I am beginning to appreciate stump grinders

[skyking]

My friend said he had a few stumps to get out. Sure, I said. No problem.
I get out there to find he had cut down all the 150' firs next to his house. Really healthy trees with massive root systems in good soil. Fack!
I took a small one out that night and got a taste of what I would be up against. It did not go quietly.
I took out two last night and it was a solid hour and a half. Originally I fitted the 3' bucket, as it meshes with the 4 tine thumb. Screw that! I am putting on the 2' bucket with tiger teeth. It will be a better root destroyer.


I will save this 38" monster for Sunday. I hope it breaks in two as there is no way I can pick it. I will have to roll it to the destination.

 

[marvdmartian]

Yep, stump grinder would be the way to go.....though with 150 of them, it still wouldn't go fast! One advantage they have, is that you're putting all that good biological material back into the dirt. 👍

 

[pcgeek11]

Yep, stump grinder would be the way to go.....though with 150 of them, it still wouldn't go fast! One advantage they have, is that you're putting all that good biological material back into the dirt. 👍

The way I read that was:

They were 150 foot tall trees.

Not 150 trees. He didn't say how many trees.

 

[skyking]

Yeah there's about 11 stumps. It's plenty.

 

[sdifox]

TNT. Lots of it

 

[skyking]

I couldn't wait, I had to take on that big stump. It shed about 3 pickup loads of roots for starters.

Luckily I got it to break.

I pried off two chunks, about half of it.

My calibrated butt dyno had the last piece at about 4000 pounds, after scraping a half ton of clay and rocks out of it.


All smoothed up and one stump left in the infield. Do not walk through there or take anything with wheels. The top 18" is a decent black soil, below that is tan clay with a whole winter's worth of rain stored in it. Once you touch it it goes to hell. Maybe August?

 

[skyking]

The plan was to finish the stumping and rough grading tomorrow, but it is likely to be the wettest day of the year with ~2" of rain. It would be a tactical error to open the earth up tomorrow.

 

[lxskllr]

Probably would have helped to leave you higher stumps, no?

 

[skyking]

no kidding. the logger did me no favors, but in truth that excavator is too small to take advantage of a taller stump. The only way I could lever those out is to use heel force.
That is when you get the cutting teeth under the stump or rock, and then roll the bucket.
it uses the heel of the bucket as the fulcrum point and can put about 6 times the force of a straight lift or pull.
if I had a 300 or 400, the tall stump would be enough on all but the biggest of those stumps.
As it was I could drag the 120 all over pulling on those stumps.

 

[Scarpozzi]

The guys that cut down my 30+ trees that lined my driveway had a monster grinder. They cut a large pin oak for me and they had to really dig deep with the grinder. The wheel was enormous and dug out a 2' deep pit that was solid wood. I ended up with a few truckloads of mulch.

 

[IronWing]

This is all a setup to convince your wife you need a masticator head.

 

[skyking]

I took out the last stump tonight. It was like an iceberg.
In this picture I am holding it by the bottom roots, the roots I can't cut or break with the bucket. They are protected by the stump itself.
All I could do is break all the big side roots, and then pry on the stubs of those roots with bucket heel force, and slowly extract that central root. It takes a while to wiggle it out.

 

[Micrornd]

Takes a good operator to do that with a 120 👍

 

[Brovane]

I just paid a guy on Monday to remove 15 stumps around my house with a grinder, $100 a stump. He had a nice stump grinder.

 

[Greenman]

Those little walk behind machines are amazing. I've used several over the years and was impressed every time.

 

[Brovane]

Those little walk behind machines are amazing. I've used several over the years and was impressed every time.

The Vermeer SC40 has a 40hp diesel engine. Lots of power to chew through those stumps. The machines are $50k brand new.

 

[Greenman]

The Vermeer SC40 has a 40hp diesel engine. Lots of power to chew through those stumps. The machines are $50k brand new.

I've looked at purchasing one several times over the years, but I couldn't justify the cost versus renting.

 

[Brovane]

I've looked at purchasing one several times over the years, but I couldn't justify the cost versus renting.

Considering the cost, I don't know how someone could justify the cost of owning one unless they either did side jobs of stump grinding or found one that was broken at a very low price and was able to repair.

 

[Greenman]

Considering the cost, I don't know how someone could justify the cost of owning one unless they either did side jobs of stump grinding or found one that was broken at a very low price and was able to repair.

I was a general contractor, and had use for one now and then. To own one and make it cost effective I would have had to set up another business with the proper insurance, a full time operator, and a truck to tow the thing around. I just didn't want to be in that business.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Stump Grinder Guy down the road wants $10 an inch of diameter ... 20" diameter, $200, but I'm not sure how deep he's willing to go for that rate.

I had about 20-30 stumps under 6", but he wanted more that I was willing to spend. Plus most were on a slope he wasn't sure he could operate on.

The small ones on the slope, I cut off to ground level, then crosshatched the surfaces with a saw to promote rot. I just mow over them now. The few bigger ones I dug out with my toy tractor mounted backhoe.

 

[skyking]

If you can dig down and low top them like that and don't need a perfect putting green of a lawn, that is cost effective. You can get a pickup load of soil every X number of years to top off the hole if/as it settles.

 

[lxskllr]

What I've heard(never tried) is wetting the top of the stump, covering it with powdered milk, then covering it with plastic will accelerate rot.

 

[skyking]

drilling a big hole in it with an auger helps too. You can also add some accelerant of choice to the hole, build a little brush fire on top on the weekend and keep it burning all weekend while you drink beer and hang around the yard. Bonus points if you direct a box fan at it.
The stump will recede at a formula of -2" per case of beer.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

But that requires caution and knowledge also. Under the right conditions, some roots will burn underground for considerable distances. If they find their way to the surface, you could have a brush fire a long ways off.

 

[skyking]

no. a common tree root does not extend much if at all past the tree's drip line. the fire does not leave the concentrated mass of the stump area very far.