Stumps - What to rent?

[Farwell]

I like some of the revived threads and there is always something new to add or learn from. I found that it is much cheaper to pay to have my stumps ground, if I have a lot of them it costs me $10 per stump and that is cheaper than the types that are available to rent locally that are a little bigger than a rototiller and work a person to death. The guy I hire has a large hydraulic unit that grinds the stumps to 18 inches below grade.

[Redbug]

Hi Farwell,

That is really a good deal. I did not know a stump could be ground 18" down. That far down and you could disk the area, (going slow the first time), after cleaning up the limbs and debris. That would be cheaper than using a dozier or trackhoe.

[Farwell]

Dave,
On most stumps ground down to the 18 inch level frees most of the large roots for a much easier removal if this needs to be done and it may help the roots decay faster as well. I am able to run my drag set at the lowest level and "most" of the time miss many of the roots near where the stump was.
I have watched neighbors use the rental rototiller size stump grinder and am amazed at the labor and time involved. They are great if you have a few stumps to grind and they are not real large.

[curly]

We have a guy around here that works at the post office. He will grind your stumps for $30 a stump. I had him grind 2 big ones last year and I have 3 more this year that I'll be calling him on.