Traction Looking for advice on stump removal

[2TonCommon]

I'm planning to help my brother remove a large number of tree stumps after his trees have been harvested and I'm looking for input and advice on the most efficient methods to accomplish this.

I'm dealing with about 1.5 acres of stumps. Most of them will be under 12" in diameter. All of them are conifer (Fir, Hemlock, Pine). The trees were pretty densely packed, so there may be some entanglement of the root systems. The stump cut-off height will probably be in the neighborhood of 12 to 15 inches off the ground.

My equipment is a Mahindra 2816 HST (28 HP) with a FEL, and various 3 point attachments (box scraper, grader blade, boom lift, etc). I'll be operating on a mild incline of about 5 degrees in a loam, clay, dirt and small gravel terrain.

My plan so far is to expose as much of the roots around each stump w/ my FEL and have some strong young men w/ axe's cut the exposed roots. Afterwards, I would scoop out as much dirt from around the base and keep attacking the roots until the stump begins to visibly move when pushed w/ the FEL. Once I got to that point, I could either attempt to break it away from the ground by lifting & pushing w/ the FEL or strap it w/ a logging cable and tug on it by pulling downhill.

I have a single point ground-breaking implement that I can hook up to the 3 point hitch which should be able to cut through the smaller roots. I know the old-time farmers would use a leveraging device mid-way between the stump and the tractor to apply significantly more pulling force, but I think that would require the stump to be much taller than the 12 to 15 inches I'll have to work with. If renting a specialized 3 point attachment might help, I'm all ears.

I'm betting that someone in this group has done this before and has perhaps discovered a reasonably efficient way to accomplish this so your input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Storm56]

You are going to put a LOT of wear and tear on your tractor trying to complete this task. I suggest you either rent a dozer or excavator for a weekend or hire it done. We all enjoy playing with our tractors but it is important to realize their limits. Large number of trees with stumps up to 12 inches in diameter is more wear and tear than I would want to subject my 47 horse John Deere to...

The correct attachment for your tractor for this task would be a backhoe.

 

[Oaktree]

I agree with Storm56, use the right tool for the job. What you want to do is the equivalent of using 7" channellocks to remove lug nuts.

An acre and a half of stumps is a pretty good day-plus job for an excavator, it'll take months to do it with a 28hp CUT, and you'll likely trash your tractor in the process.

 

[Thomas]

Your asking BIG task of your tractor,I would hire or rent hoe of some sort removing stumps and good chance you find rocks that will be need removing.
If your going to try remove stumps use center of bucket,useing corner may result in damaging front hub seal...stress/jerking.

 

[Thomas]

Your asking BIG task of your tractor,I would hire or rent hoe of some sort removing stumps and good chance you find rocks that will be need removing.
If your going to try remove stumps use center of bucket,useing corner may result in damaging front hub seal...stress/jerking.

 

[GManBart]

An excavator (even a pretty small one) or a dozer will be the most efficient way to clear those stumps. A traditional backhoe will do it, but the need to constantly reposition will make for slow going.

The primary problem with using an FEL bucket is that they're simply too wide for the job. Because of that you frequently wind up digging ground four feet away from the stump rather than hitting the roots...that leads you to trying to use the corners of the bucket, and if you can get to them that way, it's bad for the FEL structure (twisting is really bad for SCUT/CUT loaders).

 

[Walkin Horse]

I have a full size backhoe. I would rather dig a 24" oak tree out than a 12" pine any day. Those pines have tap roots that go 5' or more here. A hoe of some kind would be best.

 

[oldpilgrim]

yup, those other guys are spot on.

I have a slightly larger tractor with BH and would really think hard about taking that job on. A BH would do it but a lot that size it would take a long, long time.

I'd never consider it with just a FEL...it would be nearly impossible to get done without busting something. After a stump or 2, you'd agree.

 

[2TonCommon]

OK gents.... you've convinced me that this is a BAD idea to go after these stumps with my rig.... I must confess I was sitting on the fence with doing this to begin with, and your advice helped me make the smart choice. I'll tell my brother he'll have to pony up the money to rent an excavator and an operator. Thank you all for your wise advice..... I genuinely appreciate it!

 

[Piston]

OK gents.... you've convinced me that this is a BAD idea to go after these stumps with my rig.... I must confess I was sitting on the fence with doing this to begin with, and your advice helped me make the smart choice. I'll tell my brother he'll have to pony up the money to rent an excavator and an operator. Thank you all for your wise advice..... I genuinely appreciate it!

That's a smart move.

However, I was going to recommend a stump grapple, simply because I think it would give you the satisfaction of getting a handful of stumps out, before realizing it's just too much for your equipment.


I may have missed it, but are the trees already down? Are you taking them down or hiring it out to loggers?

 

[Piston]

Just reread your initial post. I see your having the trees harvested, but it's only 1.5 acres? Or you will only de-stump 1.5 acres but have a lot more harvested?


The reason I'm asking, is because 1.5 acres of 12" trees isn't typically worth the cost of fuel it takes to get them to the ground, for many loggers anyways. So, if your paying to have it cleared, perhaps you could pay someone with a machine to push the trees over, uprooting the stumps. Or, if that's not an option, tell the loggers to leave the stumps 3-4' high.

If your having a large area logged, try to work the price of de stumping that section into the price.

 

[2TonCommon]

Piston: The trees are being logged out by a logging company. The stumps are being cleared in order to plant grass, garden, etc.

 

[2TonCommon]

Piston: The trees were planted 30 years ago by the previous owner who didn't know his you-know-what from a hole in the ground. They were packed in way too tight, and most of them are pecker-poles or a little larger, but nothing over ~ 12" diameter. They're being logged in order to provide a water and mountain view and to remove them as a fire hazard since most of them are 1/2 dead anyhow. Essentially the money my bro gets from the logging company will be chump change, but he'll get the view so to him it's a worthy endeavor.

 

[boomer1025]

A dozer would be the quickest way

 

[hslogger]

I will chime in here being a PNW resident. One and a half acre plot right? Okay so he is going to have it clearcut? Well, is it going to be hand fell or mechanically fell? yarded with a cat or skidder or shovel logged? The easiest way would be One, shovel log it and push them over rootball and all. Buck the rootballs off and pile them with your slash. Second would be to high stump them all and then come back and push the stumps over. I think you would be a lot better off doing it that way than dinking around with your tractor.

 

[Industrial Toys]

They appear to have never had a pre-commercial thinning.

I had maybe fifteen acres of pine harvested a couple of years back. Looks like heck! That was
the first pre-commercial thinning since planting in the early 70s.

There is no good way to get rid of the stumps. I had a hoe in here, and asked him to take a few
out. At a hundred bucks an hour, that was taking way too long. Plus, he left big holes and I still
had to carry the stumps to a burn pile and then TRY and get them burned with other brush!

You can't bring in a dozer, if you have other trees still on site. A forestry mulcher may be the
answer, but I don't know, and wonder if you need a really big one and not just a skid steer unit. Sometimes bigger, really is better. You have to pay for the man anywayand that's a big part of the bill. Might as well get the most bang for your buck.

Sorry for the format, still having computer issues!

 

[Piston]

A friend of mine had 4 acres clear cut in NH. He made a deal with the loggers, through his forester, that instead of paying for the logs, he wanted it it all cleared and graded ready for topsoil and seeding. They took all the trees, and he got a nice clear area that is now grass, and opened up his views a lot more. That's another option depending on the value of the timber of course.


If you can't have a machine knock the tree over and uproot the stump at the same time, then another option is a stumpgrinder. You could rent (or buy and then sell) a good sized stump grinder, and grind each stump 6" or so below the surface. I grind all my customers stumps 12" below the surface as long as there aren't rocks embedded in the stump itself.

An acre and a half would be a LOT of grinding, but if you could swing the cost of buying a dedicated stump grinder and sell it when your done, it wouldn't be too much money. Depending on the soil, and how large the stumps/roots are, I can grind a stump quicker with my 40hp PTO than I can dig it out with my JD 410 backhoe.


The advantage of grinding, is you don't have a whole lot of giant holes to fill in like you do when digging, you don't have to burn or dispose of the stumps, the chips created from the stumps decay as organic matter back into the soil, and although you will still have a lot of grading to do, it can easily be done with the tractor you have now since your dealing with all loose material.

If you ground all the stumps (LOTS of grinding no doubt) and then graded with a box blade, and went over the area with a power rake a few times, you'd have a really nice start on a seedbed. It wouldn't be a golf course green, but it would be a whole lot cheaper.

 

[2TonCommon]

A dozer would be the quickest way

Boomer: Thanks! I think you've got the right answer.... and probably the most efficient. I'll show my brother this thread and let him see the good advice here.

 

[deezler]

good advice in here. A few years ago when my tractor and land were fresher, I used my 30 HP CUT front loader to blast out a couple dozen stumps. It worked, but was very slow going, and very hard on the loader. Now its a bit crinkled up, the bucket falls down quicker, etc. I would not do this again. Instead, just the past weekend I rented an 8000 lb mini-excavator and didn't just dig out stumps, I pushed over entire trees, and picked them right up out of the ground, stump and all. The excavator just laughed at roots. Definitely the way to go. A dozer would also probably work great, but then you are renting an even much heavier machine, and possibly more expensive.

 

[oldpilgrim]

I forgot to mention in my earlier posting:

When I built my house, I had to clear about an acre and a half of mostly tall white pine, from 12-24 inches in diameter. I had a guy cut all the trees and stack them where I had someone come and take them to the mill for me. I used the lumber to build my barn.

I then hired a large excavator to come in and dig the stumps out of the ground. It was amazing how easily that machine just plucked them up. Grab it with the thumb and pop! out of the ground. It took no time at all to pluck them all up. The size of the machine made it so quick and easy.

Quicker means less money.

The stumps were pushed away from anything important, at the edge of the woods, into 3 piles with a rather small dozer. Next to each pile the excavator dug a large hole and the stumps were buried there and packed into the ground. You'd be surprised how much the stumps compacted with that huge excavator squashing those stumps into those holes.

The dozer spread the dirt left over at each hole site over the area where the stumps were removed.

If I remember right, this was done in less than 2 days. I don't remember the cost from back then but it was considerably less than I expected.

Twenty years later the stump burial sites show no signs of 'sinkage'.

I remember a couple of eventful things from that project. One was the area was full of small sassafras trees which came out with the pines. The roots are very aromatic....smell like root beer. The ex driver was complaining the smell was nice at first but soon became overwhelming and nearly nauseating, it was so strong. You could smell it for hundreds of yards if the wind was right.

The other thing was getting stung over 30 times by ground wasps that the ex upset. The ex operator got hit a few times too.

To the OP, do it right....get someone with the right equipment to get it done quick.