Bro-Tek Ripper and Stumps

RayCo · Apr 24, 2008

I have dozens of stumps that I've slowly been digging up with my BX24. The stumps are from tulip poplar trees about 60 feet tall, but they're surprisingly small considering the size of the trees - under 16" in diameter. But, they still take a few hours each to dig out - longer than I would have expected even after having a fair amount of backhoe experience now. I live on the side of a mountain, so there are often long roots going uphill (not sure how the tree knows it's on a hill or why it matters since the stump is underground though). For a number of these roots, I've just wound up chainsawing the biggest roots to free up the stump.

So, my question is for those who have the Bro-Tek ripper tooth. Is it a worthwhile investment? Will it save me a good deal of time. It doesn't really take long to dig out around the stump and expose the roots, so I'm thinking that I could expose half a dozen stumps, swap the ripper for the bucket, and go back and cut up the roots. Is the ripper an effective tool? Also, does anyone know if I could then swing my Wallenstein thumb down and use it to pull the stumps out with the ripper tooth still on, or would the curve and narrowness of the ripper cause problems?

For the fun of it, I'm attaching a picture of a stump that seems to be beyond the limits of a subcompact. I can't even nudge this thing let alone move it! On its side like this, it's about 6 feet tall. It's still in my front yard, since the chain wrapped around it snapped right as it was time to stop to eat some steaks anyway. That's not my Case 580. My machine's a bit smaller.

Chuck K. · Apr 24, 2008

I bought a Bro-tek ripper tooth for my BH-75. I had previously dug up several good sized pine tree stumps with the BH bucket, it did a good job but left large holes that had to be back filled.

I installed the ripper tooth and went to work on a good sized pine tree and severed all the roots I could find. I did not remove any dirt with the bucket before hand. I also did not cut this tree down, there was little wind this particular day so I was not concerned about it blowing over on me. After I severed all the roots I could find I thought I would have to reinstall the bucket to remove some dirt to find more roots..
Instead I decided to try and give the tree a push with the FEL, to my amazement the pine tree fell over.

The beauty of the ripper tooth was very little back fill work.. I hope to have a ripper tooth built for my new Woods BH90X soon I believe its worth the money.. HTH... Chuck.

Tom_H · Apr 25, 2008

RayCo said:
So, my question is for those who have the Bro-Tek ripper tooth. Is it a worthwhile investment? Will it save me a good deal of time. It doesn't really take long to dig out around the stump and expose the roots, so I'm thinking that I could expose half a dozen stumps, swap the ripper for the bucket, and go back and cut up the roots. Is the ripper an effective tool? Also, does anyone know if I could then swing my Wallenstein thumb down and use it to pull the stumps out with the ripper tooth still on, or would the curve and narrowness of the ripper cause problems?

No one has posted about a Bro-tek ripper and Wallenstein thumb together. Several people have both Bro-tek thumb and ripper. None have described in detail their effectiveness in tandem, but here is a photo of that:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...o-tek-ripper-tooth-2ripper_dd-1296-x-972-.jpg

Jabroni · Apr 25, 2008

My experience with the Ripper Tooth is it's ineffective at least with large pines whose height you are referencing. It doesn't remove dirt, and you need to do that in order to get down deep to the roots of a large pine. What I did do is excavate around the stump with the bucket, then install the ripper tooth to cut the roots that the bucket couldn't access due to its width. It works fine by itself with small trees, and saplings with a minimum of soil disturbance around the stump, and I have many of of that type in the area I'm clearing.

asylum575 · Apr 25, 2008

I'm still planning on the Brotek thumb and skidplates. Maybe the brush forks. But as far as the ripper tooth, I think I'll pass. I spent last weekend and will spend this weekend ripping stumps. The BX24 BH bucket really impressed me. Yeah, it make a big hole, but the backfilling isn't that bad. The stumps I have to do are no more than 18" in diameter. May take a while with the BX, but it is fun. I'll save the money for a box blade.

This is one happy BX owner

RayCo · Apr 25, 2008

asylum575 said:
But as far as the ripper tooth, I think I'll pass. I spent last weekend and will spend this weekend ripping stumps. The BX24 BH bucket really impressed me. Yeah, it make a big hole, but the backfilling isn't that bad. The stumps I have to do are no more than 18" in diameter. May take a while with the BX, but it is fun.

That's pretty much what I've been thinking but was hoping to be persuaded into getting the ripper tooth with a bunch of "greatest thing ever!!" posts.

The first six or eight stumps were fun, but while all the rest certainly will be too, there are just more stumps than I can allow time for. I calculated out the other day that I've dealth with over 3/4 of a mile of trees on my property so far.

At about 80 feet, 66 trees comprise a mile. My house was surrounded by dead trees that didn't survive the shock of the new construction of my house, so there were about 35 that came down because of that. And then there have been 15 other miscellaneous trees, about 12 of which also died for one reason or another. Then there was the living one that fell on my truck and totaled it. Prick tree!

But, my point is that these stumps are endless! I ought to just rent an excavator and knock them out all in one day. I'd love to operate the largest one that I can reallistically rent.

Tom_H · Apr 25, 2008

RayCo said:
I ought to just rent an excavator and knock them out all in one day. I'd love to operate the largest one that I can reallistically rent.

That sounds like more fun than going to Disneyland.

asylum575 · Apr 25, 2008

Ooooh, EEEExxxcavator, yeah, Now we're talking.

Planning on a Disney trip soon, but maybe I can convince the misses to let me rent an excavator for a day.

Oh to dream

Mowbizz · Apr 25, 2008

RayCo said:
That's pretty much what I've been thinking but was hoping to be persuaded into getting the ripper tooth with a bunch of "greatest thing ever!!" posts. The first six or eight stumps were fun, but while all the rest certainly will be too, there are just more stumps than I can allow time for. I calculated out the other day that I've dealth with over 3/4 of a mile of trees on my property so far. At about 80 feet, 66 trees comprise a mile. My house was surrounded by dead trees that didn't survive the shock of the new construction of my house, so there were about 35 that came down because of that. And then there have been 15 other miscellaneous trees, about 12 of which also died for one reason or another. Then there was the living one that fell on my truck and totaled it. Prick tree!

But, my point is that these stumps are endless! I ought to just rent an excavator and knock them out all in one day. I'd love to operate the largest one that I can reallistically rent.

Well, I for one, will rave about the ripper tooth. It, after all, is a tool to be used for certain situations like removing stumps (sub compact type stumps if we're talking "BX's") It works as advertised and does the job it's intended to do. If you're looking to save money and not have this tool at your disposal, that's up to you, but I want all my bases covered when going out to make $$ with my tractor. Thusly, I will pay the price for the necessary tools!