How hard is it to learn to use a rental mini-excavator?

[vagem55]

I have a Woods backhoe on my Kubota B3030. The controls on the backhoe use the John Deere pattern. The mini-excavator I rented had the switch on the control box mentioned below. Learn one technique and you can operate both.
Note the mini-excavator turns with foot pedals.
John Deere "BH" pattern has always been opposite ISO(SAE/Excavator). You can swap the Crowd(stick) and Boom hoses at the control valve.

 

[Matt Bland]

You could look into a stump bucket for your tractor. Saw a few videos they seem to work well and for around the same cost give or take you have an implement you can use whenever you need it. I am trading in a mini excavator on a new bigger kubota and included one in the package. Several different brands lots of choices

 

[mikester]

It's easy to learn.

First learn how to fasten your seat belt and ALWAYS wear it

Second, buy the insurance

 

[nknelsen]

I've been a member of this forum for a long time and appreciate the advice offered hear. I'm the proud owner of two Steiner 240's. I have two properties and they serve me very well for mowing, dirt moving and snow blowing. Last summer the machine in the picture moved 1000 yards of fill and gravel and it was maybe the best summer of my life!!! I personally think that the flexibility, power and durability make Steiner/Ventracs a very good long-term value for a mechanically inclined homeowner like me.

My place in Maine has tree stumps that are out of range for a 22 HP machine. I can push 24" and smaller stumps around once they are loose, but I can't get them dislodged.

I'm considering renting a mini-excavator to dig about 10 stumps in the 12 to 24" range. My question is, how steep is the learning curve for a mini-excavator for someone who has lots of hydraulic tractor experience? Can I reasonably expect to dig 10 stumps in a day starting with no mini-excavator experience?

I thought you Americans had 24/7 access to dynamite? Wouldn't you rather blow them out of the ground? Sounds like more fun to me.

Seriously, learning to run a mini x is different for everyone. Some get it quickly some don't. In my job I've witnessed hundreds of new and learning new operators.

Is there anything valuable near the stumps? House, trees you want to save or retaining walls close by? If they are in the open then I'd say it's worth a try, but if you damage the brick or siding on a house etc.....

I find renting a grinder for my Kioti works better for me, and that way I don't have a hole to fill.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

Learning tomoperate is easy. Digging a 24 inch stump with a mini ex will take half a day or all day and probably, you wont be able to move it. The weight is astonishing. If you can live with the results, I would get someone to grind them or Rent a stump grinder and do it yourself.

 

[GeneSimm7]

Not that hard to learn how to run an excavator. A little harder to get good at it. I recommend that whatever you rent that you get one with a thumb.

 

[Daytonacoupe66]

For me an excavator offers the most fun you will have on a machine. If that's what you are after then rent one and enjoy, but they do take a few hours to get acquainted with the controls, then hundreds of hours +++ to get good at what you are doing....not unlike any skill. If your job is small, you'll likely be ahead $$$ if you hire an experienced operator with a larger machine to pop those stumps out and do a quick cleanup/grading. For a few stumps, as suggested a grinder does nice work.

 

[OzarkChris]

I've been a member of this forum for a long time and appreciate the advice offered hear. I'm the proud owner of two Steiner 240's. I have two properties and they serve me very well for mowing, dirt moving and snow blowing. Last summer the machine in the picture moved 1000 yards of fill and gravel and it was maybe the best summer of my life!!! I personally think that the flexibility, power and durability make Steiner/Ventracs a very good long-term value for a mechanically inclined homeowner like me.

My place in Maine has tree stumps that are out of range for a 22 HP machine. I can push 24" and smaller stumps around once they are loose, but I can't get them dislodged.

I'm considering renting a mini-excavator to dig about 10 stumps in the 12 to 24" range. My question is, how steep is the learning curve for a mini-excavator for someone who has lots of hydraulic tractor experience? Can I reasonably expect to dig 10 stumps in a day starting with no mini-excavator experience?

I'm not so sure I would want to use a mini for this job. I used a 10T (maybe a bit overkill, but it was available from neighbor JD 75G) to remove about a dozen trees (Oak, Pine, Pear, Cedar, etc), dug a new septic & drain field and dig dirt to level a new 50 x 100 slab. Trees took about 4 hours. Septic about 1.5 hrs Dirt about 10 hours because of limestone shelf I encountered. Used a med dozer to level. BTW, it's much easier to pull the stumps if the trees are still attached!

That track hoe made pulling the hard & soft wood trees really easy. I think a mini would take all day just trying to dug out the roots if your trees have nearly the root ball mine had.

 

[henerythe8th]

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...

I've used my Kubota U25 to remove stumps to clear my house site.
My preferred method for removing stumps is to leave the WHOLE tree attached!
Having leverage really helps.
If you've left trunk for leverage chainsaw it after removal if you wish!

 

[vagem55]

For me an excavator offers the most fun you will have on a machine. If that's what you are after then rent one and enjoy, but they do take a few hours to get acquainted with the controls, then hundreds of hours +++ to get good at what you are doing....not unlike any skill. If your job is small, you'll likely be ahead $$$ if you hire an experienced operator with a larger machine to pop those stumps out and do a quick cleanup/grading. For a few stumps, as suggested a grinder does nice work.

Spot on! The best combination of frustration and satisfaction.

Every time you use one, you will gain valuable experience.

Also, OzarkChris made an important point, " BTW, it's much easier to pull the stumps if the trees are still attached."
I dig the roots first and pull the whole tree over (with rope and pulley) and use the boom to move it when down.
If the tree is too large, you can still cut high and gain leverage.

We had problems with professionally ground stumps, where new plants wouldn't succeed in the area.