Root ripper ?

   / Root ripper ? #1  

Slackdaddy

Gold Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2007
Messages
322
Location
Land of the Free
Tractor
Kioti CK20HST
I was digging out stumps a few years back with the case 580 backhoe/16"
All where Red and White oak up to 3' dia.
On the larger ones I would spend up to 45 min tearing the roots apart with the bucket, You would have to work around tearing through most of the roots before popping it. I always had a hard time tearing through some roots, I could never angle the bucket just right as to catch a root with one end tooth to tear through it.

I always thought that I could take some 1" plate steel and make a large curved "claw" about 2' long and sharpen it, Fab some pivots so as to use it in place of the bucket, this would be a good root ripper ?
does any one make something like this ?

Nick
 
   / Root ripper ? #4  
I would think that a modified middle buster on the 3pt would work. Circle the stump a few times then try and pop it out with the FEL. There are narrow root buckets for FEL's.

jb
 
   / Root ripper ? #6  
My FIL fabbed up a 3pt ripper tooth from a ripper shank on an old (50's vintage) Cat motorgrader.

It's about 30"-36" tall and it works great as a trencher to bury small electrical wire (Romex) or water tubing.

It's got a beveled edge and cuts roots fairly well. Long story short --- I thought I could use it to speed up the stump removal process, too.

NOT! The thicker roots would stall me out and I'd loose traction with my JD 970 (around 3,800 lbs with FEL).

Well, not one to be deterred by some pesky roots --- I used another gear and more fuel!!

Wrong move... After I rewelded the top-link end that snapped off and rebuilt the 3/8" flat straps that the top pin goes thru on the ripper tooth; I put the ripper in the shop and hooked up the backhoe.

Throttle set at 2,000 rpm and 30 minutes later the stump is out of the ground and the rear axle housing is still in one piece.

AKfish
 
   / Root ripper ? #7  
AKfish said:
It's got a beveled edge and cuts roots fairly well. Long story short --- I thought I could use it to speed up the stump removal process, too.

NOT! The thicker roots would stall me out and I'd loose traction with my JD 970 (around 3,800 lbs with FEL).

Well, not one to be deterred by some pesky roots --- I used another gear and more fuel!!

Wrong move... After I rewelded the top-link end that snapped off and rebuilt the 3/8" flat straps that the top pin goes thru on the ripper tooth; I put the ripper in the shop and hooked up the backhoe.

Throttle set at 2,000 rpm and 30 minutes later the stump is out of the ground and the rear axle housing is still in one piece.

AKfish
The advantage of putting one of these in place of the BH bucket is if you sharpen the front edge and run into a tough root you can try and saw through it. And from my understanding it will leave a smaller hole to fill than if you used the BH bucket to dig everything up.
I'm waiting for mine to get done to find out for my self.

Wedge
 
   / Root ripper ? #8  
What about using a sub soiler on smaller tree stumps. I am about to use a subsoiler to run 1" water pipe and will also try and pop out a few small (6" or less) stumps.
 
   / Root ripper ? #9  
Slackdaddy said:
I was digging out stumps a few years back with the case 580 backhoe/16"
All where Red and White oak up to 3' dia.
On the larger ones I would spend up to 45 min tearing the roots apart with the bucket, You would have to work around tearing through most of the roots before popping it. I always had a hard time tearing through some roots, I could never angle the bucket just right as to catch a root with one end tooth to tear through it.

I always thought that I could take some 1" plate steel and make a large curved "claw" about 2' long and sharpen it, Fab some pivots so as to use it in place of the bucket, this would be a good root ripper ?
does any one make something like this ?

Nick

Nick,
Look at a frost tooth. It would do what you are looking to do.
 
   / Root ripper ? #10  
Nick I'm not sure how big your BH is, but every now and then they have used frost rippers on Ebay. The last one I saw went for about $175.00. I believe it weighed around 150lbs. I'm guessing too big for you but you can watch.

Also I have posted plans of what I'm having made here on TBN. The shank will be made from 1" plate and around 20" long with a curved edge. I'm also having a bucket tooth attached to the end. I took my bucket to the welder so he could duplicate the hookup to the backhoe.

Wedge
 
 
 
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