Stump removal

[dlabrie]

"Wow, that's a heck of a stump for an FEL! Do you must approach it from different angles till it comes out or..?"

Yes. You can see the mound of dirt up by the house in the pict. I dig all the way around the stump, breaking roots as I go until I can lift it out.

My father-in-law tells me he has seen loggers with horses attatch a long post (like a telephone poll) to a stump with a chain and the horses are attached to the other end of the pole. Then they walk around the stump to twist it out.

Sounds like it should work, but I've never seen it.
David

 

[jdrotert]

David,
My dad told me the same story about twisting out stumps. They had horses long before tractors and used this method quite a lot!

 

[Soundguy]

That long pole is a heck of a torque multiplier.

Soundguy

 

[Youare]

Like all that has been said it depends a lot on several factors.

I know of one method that was used on some pine stumps 6 - 12" in diameter. A lagre truck rim was placed in front of the stump in edge. A chain was placed over the top of the rim down to a large root out of the stump and the other end was connected to a two wheel drive pick-up.

The ground was sandy loam with no large rocks. Some of the larger ones he had to dig around and cut the major roots below ground level before they would let go.

I have removed several large stumps by digging around them to expose the large roots cutting them off below ground level and then using a handy man's jack under one of the roots to jack the stump out of the ground. Works on the cut off roots too.

Unless you have small stumps, soft ground, and a large tractor hire a back hoe or excavator it is less expensive than damaging your tractor.

Randy

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Of course, years ago they used to pull stumps with pulleys hanging from beam tripods and horses. They used to say that if you looked at a field there was always one tree left usually on a fence row. The reason was that was the last stationary thing they could use to pull from with their pulleys...... Tom

 

[HelGen]

How many stumps? I had over 70, a variety of sizes from 6 to 30 inches in diameter. You can easily handle a few small ones with a tractor, axe, shovel, and time.

You can also burn out larger stumps by cutting an X in the top using the entire bar of your chainsaw and then soaking kerosene into the X. Knock the bottom out of a 55 gal drum and place it over the stump to burn. Keep throwing wood into the drum and you can burn it well down into the tap root over a 48 hour period. The metal from the drum will drive the heat back in on it. Only apply kerosene after a dry period when no rain is forecast otherwise you may contaminate the surrounding soil. Be careful. I have done this with no adverse effects, the stump will soak up the kerosene and it will burn off.

If you have a LOT of stumps, rent a stump grinder. You can grind them well below the soil surface. Get the biggest one with an articulated arm. The one I used had a plexiglass shield you stood behind so you could actually witness and control the destruction. It's interesting this post comes right before a three-day-federal-holiday weekend. The place I rented from is closed on Sundays. I rented on a holiday weekend so it was closed on Monday too. Policy was... show up on Saturday morning, return it the next time we're open, and we'll charge you for one day. I paid the one day $125 fee and got the thing for three days. No more stumps. Of course 10 years from now I'll probably be buying a load of dirt to fill in sink holes... but that's a project 10 years down the road.

Gene

 

[centex]

Does anyone know of a site where I can see a picture of a stump grinder? Are they 3 attachments or stand alone implements?

 

[DocHeb]

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.bluebirdintl.com/products/stumpgrinder/index.html>Bluebird - self contained, mobile light-duty machine</A>

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.easternfarmmachinery.com/scripts/catalog.pl?F=H&K=Catalog%3ATurf%20%26%20Landscape%3AStump%20Grinder&V=Brief&R=H%2FCatalog%3ATurf%20%26%20Landscape&ID=100921385924304567>Shaver PTO and Skidsteer Mount, at Eastern Farm Machinery with prices</A>

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.shavermfg.com/stumpbuster.htm>The Shaver web page </A>

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.stumpster.com/3000.html>The Stumpster 3000, with prices </A>

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.stumpster.com/4000.html>The Stumpster 4000, with prices </A>

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.wikco.com/Stump.html>Wilko Stump Grinder, looking a lot like a Shaver</A>

 

[turnkey4099]

Of course the right way is to use dynamite. My old man was a ?master? at it. All his life, no matter what the job, he believed that if a little was good, a lot was much better. When he was blowing stumps it was best to clear out of the county. There were some bennies tho, wasn't much clean-up involved, just pick up some of the bigger splinters! I don't think he ever did find out that you could cut sticks down, his minimum charge was a full stick. There were some bennies tho, wasn't much clean-up involved, just pick up some of the bigger splinters!

Harry K

 

[centex]

Thanks for the links. These things look pretty simple but the prices are astounding. I may have to build
one.