that enough to ignore the risk of causing those kinds of consequences?

Stupidity or inconsideration (especially the temporary sort) is tiresome, and sometimes enraging, but it's not a capital crime.

Maybe the difficulty getting your vehicle destroying rock is God, Yahweh, Allah, Providence or the universe (delete as applicable) telling you this isn't a good idea.

The earth berm is the best solution I've seen so far, but it does need to be built such that it wouldn't likely flip a vehicle (sensible due diligence here would be reasonable enough, but the more precautionary effort the better).

Honestly mate, I get that every time you see tyre tracks across your property, it must make the contents of your bladder boil, (in your situation I'd be like a locomotive at full chat), but you have to ask yourself: "am I callous enough to ignore the potential consequences of my current plan?".

I hear what you are saying, but after an incident or two, I'd be pretty much doing the same, putting up a protective barrier of some sort. Maybe I'd ask the local government to put up a sign, maybe not. Allowing someone to crash through your home just doesn't make sense. People have to drive safely or bear the consequences. It's that personal responsibility thing.

There's a house nearby me on a curve of the road. They have put up a sturdy low barrier fence and 35 reflectors at staggered heights to warn people. I'm sure that was put up to avoid car/home crashes. Personally I wouldn't live at that house, but maybe they bought the home when people drove sedately through neighborhoods and weren't looking at their cell phones. But times changed. So they put up a barrier. I would have too

 

[Ultradog MN]

Okay, maybe it's because I come from a European cultural background, but this feels not that far off putting in punji traps to keep local kids off a front lawn.

Maybe the corner is such that it's impossible to gain enough speed to be dangerous, were the driver to hit your rock when going round that corner.

However, I've seen enough car wrecks wrapped around trees or in ditches on corners where you'd have to be crazy to go the speed the damage to the cars suggested so the moat plausible explanation was that the driver simply was unaware of the road ahead (which meant, of course, they were still going too fast, in any case). So I reckon that justification is out.

Now, it's one thing for there to be a pre-existing 'barrier' of some sort (say the rock was already there or there was already a very solid wall), and be thankful it deters people cutting the corner or more relevant to my point, see some idiot come a cropper on it and feel sad that there was a crash because of the combination of someone else's actions and the pre-existing 'barrier'.

It's quite another to deliberately put a feature in that could result in someone's injury or worse. Honestly, even if that feature only ever just damages vehicles, you could be causing a life event that could have serious knock on consequences for that person (and in these days of litigation, maybe even possible knock-on consequences for you, too).

"That person should have been more careful then"

Well yes, they should have, but so should we all.

All of us at some point will have, through inattention, tiredness, stress, or plain (often momentary) laziness, done something inconsiderate, stupid and sometimes dangerous in our vehicles.

There's a reason new road signs and street lights in the UK these days tend to be built to fail and crumple when involved in a collision.

Most of the the time, the angels (metaphorically speaking) that are tasked with looking after people behaving like an idiot (and pretty much all of us behave like idiots at some point, and most of us have behaved that way often enough for it not to be a once in a lifetime thing) just tut, shake their heads, and let us get away with it, with no consequence.

But not all the time.

How are you going to feel if, for whatever reason, someone has a crash on that rock that you have placed there deliberately, that seriously injures them or worse cripples them, or even worse kills them?

What if that person is not the driver, but a passenger who has no part in making the bad choices that lead to the crash. What if that person is a child passenger or an elderly person?

Sure, you want your frontage to look the way you want it, but do you want that enough to ignore the risk of causing those kinds of consequences?

Stupidity or inconsideration (especially the temporary sort) is tiresome, and sometimes enraging, but it's not a capital crime.

Maybe the difficulty getting your vehicle destroying rock is God, Yahweh, Allah, Providence or the universe (delete as applicable) telling you this isn't a good idea.

The earth berm is the best solution I've seen so far, but it does need to be built such that it wouldn't likely flip a vehicle (sensible due diligence here would be reasonable enough, but the more precautionary effort the better).

Honestly mate, I get that every time you see tyre tracks across your property, it must make the contents of your bladder boil, (in your situation I'd be like a locomotive at full chat), but you have to ask yourself: "am I callous enough to ignore the potential consequences of my current plan?".

I think my responsibility to my neighbors ends at my property lines.
I sold a piece of steel plate on Friday. 1/2" thick, about 5' x 6'. I told the buyer on the phone that if I did not approve of his method of hauling it I would not load it.
He agreed. He had a decent trailer and several rachet straps to hold it down. I donated some 4' scraps of 2x4 and screwed them down with 3" deck screws so the plate wouldn't slide around.
I didn't nanny wag him or tell him to be careful before he left. I assumed he was as smart - and safe as I am and knows It is his responsibility from there on out.
If I lived on a curve in the road, I would have no qualms about putting up a huge rock barrier to prevent idiots from hitting my house. In Washington DC they installed impenetrable barriers on the streets leading to the White House for the same purpose.

 

[woodchucker]

Now, it's one thing for there to be a pre-existing 'barrier' of some sort (say the rock was already there or there was already a very solid wall), and be thankful it deters people cutting the corner or more relevant to my point, see some idiot come a cropper on it and feel sad that there was a crash because of the combination of someone else's actions and the pre-existing 'barrier'.

It's quite another to deliberately put a feature in that could result in someone's injury or worse. Honestly, even if that feature only ever just damages vehicles, you could be causing a life event that could have serious knock on consequences for that person (and in these days of litigation, maybe even possible knock-on consequences for you, too).

So lets say someone hits your house and kills you inside.
Or someone takes out your house while you are not home.

Nope, putting up a rock is self defense. It's not like he's putting poles up right on the border of the road.. Those are dumb. I've seen them, and they don't allow for any avoidance at all.

 

[SouthernChap]

I hear what you are saying, but after an incident or two, I'd be pretty much doing the same, putting up a protective barrier of some sort. Maybe I'd ask the local government to put up a sign, maybe not. Allowing someone to crash through your home just doesn't make sense. People have to drive safely or bear the consequences. It's that personal responsibility thing.

There's a house nearby me on a curve of the road. They have put up a sturdy low barrier fence and 35 reflectors at staggered heights to warn people. I'm sure that was put up to avoid car/home crashes. Personally I wouldn't live at that house, but maybe they bought the home when people drove sedately through neighborhoods and weren't looking at their cell phones. But times changed. So they put up a barrier. I would have too

Depending on the barrier, that may well be a rather different kettle of fish to a big ton rock, though.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying people should bend over backwards and/or put their home or their families at risk, just to ensure reckless drivers can avoid any consequences of their actions.

But we're all responsible for the consequences of our actions, not just reckless drivers, and choosing, intentionally, to create a barrier (in this case, an immovable massive rock) that is much more likely to lead to life-changing (or even life-ending) consequences for the driver, seems to me to be a form of negligence that is even less justifiable than reckless driving.

Like I said, even in the States, non-intentional reckless driving isn't generally punished with the death penalty.

Then there's the plain fact that it would be a risky assumption that any crash that might occur, would always be due to negligent recklessness. There's always momentary incompetence, or momentary distraction, even mechanical failure.

Even if a given crash was due to negligent driving, living with a decision that one had made, that had contributed to the death or permanent disablement to someone would, for me at least, be a tough burden to carry.

Who knows, maybe that person had always previously been a considerate, sensible driver, but was acting out of character due to some seriously traumatising life event?

Okay, we're into ifs and buts here, but risk is not just made up of one factor; the probability is one factor sure, but there's also the severity of the outcome.

I dread to think how I would feel, if it was a passenger who was permanently disabled or killed.

I'm definitely not saying nothing should be done, but given the OP has at least some time to reflect and work out something that might lead to less risk for the inhabitants of the vehicle (driver and passengers; the latter likely not being culpable for any crash), I'd argue they have the responsibility to find a solution that won't potentially kill or permanently disable.

I'm not completely some bleeding heart softie (for example, I do have some sympathy for the "when seconds count, the police are minutes away" argument that gun owners in the US offer for owning firearms for protecting their families), but the OP's idea seems to me to be a bad, potentially disproportionate solution, born out of understandable frustration, not out of the calm, considered problem solving that the OP has the time to do.

 

[Boswell]

I wonder if there is a compromise.
You put up the immoveable barrier on your property
Talk to city/county planners to put up some extra reflectors and signage to make people even more aware of the danger.

 

[matthewsx]

@Flyinfool Have you discussed the situation with your county road commission?

John