A 24" stump is a pretty significant stump for something like a Cat-302 or a JD-27. Not that I can't be done, but it very well could be 4-6hrs per stump.
How hard is it to learn to use a rental mini-excavator?
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dstig1
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They aren't bad to learn but don't expect to be smooth at it, unless you find you have a particular talent for this. But I am with the others in that what you are asking to do is probably better handled by a stump grinder or hiring it out to someone with a bigger hoe. You will want a grinder with at least 20-30 hp
One thing to be aware of is travel time. Excavators are the slowest thing on the planet so you don't want to drive them far once you get one delivered.
One thing to be aware of is travel time. Excavators are the slowest thing on the planet so you don't want to drive them far once you get one delivered.
newbury
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And like they wrote - tree type, soil, root structure make a BIG difference.
Soon after I got my B7610 w/ Woods BH70 backhoe I took out a tree that was about 14" DBH but had died. It was spring, the soil was moist, it took most of a day plus. Then I took out a few "small" pine trees, < 8" DBH. They were like pulling carrots.
Then I tried to take out a red maple stump. Tree had been about 22" DBH, rooted in marine clay with at least 4 massive root "branches" or laterals each over 8" in diameter. It took many hours, probably days of work before I figured it wasn't worth my time. The soil dried out and I gave up, I had holes as deep as my BH would reach (~ 6') all around the "stump" and couldn't break the taproot. Let it set and rot for a year and pulled it out finally.
Soon after I got my B7610 w/ Woods BH70 backhoe I took out a tree that was about 14" DBH but had died. It was spring, the soil was moist, it took most of a day plus. Then I took out a few "small" pine trees, < 8" DBH. They were like pulling carrots.
Then I tried to take out a red maple stump. Tree had been about 22" DBH, rooted in marine clay with at least 4 massive root "branches" or laterals each over 8" in diameter. It took many hours, probably days of work before I figured it wasn't worth my time. The soil dried out and I gave up, I had holes as deep as my BH would reach (~ 6') all around the "stump" and couldn't break the taproot. Let it set and rot for a year and pulled it out finally.
ultrarunner
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Are you good with video games...
My then 12 year old nephew with no experience was a natural and I was scratching my head why.
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Kids today can surprise a person.
My then 12 year old nephew with no experience was a natural and I was scratching my head why.
He told me it's just like a video game he has...
Kids today can surprise a person.
dodge man
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I’m one of those people with pretty average hand eye skills. The good part is digging out stumps isn’t delicate work. I’d say get a little bit bigger one than you think you need. I dug out about a 15” stump with a Kubota BX several years ago. It really didn’t take that long but I had to get in there and cut some roots by hand, I also had a huge hole and pulled it loose with a truck.
5030
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All I can say is, having never ran a Cat D6 dozer but my buddy has one and told me I could use it, took me about 20 minutes and some serious gouges to get the hang of running it. It's a hoot too. Something about popping a treee out of the ground, root ball and all is exciting and the dang thing don't even blow any smoke either, just gets up on the turbo and pushes. Real good for stumps too. I could do a lot of damage with it if I was a vindictive person. It's a tank. Issue is moving it around. It has to be moved on a low bed trailer and it's heavy and wide too. Glad he has a low bed to move it with, I don't. He owns a 54 acre wooded lot near me and he wants me and my woodcutter buddy to cut all the downed trees in it and remove the stumps too and we or should I say my buddy gets all the wood and it's mostly hardwood. Gonna be a fun spring and summer and did I mention, it has a 30 ton winch on the back as well and I have permission to hunt it as well. It's about 10 minutes from the farm. Already itching even with snow on the ground. Lots of big saw logs are going to come out.
Exactly. With a decent stump grinder, it's be more like 5-20 minutes per stump.
One clarification would be; the difference between a 24" stump vs the stump from a 24" tree. Another difference is how they tree is cut. Normally, I would say leave a 4-6 ft trunk to allow a lever to pull-push on, but with a hoe that small, you also want to minimize the weight of the stump/trunk combo...
But to the original question; a mini hoe is very easy to run, But you won't be efficient, and to dig stumps, you will be repositioning a fair bit, around the root ball, and I would look at other, cheaper options; such as, cutting flush and leaving the stumps if in an inoffensive place, and allowing a couple seasons of decay to do a lot of the work or you. Somethings, like a long leaf pine, a 24" tree, might have a tap root that is 8 ft long, and a hoe of that weight class just isn't going to pull/break off.
Jims1025R
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If you're going to rent a mini excavator for stump pulling, try it at a "tugging" task before you accept it for the job. I've owned a John Deere 15 (quite small) for 25 years. A few years ago, a friend wanted me to take it to his house, 75 miles away to pull some stumps, and move some rocks. I told him I was entirely happy to help, but that it would probably cost less effort to arrange for a delivered local rental, rather than arranging truck and trailer to move mine all that way. He agreed, and rented a rather larger one. I went to do the work for him, and it was gutless. Mine would have easily done the work. Though a bigger machine, I saw that the hydraulic cylinders were smaller, and I don't think it was really built to work, but rather play. And, I wonder if the rental agency had dialed back the hydraulic pressure, so the machine could not be worked hard. I don't know how you judge the suitability of the rental machine before hand, but I know that too weak a machine is a waste of your day....
As for learning, just make sure that there's nothing close by you can hit by accident (swinging), and go slow for the first few minutes. Don't use the swing to move rocks sideways, lock the cab to the tracks, put the blade down, and use the boom swing instead of cab swing. And work over the blade as much as you can.
As for learning, just make sure that there's nothing close by you can hit by accident (swinging), and go slow for the first few minutes. Don't use the swing to move rocks sideways, lock the cab to the tracks, put the blade down, and use the boom swing instead of cab swing. And work over the blade as much as you can.
