Fun with Stumps

[Code54]

21" - yes you can do it. Take your time, and you can always did a slope going down to the stump so you can slide it out and can work at getting the deep roots. It will take a while and you can do it safely with some care and thought.

 

[rScotty]

Where can I get one of those rippers? I found a bxpanded one, but it looks a little lightweight.

Maybe someone here on TBN knows who makes a good ripper tooth. It's a handy tool, but I don't know where to go to buy one. The one in the picture looks like one my friend made and is typical. I don't have one myself but he and I have the same model tractor... . All the good single tooth rippers I've seen have been custom made either made at home or at some metal-working shop.

The hard part about having a ripper tooth built is getting it made to fit the bucket pins on the backhoe. Those pins are not standard or even close. There are many different geometries for connecting buckets to backhoes, and that includes both pin on and QA types. So getting the "attachment ears" just right is the big problem. Get the ears right, and after that, most any welder can make up the tooth part.

For the Kubota TLBs, a set of backhoe bucket attaching ears can be ordered... or at least they could be a few years ago and I guess they still do. A few years ago Kubota sold just the weldable ears alone as a set of two specifically for people who want to make up a special bucket. I forget the part number but that friend ordered a set to make himself a ripper for his M59. As I recall, a set of the two ears required was quite expensive....several hundred dollars each at least. The Kubota QA backhoe bucket is such an exact fit that when he went to make up a ripper, my buddy decided ordering those ears from Kubota was worth the price.

If I ever see a nice ripper tooth that fits I'll get it. I might just get the tooth and order the ears. Till then I'll just borrow the one my friend made. Maybe someday talk him into making another.
rScotty

 

[Haff]

If I ever see a nice ripper tooth that fits I'll get it. I might just get the tooth and order the ears. Till then I'll just borrow the one my friend made. Maybe someday talk him into making another.
rScotty

I think I found where the one in the picture is from. Bro-Tek

They dont make one for my hoe stock, so its a custom for me, but maybe they have yours.

 

[Haff]

I had to stop work today for equipment inspection. I got through with only a minor warning for it still looking too clean.

 

[Oldpath05]

A sign of not enough mud, might as well put some wax on it, keep it new as long as you can.....

 

[5030]

I bought a DR stump grinder for about $2,000 7-8 years ago to tackle the stumps. It grinds them 6" below ground level, the rest will eventually rot away.

I can hire a stump grinder guy for 10 bucks an inch. 2 grand gets me a lot of inches and if it's real big and I'm industrious, I borrow my buddy's Volvo excavator.

If they aren't too big, I cut them off about 10 feet above the ground, choke the top with a stout chain and run it to my drawbar on my M9 and pop the entire thing out of the ground like a cork.

Never owned a tractor backhoe and don't want one. Useless implement in my view.

 

[5030]

I had to stop work today for equipment inspection. I got through with only a minor warning for it still looking too clean.

Cute little tractor. Lay off the stumps with that backhoe, it isn't built for that kind of abuse. Something will break eventually.

 

[4570Man]

A stump bucket would be good to have on front to. Tomahawk Attachments :: Tomahawk Stump Bucket

If you like a mangled FEL. A tractor loader is even less capable of taking abuse than the backhoe. There’s a reason it’s called a loader not a stump digger.

 

[David_Kb7uns]

This is fun with stumps. Works better on the 4 barrel ripper but works ok on 2 barrel.

 

[oosik]

Many years ago I had some of my ancient Ponderosa pine selectively logged off my 80 acres. I learned a valuable lesson. I spent the better part of two weeks digging out a gigantic pine stump - by hand. Only to find that my Ford 1700 4WD would not pull it out of the hole. So in 2010, with my brand new Kubota M6040, I went down and tried to pull the stump out - no joy there either. What a joke - all four wheels were digging, spinning - my big nylon tie down strap just stretched - the stump didn't budge.

"A man has got to know his limitations" - - Clint Eastwood.

 

[Smokeydog]

With backhoes you learn real quick if you want the stump out it is better to dig around the tree then push/pull to use the tree weight pop the root ball out.
A low cut stump takes forever to rot out. If cut 4-5’ high rots out many times faster. Why?

Traded a smart grapple with winch that I modified to work both ssqa or cat2 3pt hitch to arborists to take down 18 large high hazard trees around the houses. One being a red oak just back of the log house. 36” bar couldn’t cut some places thru from one side at 4” above the ground. Stumps really flare out at the bottom. Kept a mound of leaves and dirt over the stump for 9 years. Added some nitrate irrigation from time to time. It had not rotted much. Waiting to expand driveway for a building needed the stump gone. Had downsized and only had the B26 backhoe. It takes time. Finesse vs strength. Little bucket can reach where big buckets can’t. Follow roots out till you can break them. Like picking the meat out of a black walnut. Not my only project so worked at when I had time and weather. Also used my M59 FEL long bottom bucket. Didn’t have a backhoe for the M59 at the time. Eventually able to roll that tractor sized stump down hill in the woods.
Had about 40 hours in 6 weeks. Think rain during that time helped break the grip of that Tennessee red clay.

Have bought quick attach ears $225 from the dealer to make a ripper for the B26. Tried to get the good folks at BXPANDED to prototype a ripper for the B26 but no. They make them for smaller backhoes. Ripper for M59 would be sweet too.

 

[Oldpath05]

If you like a mangled FEL. A tractor loader is even less capable of taking abuse than the backhoe. There’s a reason it’s called a loader not a stump digger.

Ah not so fast there hydro man, wrong FEL attachment on wrong job causes a mangled FEL, a stump bucket is the right attachment for stumps and rocks, not a full size bucket.

 

[Oldpath05]

A dozer this size with that kind of set up is a good option but a grapple skidder is not far behind and given a choice of either or I'd go with grapple skidder all day long and twice on Sunday. I know I know, no one here on TBN knows what a skidder is or even heard of a grapple skidder........

 

[pmsmechanic]

A low cut stump takes forever to rot out. If cut 4-5 high rots out many times faster. Why?

This has not been my experience. I cut my stumps as low as I can without hurting my chain on the chain saw. I then cross hatch the top of the stump with my circular saw in about 2" squares. And yes this is not easy on the saw blades. In about a year I can take a hammer and knock the 2" squares off of the top of the stump. Underneath the stump is well rotted and I haven't expanded a whole lot of effort into getting rid of the stump.

 

[Oldpath05]

Red oak stumps here dont rot no matter which way they'r cut, or even when buried...

 

[Smokeydog]

Digging stumps out with shovel and pickaxe is good training for using a backhoe. Any idiot can break handles but it takes long time to actually wear one out.

 

[bcp]

This is fun with stumps. Works better on the 4 barrel ripper but works ok on 2 barrel.

That's what I was writing about earlier but I didn't find a photo of one mounted. Makes little stumps out of big ones.

Bruce

 

[Haff]

Digging stumps out with shovel and pickaxe is good training for using a backhoe. Any idiot can break handles but it takes long time to actually wear one out.

I've done that a couple times. Its a pain in the butt that I dont care to do again.

 

[4570Man]

Ah not so fast there hydro man, wrong FEL attachment on wrong job causes a mangled FEL, a stump bucket is the right attachment for stumps and rocks, not a full size bucket.

It’s the better attachment on a poor tool. Tractor are terrible at removing stumps any way you go about it. Again it’s a loader not a digger or pryer. Now put your stump bucket on a skid steer and have at it.

 

[kthompson]

I have dug a good many stumps with a 5 ton mini excavator. Some rather larger would say several over two feet in diameter of pine and hardwoods with oaks included. One thing I learned was the bigger the tree the more to dig the tree before it was cut the tree will help pop the stump out the ground. There is however one hardwood I left and covered with about 5 feet of dirt.