Anyone know of Worksaver Implements

[SCRich]

Can anyone give me input on the Worksaver Brand of tractor implements. They seem to have quite a selection and most of all they are the first people that I have seen with a stump grinder for a tractor.

Worksaver PTO Powered Stump Grinder

Grinders are expensive to rent and I have a few hundred stumps to clean up. I don't think the BH my L3400 can handle would be much help with most of the stumps so maybe this is the way to go. If I can clean up the trails enough to have some dirt over the stumps just to plant grass I would be happy.

They actually seem to have most every implement I need but of course do not have the money for. I would love to have one of these rollers also.

Worksaver Roller Conditioner

 

[Z-Michigan]

Worksaver appears to be a good mid-priced line. I'm impressed with their broad lineup. Only item I have seen in person is a 84" heavy duty box blade they made, which was being sold as Frontier equipment (Frontier buys from all sorts of manufacturers). Quality seemed pretty good, but not IMHO quite as good as Woods.* The green paint and Frontier sticker drove the price up to equal a Woods 84", so I wasn't going to buy that one. But I imagine prices are better without green paint, and the quality looked perfectly functional.

*Until recently I would have said Woods and Landpride, but having just bent a Landpride implement that was rated for my tractor HP and not being used very hard, I'm reserving judgement on Landpride.

 

[SCRich]

Well not an awful lot of replies so it's either good weather in other parts of the country or not too many people know of them. All I know is that I saw an Ad in Grit yesterday while I was paging through at TSC. Never see ad's for stump grinders so it caught my eye.

Late last night I did a quick search and did see one web site advertising them for $5,100. A bit steep but may just need to do that in a few months. I'll try all other possibilities first but out of expensive implements I think this one I would get my money out of!

 

[wushaw]

How big are the stumps are we talking about?
Do you already have the BH? If not I can understand the purchace of the stump grinder if you don't have other purposes for a BH.
I have the BH75 I use on my L2800 that has dug up several hundred stumps.

 

[SCRich]

The stumps range all over the place it is pine timber land. I would like a BH but everyone has told me that the BH on a L3400 would not do me much good for stumps. I can use it to trench for water and electrical but once most of that is done the BH may be very underused. A local rental shop has a 3400 with a BH for rent at $240 a day, I think for my trenching that may be a worthwhile option.

Here are a couple of shots to give you an idea of the stumps. The photo does make those pulled up stumps look smaller than what they are. The one photo was after my grading guy finished. He did about 1.5 acres of de-stumping and grading as you can see for $1500 with his dozer, still has a bit of cleanup to do this week. It would be impossible to have him clean up all of my logging trails at that cost. The bottom photo is typical of my trails and I got about 2-3 miles worth zig zaging the 27 acres. This shot is a bit more narrow than most trails and I can sometimes walk most portions by leap frogging from one stump to another.

My thought would be to grind the large ones, cut the small ones then chop the end and drench in round up, later on possibly drill and fill with some sulfur based product to speed up the rotting. Burning would be close to impossible since there are so many along the trails. If I can get them low enough where the soil will not compact and re-expose the stump I would be happy. Grinding and filling with dirt then planting seed is my primary plan. Firebreak for the home and a natural trail for all the deer.

 

[IslandTractor]

The stumps range all over the place it is pine timber land. I would like a BH but everyone has told me that the BH on a L3400 would not do me much good for stumps. I can use it to trench for water and electrical but once most of that is done the BH may be very underused. A local rental shop has a 3400 with a BH for rent at $240 a day, I think for my trenching that may be a worthwhile option.

Not sure I agree that you would be better off renting rather than buying a backhoe. I pull up stumps the size of the ones in your photo with a 20hp tractor TLB quite efficiently. I would imagine the L3400 can handle at least a 6 and probably 7 or even 8 foot BH. The economics of renting a BH if you have a project that takes more than a day or two just don't make sense if you already have a tractor. Buy the BH, use it and when you are all done consider selling it. Your total cost will likely be no more than 4-5 days BH rental and you will have the convenience of having your own.

 

[SCRich]

That is very good input, thanks for the thoughts, I need more of that "real world" expirience.

I have had people tell me unless I do something like JD 110 the BH will not be worthwhile for my work, but I have had one or two people say that it can be done with smaller ones. I am sure it can be done with a lot of extra effort, digging the perimiter waiting for some rain, hopefully having a bit of "meat" to grab on to and then poping it out. Or maybe it will not be as tough, it's a $7K gamble I am trying to be smart about.

The one thing that applies to many of us that may not apply to all is the soil. We have a compacted sticky clay soil. Think of grade school when in art class you were handed a block of clay. If you can get past the dry cement like top layer and get a spade in what you come out with are slices of damp, moist, sticky clay. I am sure that has a lot to do with 2 people in different parts of the country being able to use the same equipment to pull out stumps or not. In Florida you can cut the roots with an axe on a pine tree after digging a bit, tilt the stump over use a chain saw to cut the main root and pull the stump away with your lawn tractor. A BH over there I think can do a world more than a BH in GA, AL or the Carolinas.

If I hear or see some others with similar sized tractors in this area able to do what I am trying to do I may just take the risk in a couple of months and buy it. I just want to be careful now with costs till' I figure out what the morgage will be on the house. We are paying mostly cash and will not know exactly how much our monthly payments will be till' we get close to the end and decide to shut down the flood gates on the savings account and move to a morgage. This is raw land, unexpected costs come up all the time since it's not a cookie cutter house or piece of land. Don't know what we are dealing with till' the job is started.

 

[Z-Michigan]

A local rental shop has a 3400 with a BH for rent at $240 a day, I think for my trenching that may be a worthwhile option.

Sounds pricey to me. A local Kubota dealer will rent an L39 for $195/day, and the L39 has far more capability than an L3400 with an add-on hoe. In my area it seems that a fair number of Kubota dealers also do rentals. If you could rent an L48 (and assuming renting makes sense) that would have even more power.

Also, some of the big car rental places like Hertz also have equipment rental chains (usually different stores). I have seen prices in the $200-250 range quoted for rental of backhoes in the JD110-210 classes (yes, I realize there is a big jump in size from the 110 to the 210). Again, far more capability than L3400 would have.

 

[SCRich]

I will have to look into it some more, the one quote I got was just from a local renter that happened to purchase a BH and 3400 from my dealer recently. I stopped by to see if he would rent just the BH, in that case I would have bought the sub-frame and had it installed at initial purchase. He was not willing just to rent that so I passed on the sub-frame.

Once I have all of that fuel cleared from the trails (real fire hazzard at this time) or the house is almost at completion and I need a gate opener or power at the road I'll get my nose to the grinder and call around. We have Hertz and Sunbelt somewhat close by. I would also have to have a delivery charge since my trailer will not handle a large tractor nor would my 200K mile Dodge 1500.

 

[IslandTractor]

This is what a 21hp tractor and 6.5ft backhoe can pull out of the ground. These were all pulled out in a long afternoon. Soil was rather sandy which helped and the stumps did not have long tap roots but still, I think you can see that a TLB can get quite a lot done in the stump pulling arena.