IslandTractor
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2005
- Messages
- 17,101
- Location
- Prudence Island, RI
- Tractor
- 2007 Kioti DK40se HST, Woods BH
Certainly a ripper is necessary for larger stumps unless you dig a hole around it with a BH. I'm sure the type of tree makes a big difference as well as size. Most of what I knock over without a ripper are what we call chokecherry and have fairly shallow roots. I can knock over twenty footers without any problem but thirty footers and bigger need a little ripper work first before pushing over and grabbing with the grapple. A ripper is not as useful as a grapple generally but it's a great addition to a BH on a CUT if you have lots of medium size trees to remove. Best to rip the roots and take the whole tree down rather than cut the tree down first. The tree trunk and top gives great leverage for popping the rootball out.I think a ripper is critical. I have tied pushing over small trees with no success. The smaller ones just bend and the larger ones bend and break. I'm working mostly on Ash Trees. When my driveway was put in thru 900ft of hardwoods the excavator had to pull the stumps of lots of trees. All he used was a single tooth ripper on a large back hoe. Rip roots on both sides of the stump, reach over the top of the stump and pull the stump out. On some of the larger ones he had to rip all 4 sides several times going deeper every time. Even then at times he lifted the back of the back hoe off the ground. Gave me new appreciation for the strength of a oak tree. Every thing over about 12" had to be ripped first.