How do you pull stumps

[Slamfire]

I drive around the tree with my subsoiler diggin' as deep as it will go. Then drive a log dog into the stump. Attached to the dog is a chain that'll wrap aroung the stump. The chain is hooked to a pole of good length. The tractor is hooked to the other end of the pole. When you pull forward the stump is twisted out of the ground. My granddad used the twisting part with a pair of shires. He had to dig around the tree though.

 

[CurlyDave]

I completely agree that it is far easier to get the stump out while it is still attached to the tree.

I have a lot of scrub oak trees, some of which I have removed. If the tree is not particularly tall, and you can be certain you have a chain longer than the tree, I have had good success with pulling them over in reverse.

I hook a chain as far up on the tree as I can reach with a 6' ladder, say 10 feet, and then hook the chain to my FEL bucket. Back up slowly and over she comes. Do not try this in forward as you can easily tip the tractor over on itself with the chain attached above the tractor.

I can estimate the height of a tree fairly easily with a short torpedo level. Hold it so the 45 degree bubble is centered and sight along the top of the level. When you can just see the top of the tree, the distance from the point where you are standing to the tree is ~6' less than the height of the tree. A staff to stabilize the torpedo level against makes things much more accurate. For safety, you need at least 20' more chain than the height of the tree.

If the tree doesn't come over it is chain saw and backhoe time. My ground is rocky and scrub oaks love to tangle their roots around rocks in the 100-200 lb range, which makes digging them out even slower.

Wet ground helps a lot.

 

[Pooh_Bear]

I saw this a while back on another forum. I forget which one.

Pooh Bear

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Take a pry bar and dig a hole as deep as you can get it down under the stump.
Fill the hole with cracked corn and turn a hog loose at the stump.
Works better than dynamite.
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[neverenough]

I saw this a while back on another forum. I forget which one.

Pooh Bear

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Take a pry bar and dig a hole as deep as you can get it down under the stump.
Fill the hole with cracked corn and turn a hog loose at the stump.
Works better than dynamite.
-----------------------------

I wonder if it would work if you stuffed the wifes credit cards, or the kid's video games down the hole.

 

[Yalerider]

I dig by roots then push over whole tree. Then use bucket tilt as I can get more leverage than the whole loader to pull out rest of roots. Gotta be careful as back tires come up sometimes tho.

 

[daTeacha]

You could get inventive and excite the neighbors at the same time by mixing up your own blackpowder (Saltpetre(KNO3), Charcoal (C), and Sulfur (S)) and filling your hole under the stump with that. Light it with a model rocket fuse and stand back. You need about 80/15/5 by weight, but you better look it up in Google or something rather than going by my memory. Just be sure to powder everything BEFORE mixing it together, not after.

Oh yeah, be ready for a visit from BATFE if you do it a lot.

 

[cast_and_blast]

I wonder if it would work if you stuffed the wifes credit cards, or the kid's video games down the hole.

You almost made coffee come out of my nose with that one.

 

[Bedlam]

Good thread I got a few more ideas. Here is a link to one I started.
There a few replies as to how to "rot' out stumps. Maybe it will help.
Around here on my land you never know Ive had huge stumps "pop' right out, and then what looks like a Small one takes days, and then I find a bolder with the roots grown around it.
Al

 

[Timber]

I saw somewhere hear using a chain over an old truck tire rim. The bigger the rim the better the leverage! Makes perfect sense to me! It would still require digging around the base.

 

[RayH]

Everyone will have a different technique based on their equipment. When I had my L3130, I could use it to simply push small to medium trees over. Now that I have downsized to my BX23, it doesnt have the weight to push anything bigger than a good sized shrub over, but it does have a nice BH, so I dig around the stump and break up the roots. Once the stump starts to loosen up, I hook it up to the winch on my Jeep and pull the stump out.