Stump grinder

[RalphVa]

The wife was down below again, marking stumps. She bought another 100 flags and used them all up! Must be 200 stumps, mostly small ones, that we have to remove to be able to bush hog without keeping jamming them.

Looking at buy vs. rental. Best buy seems to be the WM 24" one that goes on the PTO for $2,400. Experience with this one? First shipment not until near end of the year.

Can buy a pull behind one for about $1,700 but would have to pull to near the stump, unhitch and then muscle the thing around to the stump and then muscle it back and forth, etc. to cut the stump. Don't think I can do it.

Can rent a big one (think it's a Vermeer SC30TX) for about $1,100 for a week. Guessing it would take a week of constant running for the 2 to 4 hours/day that I'd be able to work it. Experience with this one?

Gotta clear out a lot of tree parts and chip up some stuff first to get it all out of the way. So, year end start is about right. First, gotta get my tractor back from JD shop.

Ralph

 

[4570Man]

I’d buy one to go on the back of your tractor. I have no experience with one but they seem to work fairly well. Any self contained unit that’s not self propelled is going to lead to disappointment.

 

[LittleBill21]

 

[LittleBill21]

Baumalight 3 Point Hitch Stump Grinder - 1P24

www.shopgreendealer.com

 

[RalphVa]

This Bauma Light one seems to be almost identical to the WM one but about $500 more.

 

[mcfarmall]

I'm a rental fanboy. I rent a tracked Vermeer walk-behind unit for a weekend and run it dawn to dusk for $325 and took out more 18" stumps than I could keep track of, countless smaller ones and chased dozens of deck-killer roots across the yard.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

My Land Pride stump grinder is a beast. Look it up on you tube

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[Sawyer Rob]

I bought the Woodland Mills WG24 and I'm glad I did...

I have it on a 45 pto hp tractor with creep gears. It works just fine, although it wouldn't be much fun on a small tractor...

SR

 

[JCoastie]

I have the WG24, have done 250+ stumps, mostly small like yours seem to be, though there were some good size ones too, don't get me wrong, almost all pine, so soft wood. We started with the flags like you did, after 150 we just went with sticks we found in the yard to mark things. With the flags, doing the grinding myself, it meant I had to get on/off the tractor every single time to get the flag before grinding every darn stump. That was a lot of extra effort.
Owning it means you can grind at your leisure, you aren't racing a clock, and with that many, you are going to keep finding them. I mark them during the week, as we walk the property and grind them on the weekends, the new puppy has been pulling my marking sticks out the ground though lol

 

[Captain Dirty]

There are a great many threads on stumpgrinders; due diligence requires you read them, a daunting task. If I may summarize my own findings, the Woodland Mills is the smallest grinder most would consider. Many, who presumably did their research, are satisfied with what they have, but it is what they decided to buy and probably the only one they have experience with. Most of those who moved up to a heavier, more powerful tractor or larger grinder and powered it with a bigger machine opine they would never go back to the original "'underpowered" set-up.

In your original post you did not say how big "small" stumps were. Your profile says you have a JD2025R, about 20hp at the PTO and 1600 lbs. The rotary cutters that tractor will power will probably "jam" on a stump greater than 2". Could you dig or pull such a stump with a scarifying shank or with a spade or even a toothbar on a FEL? If "small" stumps are 6-10" in diameter grinding those with your tractor would be unpleasant and problematic. I have a
Quick Attach 25" hydraulically slewed and raised stump grinder on a 32hp, 5500 lb (+700 lbs for the grinder) tractor, and it bucks and bogs down on 10-12" stumps unless I take small passes at slow slewing speeds.

 

[Captain Dirty]

While there is great satisfaction in doing your own work yourself, you may be able to assign a value to the more immediate gratification of hiring the stump removal out to someone with the equipment to do it quickly--a larger brush hog that could mow the stumps below the level that would affect yours, a mulcher or stump grinder to do the same, a bulldozer with scarifiers or root rake, an excavator with ripper tooth. Ask around; hiring it out might be a viable solution, or it might not.

 

[bigtiller]

Can rent a big one (think it's a Vermeer SC30TX) for about $1,100 for a week. Guessing it would take a week of constant running for the 2 to 4 hours/day that I'd be able to work it. Experience with this one?

Gotta clear out a lot of tree parts and chip up some stuff first to get it all out of the way. So, year end start is about right. First, gotta get my tractor back from JD shop.

Ralph

That's the way to go.
I hired a guy with a Vermeer SC372 to grind some 40 inch black walnut stumps. It took him about 10 minutes per stump and he ground them down about 12" below grade.

 

[4570Man]

That's the way to go.
I hired a guy with a Vermeer SC372 to grind some 40 inch black walnut stumps. It took him about 10 minutes per stump and he ground them down about 12" below grade.

The stump grinder he’s proposing renting is a baby. It’s way out of its league on 40” stumps. 12” stumps is more like it. I’ve never used a 3 point stump grinder but I have used the rental unit in discussion. I’d buy the PTO model hands down even if I just had a 20 hp tractor.

 

[Jims1025R]

If "small" stumps are 6-10" in diameter grinding those with your tractor would be unpleasant and problematic.

I'm still on the learning side of stump grinding. Last year I bought a 5HP walk behind, and was very pleased with what it would do. It handled a 10" ironwood stump no problem with patience, and went through cedar stumps of the same size with no difficulty. Unhappily, the stump grinder (along with most of the rest of my equipment) was damaged by fire, so I'm rebuilding. The stump grinder engine was ruined, so I'm going to modify its chassis and drive to be a three point mount PTO driven instead. It'll be a power increase anyway... Next summer will tell....

 

[bud70706]

The wife was down below again, marking stumps. She bought another 100 flags and used them all up! Must be 200 stumps, mostly small ones, that we have to remove to be able to bush hog without keeping jamming them.

Looking at buy vs. rental. Best buy seems to be the WM 24" one that goes on the PTO for $2,400. Experience with this one? First shipment not until near end of the year.

Can buy a pull behind one for about $1,700 but would have to pull to near the stump, unhitch and then muscle the thing around to the stump and then muscle it back and forth, etc. to cut the stump. Don't think I can do it.

Can rent a big one (think it's a Vermeer SC30TX) for about $1,100 for a week. Guessing it would take a week of constant running for the 2 to 4 hours/day that I'd be able to work it. Experience with this one?

Gotta clear out a lot of tree parts and chip up some stuff first to get it all out of the way. So, year end start is about right. First, gotta get my tractor back from JD shop.

Ralph

I own a WM 24. Great tool. I have ground over 50 oak stumps 12' to 30", Over 40 pines 18" plus and too many sweet gums and boxwood stobs & stumps to count. Had mine for 2 years and haven't had to change teeth yet. Run it on a JD3046R

 

[dadohead]

I own a WM 24. Great tool. I have ground over 50 oak stumps 12' to 30", Over 40 pines 18" plus and too many sweet gums and boxwood stobs & stumps to count. Had mine for 2 years and haven't had to change teeth yet. Run it on a JD3046R

Good to know. I've been hiring it done for the last two Springs. Had 40 Ash stumps ground this year 12"-36". The tree service had two machines (a stand on Vermeer and a big dog pulled behind a medium duty truck) at my place for 6 hrs. Cost $800. I would love to do it myself but am concerned with breaking my tractor (JD2520). Just seems too small for the job and I NEED it up for everything else. The cost of moving up on the tractor and implements seem prohibitive (and I hate the idea of dealing with tier 4)... so I hire pros.

Anybody grind with a 2000 series size machine?

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

There is One that is hydraulic and saw motor is pushed back with hydraulics. No getting on off tractor. Made by a sole proprietor that makes on demand. Uses a saw blade like a hydro axe to saw off below ground. Replaceable carbide teeth. Back up to stump, set unit on ground, ease lever back, move to next stump. You could find a logger and get him to cut them off. They cut them off below grade where they drive anyway. My brother has a bell feller buncher with a pincher head that cuts low.

 

[oosik]

Brings back REALLY OLD memories of stump removal. Just after WW2 and we were living in a small rental house. All the surrounding property was apple orchards.

The orchardist was replacing old sections of apple trees that year. He would come over in the evening with a gallon of fresh cider and let our family know that tomorrow he would be removing more trees.

My mom would try to keep me indoors the next day. The old man would use dynamite on the stumps he couldn't pull with his tractor.

This was like trying to keep a kid away from the candy store. I can still remember how exciting it was. He never used a lot of dynamite. Just enough to loosen the stump. Then chain it up to the tractor and jerk it out of the ground.

 

[rademamj1]

I removed approximately 450 stumps over last 3 years, using a Woods PTO stump grinder. Many stumps were 12" to 30" in diameter, and appeared to be mainly lightning killed trees over a 50 year period. These take 30mins grinding and are fun to remove.

But a large majority of those stumps were in the 3" to 4" range, early growth trees, which needed removal for bush hogging the area. These small ones take 5 mins positioning and 5 mins grinding, but they are a major nuisance.

 

[mxr662]

I rented a Vermeer walk behind. Got rid of a very large fresh Eucalyptus and quite a few others. Four hour rental. But I ran it non stop. Sunbelt rental here gives you 8 hours on the meter for Friday-Monday at a one day charge. If you rent, get the one that drives around, not the one you have to push.