Have a piece of raw land that we need to put a road and several build sites in.
Wondering if anyone has ever left the stumps long and hooked their winches to them through a snatch block or two and uprooted them successfully?
Mostly sand where we are at, so I'm thinking this would work?
Oh sure, of course it will. The key is to secure one end of the winch to a tree LOW on its trunk, then attach the cable HIGH on the tree you want to uproot. The higher you go, the better the leverage. I would say 20 feet at least, but the higher the better. I know a guy that is using this method using a homemade 5 hp engine. Its not about size, it is all about leverage.
It is the same thing with stumps. I clear land, on my own land as well as for others, and even sitting in an excavator, a huge hemlock stump does not even give me concern, but a White Ash or White Pine of rather smallish size sure does! Those two types of trees have a tap root straight to hades with Lucifer having a death grip on them then I swear. So it really depends on the type of trees you have, not their size. (I once had 3 white pine stumps really close together and even using a John Deere 850 Bulldozer I was not sure I would ever get them out).
Soil conditions play a role as well. A smaller excavator (34,000 pound class) can pull a stump with ease during mud season, but struggle in a drought. However you will lose more precious topsoil pulling stumps when it is wet, a bad situation if you are using the area as an agricultural field. Equally, ledgerock...if it is fairly smooth and hard can make pulling stumps a dream, but if that ledgerock is shaly, and the roots are driven right into the cracks, it will be a tougher job.
To that end, think of pulling stumps more like trying to pry a piece of glass off a wet surface. It is not the roots so much that keep the stump in the ground (except for Ash and White Pine), but rather "suction". Once you break that suction, the stump comes right out.
If you use an excavator (and I highly recommend renting one, even in the 34,000 pound class, in good conditions you can stump 2-3 acres per day), breaking that suction means wiggling the teeth down into the stump's root ball, then levering the bucket on the ground to force the stump out. Just trying to grab the stump and pulling it with the machine is not very effective. If levering it out does not work, then pick up on the stump even if it brings your tracks off the ground by four or five feet. Get the excavator bouncing, putting that counterweight to work for you, and it will soon break the suction and release. Just hang on in case you are up there when you get sent back down to earth. Also watch out on ledge filled hillsides; it is easy to pull yourself over the edge instead of pulling the stump out. Older excavators actually excel at stump pulling because it was all hydraulics, new ones cut out the power when you start getting the machine really bouncing.
Either way, have fun. No reason to spend your hard earned cash just for someone else to pull stumps for you.
I know, everyone is an expert on the internet, but I am hardly that. I got into land clearing by accident, but I still kind of like it: at the end of the day there is no doubt...I have done something. Here was an 18 acre job on the side of a stinking mountain. Note the track...it took 5 hours to put that guy back on.
