large stump - split the top and pull the pieces?

[MESSMAKER]

Easiest way?

Flush cut the thing.
Throw an old centerless tractor rim on top.
Dump 2 bags of charcoal inside the rim, topped with a bunch of small splits of wood, and brush.
gallon of diesel and then torch it.

Keep adding small chunks of wood, and keep it burning for a day or two.
Generally, you will have it burned sub flush the first time, but might have to go at it a second time.

Good luck to ya. Big stumps can be a pain.

Start your brush pile on the stump. Burn the brush pile a few times and part of the stump will go with it.

 

[5030]

Neither of my Kubota's are small (M9's) so when I cut a tree, I get up on a ladder and leave about 8 feet of tree sticking up, choke a chain up at the top, hook one of the M's on the chain to the drawbar and pop it put like a cork. Pulled some big ones in the past, 20" around. The come right out, then I backfill the hole, roast the stump in the burn pile and call it good.

 

[civilian]

I have two ailanthus tree stumps that are 30" diameter.
One I had cut down by a tree company, because it was close to the garage, and the other one split low and went over in a storm.
Both trees have been down, and cleaned up for about 5 years, but I am tired of looking at both 3'-4' tall stumps up close to the garage/house.

Ailanthus trees are basically a fast growing weed, and they grow very large, while also heavily populating the surrounding area with their nuisance offspring.
I have no idea about their root structure, but I am thinking that this is the year those stumps should go.

I see very little rot showing after 5 years, yet these are a soft wood tree.
When I get back up North for the Summer, it will be a good test for the capability of my Kubota L48 TLB.
Of course, it would be an easy job if I borrowed my neighbor's new CAT 306 Mini-Ex (he says, come, just drive it over whenever you need it), but I simply don't "borrow" $90K machines.
He is a good kid, and I want to KEEP him as a friend!

Just have him bring it over and have him demonstrate how well it works on your stump and buy him a case of his favorite beverage. Lol, Jon

 

[fried1765]

Just have him bring it over and have him demonstrate how well it works on your stump and buy him a case of his favorite beverage. Lol, Jon

That is good advice, but I am a stubborn old coot, so am thinkin my L48TLB with 11' hoe will do the job, albeit a bit slower.

 

[Captain Dirty]

This forum has discussed stump removal strategies from hand tools to thermonuclear explosives. I'd like to address the original, 8-year old question. The poster wanted to split (or saw) a 30" elm stump 6' tall and pull it out in vertical pieces.

Although the trunk may be relatively straight, and if one is lucky, grain may be straight, the "grain" in a stump is generally contorted and gnarly. I think it likely. that even with a 6'+ lever arm, the trunk portions will break at or near ground level, leaving the roots. I do not have experience with elm. When I was a kid the elms were dying of Dutch Elm disease and being removed. I do recall asking my grandfather why he didn't take some for firewood, and I was told that it was difficult to split, "It will spit the wedges back at you" and that it was poor firewood "Even the flames are cold".