Thinking of getting into stump grinding

[brokenknee]

Keep in mind your target audience when considering a tractor mounted stump grinder, if many of your customers are located in town on residential subdivision lots there may not be room to maneuver a CUT or even be possible to get to the stump. Most of us live on acerage and do not think about how tight city lots are.

Yep, with that grinder I would have to pass on those jobs.

 

[CincyFlyer]

I do have HST, never thought I would like it when I purchase my tractor (used) about ten years ago.

What size tractor are you running it on? How deep will it dig? The guy on the video only went down 4".

The down side to this is it would limit were I could grind stumps, but then again for only $2,600 bucks I would get a good feel if there is a market for stump grinding in the area.

I really don't see how I could lose at that price as all the stumps I need to grind on my own property.

I think they claim 6" depth, but it depends on how much dirt you wanna move with your expensive cutters! I've gone deeper, but for some little things around the yard (6" or smaller) I just blast them below lawn level and put a little dirt on them.
I'm using a Mahindra 2540, 35 HP at the PTO. I have found (due to an improperly adjusted three point lever!) that it can dissipate every bit of that, to the point of the tractor bucking and the slip clutch doing its thing. Many others have used smaller tractors; it should be possible with HST. It's just more difficult with a manual transmission to get a consistent slow speed.
One advantage of this type is that you can essentially back up to a stump that's nearly against a tree that you want to save; I removed a 45" stump that had a little maple just behind it. We saved the maple, there's no trace of the other stump now.

 

[topbuilder]

To OP: I have been grinding for over 5 years. A brief summary - Residential grinding requires a dedicated machine. IMO, the minimum machine is: diesel only, 50 - 60 HP minimum, 4WD (look at RG-66). If you do the math on the inch method, the bigger the stump, the less you make. A 36' stump is closer to 5 - 18"ers than it is 2 in cubic volume. I do not remove chips. Jobs are bid to achieve the price per hour where I can pay the bills and have something left over. I seldom do locates. I'm grinding 4-6" deep. Utilities are at 24 and 36". It is a machine of destruction. The customer understands when I "find" something, usually it is too late. I'm not responsible for things they did not know were there. Sprinklers, phone lines, drainage pipes. There is a lot of maintenance to a grinder. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.
Your world is different than mine, we have almost zero natural rock. Your tooth life will be shorter than mine.

 

[brokenknee]

To OP: I have been grinding for over 5 years. A brief summary - Residential grinding requires a dedicated machine. IMO, the minimum machine is: diesel only, 50 - 60 HP minimum, 4WD (look at RG-66). If you do the math on the inch method, the bigger the stump, the less you make. A 36' stump is closer to 5 - 18"ers than it is 2 in cubic volume. I do not remove chips. Jobs are bid to achieve the price per hour where I can pay the bills and have something left over. I seldom do locates. I'm grinding 4-6" deep. Utilities are at 24 and 36". It is a machine of destruction. The customer understands when I "find" something, usually it is too late. I'm not responsible for things they did not know were there. Sprinklers, phone lines, drainage pipes. There is a lot of maintenance to a grinder. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.
Your world is different than mine, we have almost zero natural rock. Your tooth life will be shorter than mine.

I could not locate a rg66 for sale online. The other machines in the 50-60 diesel HP are out of my price range at 30k on up. I am not willing to put out that kind of money for something I am only looking to do part time. They do look like nice machines though.

As far as the utilities being 24 to 36" inches down, that is not always the case. I hit the gas main going to my house when I lived in the cities putting in a sprinkler system. It was only 3 to 4 inches down. They must have hit a tree root when they were plowing in the line and it rose over it. It was my fault, I did have the utilities marked but thought since I was only going down about 6 to 8 inches I was not worried about. Bad choice on my part.

Rock will be an issue.

 

[brokenknee]

I think they claim 6" depth, but it depends on how much dirt you wanna move with your expensive cutters! I've gone deeper, but for some little things around the yard (6" or smaller) I just blast them below lawn level and put a little dirt on them.
I'm using a Mahindra 2540, 35 HP at the PTO. I have found (due to an improperly adjusted three point lever!) that it can dissipate every bit of that, to the point of the tractor bucking and the slip clutch doing its thing. Many others have used smaller tractors; it should be possible with HST. It's just more difficult with a manual transmission to get a consistent slow speed.
One advantage of this type is that you can essentially back up to a stump that's nearly against a tree that you want to save; I removed a 45" stump that had a little maple just behind it. We saved the maple, there's no trace of the other stump now.

Do you know what brand of cutting teeth are on it? I have heard the green teeth brand seems to hold up well and are reasonably priced?

 

[CincyFlyer]

Do you know what brand of cutting teeth are on it? I have heard the green teeth brand seems to hold up well and are reasonably priced?

The spare teeth come in a generic box (I got a dozen extra). I do know that the carbide can generally be had for three bucks per, if you are the sort to braze them onto the teeth, and you can certainly sharpen these a time or two.
I'm not gonna use this all the time, but I want it handy for when I do need it.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

Yep, with that grinder I would have to pass on those jobs.

Here, let me fix that for you:

Yep, with that grinder I would have to pass on most of the business that might be available to me.

You'll never see a stump grinding service using a PTO stump grinder, for very good reasons.

A land clearing service? Probably not. They have better tools.

Those are for farmers that need to remove an occasional stump on their rural property.

 

[roadhunter]

Here, let me fix that for you:




You'll never see a stump grinding service using a PTO stump grinder, for very good reasons.

A land clearing service? Probably not. They have better tools.

Those are for farmers that need to remove an occasional stump on their rural property.

If he is looking to recoup his investment and is not wanting to go into grinding full time I suspect even passing on some jobs that PTO attachment would pencil out better. For one it wouldn't require insuring another piece of equipment and if he decided he didn't' 'want to do it he would likely get most of his money back on that attachment even a few years later. I also suspect there is an advantage running off the PTO without any right angles versus hydraulic power.

Sure a tree service probably wouldn't do this but sometimes you use what ya got.

 

[kthompson]

20 years ago when we were clearing the lot we now live on seemed to be a lot of stump grinders here. We ended up using three different ones. First one a young guy who did not let work bother him. He had no problem stopping in after at most an hour and saying going to get me a drink to which I would always say have a cooler full but it was excuse to stop for the day. second guy was tree remover and full service including stump grinding. sadly he was killed and robbed before he got through. At that time stump grinding seemed to be big business around here. Now hardly see anyone grinding stumps. Most building here has gone to track building and they bring in excavators and bull doziers as has been pointed out. Use to be here much of that work was done on a wooded lot for a single house and there was several on the lot which normally was about an acre. Man has building here changed.

Along that line something sort of in the line that has seem to grow rather well is heavy bush hog cutting. I mean with heavy front mounts on skid steers and larger machines but still some doing a lot think it is Brown brand cutter. Was told yesterday about a person who is a self made millionaire spraying the right of ways keeping the brush down for power lines. That does require proper pesticide license and of course insurance.

Not sure how to handle this but you could run ad on craigslist and she what kind of calls you get and then price the jobs and see what kind of success you have. Well typing this know how to handle it, find you a machine and pay a fee to put it on hold or an option to buy it for a fixed price for say a period of up to a month later. If you have run ads and have not been able to develop enough jobs to price out and prove you need to go ahead then you will have invested little even if the option cost a$1,000.

I do not have the figures on the insurance you would need but ask your agent to give you firm quote on that. Based upon what you have said about number of stump grinders in your area doubt he has any insured.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

If he is looking to recoup his investment and is not wanting to go into grinding full time I suspect even passing on some jobs that PTO attachment would pencil out better.

It's not some jobs, it's almost ALL jobs.

And he would not be using what he's got. He hasn't got anything yet.