To answer the question regarding Backhoe vs tools, for me personally it’s a factor of time and space. These stumps are in my immediate backyard and I’m on a time crunch to get them out in order to grade, seed and a host of other improvements I need to tackle in the next 2 weeks. The backhoe is awesome and I do not regret the purchase. I read a lot of remarks in how it’s overrated and too expensive and ineffective and I’d have to disagree. If you need one you need one, and it’s nice to have anytime I need it. It’s limited by hydraulic pressure and the weight of the tractor, but it’s still 1000x better than a shovel. I use it to dig down until I’m hitting a root I can’t bust through, not to mention my property has ALOT of rock in the ground. Here is the rock that has come out of the stump holes so far:
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Here is rock previously removed with rented equipment:
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So, removing the bulk dirt to be able to access roots better with a small shovel and use a Sawzall is way more efficient (in my situation) than digging up the entire yard, because that’s how many stumps and roots there are. These stump roots are between 4 and 12” thick too!
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And here is the stump that I previously couldn’t pull out with 3:1 advantage using pulleys but popped out with 2:1 using my new gantry device:
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Here we s the one I’m working on currently. It’s over 24” across and is the biggest one yet. I think I have another root or two to find and cut and then I’ll try to video the pull.
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