Why a stump grinder is worth it it

[sixdogs]

I have a (Land Pride) stump grinder and run it on my MX5100. It's an amazing piece of equipment, runs smooth and vibration is no big deal. You adjust the pressure flow on the machine to equalize flow so it grinds smooth and it's as easy as pie. Plus, after you get in position to grind, the unit drops to the ground and stabilizes things. You don't grind big chunks but nibble the amount you're comfortable with.

I bought this because I have a lot of stumps to grind at varying times over the months and years and it was my best option. Burning stumps was a time consuming hassle and a backhoe made a mess and left both a stump and a hole.


Renting a stump grinder is great but rental was just under $300 a day, I would need to go get, take back and rent multiple times. Plus deal with the process. By buying, I could get payback pretty quick and then have the residual value to sell later.

It's worked great and I think I've posted a pic of the grinder before. Maybe not. Plus, I could easily turn this into an income stream but I'm slowing down. There are many stumps around and people don't know what to do.


This is where two 35' Norway Spruce were. But not now. There were lots of nasty roots so I just flipped dirt where I could with a shovel, smoothed it and left it alone. Seeded, watered and grass. My wife wanted one stump left for a flower pot.
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This is where there were two 30'-35' American Arborvitae--Northern White Cedar. 30 minutes to grind these.
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Also. you've got to be careful with sub-surface wires and call the I-800 DIG number so they can mark stuff. Old timers randomly ran farm wire a few inches under the ground so watch out.

 

[ponytug]

Looking at the last two photos, I was just thinking it was a brave of you to stump grind adjacent to a transformer pad! I'm glad that you had a call out to 811 to along with the photos.

Thanks for the post and photos!

All the best,

Peter

 

[5030]

I own the the China built clone to yours, I believe. It's the 3 point mount articulating head stump grinder and runs the industry standard indexable tungsten carbide teeth. Bought it years ago and never had an issue with it though it requires 2 sets of remotes to run, one set for the swing and one for the depth of cut and both are speed controlled with valves mounted on the frame of the stump grinder. The grinder itself is PTO driven.

My issue (that I corrected with mine) was the fact that the unit liked to jump around a bit so I added a 100 pound suitcase weight to each side of the frame of the stump grinder the give it more 'planted' weight. I've ground many, many stumps, hardwood and softwood over the years. Big ones take more time of course and huge ones that are in the excess of the total swing, take even more time because I need to reposition the grinder after I've cut as much of the stump as the swing will allow. Mine cuts 9-14" below grade and I run it with a 90 pto horsepower Kubota gear drive tractor with creep gears. Looked at rental units at 500 bucks a day and said no way simply because owning my own allows me to grind them when I want to.. not when I have to because of the rental fee.

Just indexed the teeth to the second position btw.

Far as brush is concerned, I roast that and all the big wood, I have a woodcutter that takes all of it and cuts it into smaller pieces, splits it and sells it to local campgrounds (except the pines) which wind up on the roast pile.

He's retired and makes 'pin money' selling campfire wood and I have no issue with pin money at all.

Don't heat with wood, never have and don't want to anyway.

 

[sixdogs]

Looking at the last two photos, I was just thinking it was a brave of you to stump grind adjacent to a transformer pad! I'm glad that you had a call out to 811 to along with the photos.

Thanks for the post and photos!

All the best,

Peter

I was there when the line was originally put in and made sure I saw the ditch and the cable in place. I wanted 36" in down and it was.

The 1-811 dig guy sprayed and checked at 37 1/2" deep but the tree was right over the line. I ground a couple inches below grade and called it good. Grass will grow enough and few will ever know.

 

[5030]

Nice thing about grinding stumps versus digging them out is, of course no hole to fill in and no stump and roots to dispose of and I've never had any resprout either. I pile the chips back on top the ground hole I make with the grinder and let the chips compost and the following year that have turned to mulch and it gets seeded and now they are gone.

For me, a good investment and like you, I can always sell it and probably get a good return on my investment in as much as the cost of everything tractor related is going through the roof. Requires very little upkeep as well. Grease the pivot points, slip the over running clutch every year and check the oil in the gearbox and that's it.

Besides, it's fun to run and watch the stump vanish into a pile of wood chips.

I've ground some huge ones already. One was 45" across.

 

[sixdogs]

Agreed. What wood was the 45" stump? Difficult or just time consuming to reposition?

The economics and ease of use make a grinder an easy choice. If you want to have even more fun, get a 3pt wood chipper. Mountains of brush wind up as a small pile of chips. No towering inferno when you burn chips but just smoldering that renders to ash. In fire country that matters.

Stump grinders in good condition sell for almost what you paid for them and you get to use it for free.

 

[5030]

If I exceed the total swing of the head, I have to reposition and that is the issue. About the widest I can is 40" max. Stump height really don't matter except for the amount of chips produced.

Was grinding stumps with the rubber back flap up until my wife told me I was throwing chips 30 feet...

Hardwood, softwood, don't matter, all cuts the same.

 

[5030]

Was gonna buy a used 'Shaver' at auction out west but it went used for what I paid for mine new and the frame was broken on it. Could have welded it but when the bid price equaled the new price, I quit bidding on it. Probably needed new cutter teeth as well.

Very hard to find used. I had a pto chipper and sold it. Easier for me to roast the stuff. I still have plies of chipper chips sitting around. Sold the chipper for what I paid for it so that was a wash.

 

[Oaktree]

Renting a chipper is great but rental was just under $300 a day, I would need to go get, take back and rent multiple times. Plus deal with the process. By buying, I could get payback pretty quick and then have the residual value to sell later.

Not only that, but rental equipment isn't always very well maintained. I rented one last fall and the carbides were DULL! Took twice as long as it should have.

Would be nice to have one, but at this point in my life I'm not sure I'd get enough use out of it to justify the cost.

 

[sixdogs]

Not only that, but rental equipment isn't always very well maintained. I rented one last fall and the carbides were DULL! Took twice as long as it should have.

Would be nice to have one, but at this point in my life I'm not sure I'd get enough use out of it to justify the cost.

Yes, but your heirs will likely use any inheritance in a way you wouldn't approve of. You can still have fun and you never know how long you have to have fun. You earned it.

We all said goodbye to my HS track coach when he was it the hospital and on his last legs in his seventies. Funny guy but the joke was on us as he lived to nearly 100.

 

[sixdogs]

Was gonna buy a used 'Shaver' at auction out west but it went used for what I paid for mine new and the frame was broken on it. Could have welded it but when the bid price equaled the new price, I quit bidding on it. Probably needed new cutter teeth as well.

Very hard to find used. I had a pto chipper and sold it. Easier for me to roast the stuff. I still have plies of chipper chips sitting around. Sold the chipper for what I paid for it so that was a wash.

I was shocked as well whenI saw a used chipper go for nearly new. Same with a stump grinder.

I already had one of those so took an offer on my used chipper and traded up.

 

[BackRoad]

I agree on the stump grinder...guy quoted $1800 to take out 6 stumps...

So I bought one. That was over 50 stumps ago...

There's over 20 stumps ground in this one area between the drive and fencerow...

 

[Runner]

I agree with your thoughts totally.

I ground 10 stumps ranging from 6" to 18" one afternoon a couple of weeks ago (with a Woodland Mills WG24). The whole time, I was thinking how much "fun" it would have been doing it the old way - with an axe. It was very satisfying to see them disappear into a pile of dirt and chips in a few minutes.

Now, the only time I take out stumps with a backhoe is if I'm going to place another tree in the exact same spot.

 

[nyone]

I had to clear some forest for a driveway and cabin site. I much prefer to remove the stump with the tree still attached vs trying to dig out a stump with my 3,500lb micro ex. The really big 24in stumps outside of the driveway and cabin foundation I left and will grind. For a 1-2x job like this il just rent a tracked grinder, beat the snot out of it and return it.

 

[mikester]

WG28 PRO Stump Grinder

Woodland Mills supplies high-quality Bandsaw Mills, wood chippers, trailers, and accessories! Get the equipment to tackle big logs & long hours today!

woodlandmills.com

I picked up one of these woodlandmills 28" stump grinders before Christmas and was able to use it for the first time last week to remove about a dozen stumps. Mostly 12-16" norway maple, ash and a few small 6" conifers.

My initial impression was a fair bit of initial vibration and poor visibility from my M59 seating position. Surprisingly the dry ash chipped up easier than the green norway maples. The small softwoods just evaporated and left very little mess to clean up. The chips get mixed well into the soil spoil and I could easily kick the spoil back into the holes.

At the end of the day I got better at it and I liked that I could also quickly grind down the exposed roots of the norways which were a bane of my lawnmowing existence.

For taking out simple small stumps in the lawn it worked well. I can get down at least 6" below grade.

Time wise it took me 1 hour to do my first 5 green norway maples and one dead ash stump. Stumps were initially cut just above grade.

The nice thing about the stump grinder is I can grind problem stumps I wouldn't be able to get at with my ripper without damaging other things. My one dead ash was within 12 inches of a telephone box at my road easement. I was able to grind it down just below grade and backfill no problem. I would have taken out the phone box if I tried removing the root with my BH and ripper.

Next on my list is to start grinding down the remaining stumps around my field edges. I think if will be less abuse on my tractor with the grinder over the BH and I have no stumps to get rid of afterwards.

 

[BackRoad]

Definitely watch the Woodland Mills video for anyone using their stump grinder. Starting from the right side of the stump is important based on the grinder rotation.

The technique is easy to pick up, and following it helps reduce bouncing and chatter.

 

[sixdogs]

WG28 PRO Stump Grinder

Woodland Mills supplies high-quality Bandsaw Mills, wood chippers, trailers, and accessories! Get the equipment to tackle big logs & long hours today!

woodlandmills.com

I picked up one of these woodlandmills 28" stump grinders before Christmas and was able to use it for the first time last week to remove about a dozen stumps. Mostly 12-16" norway maple, ash and a few small 6" conifers.

My initial impression was a fair bit of initial vibration and poor visibility from my M59 seating position. Surprisingly the dry ash chipped up easier than the green norway maples. The small softwoods just evaporated and left very little mess to clean up. The chips get mixed well into the soil spoil and I could easily kick the spoil back into the holes.

At the end of the day I got better at it and I liked that I could also quickly grind down the exposed roots of the norways which were a bane of my lawnmowing existence.

For taking out simple small stumps in the lawn it worked well. I can get down at least 6" below grade.

Time wise it took me 1 hour to do my first 5 green norway maples and one dead ash stump. Stumps were initially cut just above grade.

The nice thing about the stump grinder is I can grind problem stumps I wouldn't be able to get at with my ripper without damaging other things. My one dead ash was within 12 inches of a telephone box at my road easement. I was able to grind it down just below grade and backfill no problem. I would have taken out the phone box if I tried removing the root with my BH and ripper.

Next on my list is to start grinding down the remaining stumps around my field edges. I think if will be less abuse on my tractor with the grinder over the BH and I have no stumps to get rid of afterwards.

I've found I don't need to go down the 6" and less will do if I clean out some of the wood chips and replace with dirt.

I've also found that I can pile the wood chips on smooth ground with no grass and rake smooth. Wait for rain and it washes all the dirt out of the mix and I can then rake up a pile of clean woodchips to burn. I don't mind putting some chips back in the hole but if I rake up the big stuff the grass gets a faster start.

 

[sixdogs]

The video of the Woodland Mills grinder is worth watching. That is a very appealing chipper. But in order to move, you have to drive the tractor very slowly so you need a real slow tractor and slipping the clutch to work it. Is that how it's done?

It looks well made but no mention if assembled in Canada or elsewhere.n It certainly looks ruggednand a good choice for a chipper.

 

[Runner]

The video of the Woodland Mills grinder is worth watching. That is a very appealing chipper. But in order to move, you have to drive the tractor very slowly so you need a real slow tractor and slipping the clutch to work it. Is that how it's done?

It looks well made but no mention if assembled in Canada or elsewhere.n It certainly looks ruggednand a good choice for a chipper.

No. You get a tractor with hydrostatic transmission and no clutch slipping. Start on the right side of the stump, back up past it, lower the cutter so you are taking a VERY small cut and slowly ease forward. Rinse and repeat, lowering the cutter slightly and moving to the left slightly with each pass.

If it starts to bog down and the slip clutch on the unit kicks in, then you immediately back up a little. Again, hydro helps.

 

[5030]

The video of the Woodland Mills grinder is worth watching. That is a very appealing chipper. But in order to move, you have to drive the tractor very slowly so you need a real slow tractor and slipping the clutch to work it. Is that how it's done?

It looks well made but no mention if assembled in Canada or elsewhere.n It certainly looks ruggednand a good choice for a chipper.

I run mine (articulating swing grinder) with one of my M9000's but in creep gear only. A stump grinder on any tractor would work better with a hydrostat however, but the creep gears are a good substitute.

The China clone to the Landpride unit I purchased years ago is an exact copy. I suspect today the price differential is moot. My issue with most of them is they don't use the industry standard carbide teeth so you are stuck buying their teeth whereas mine mounts the industry standard teeth and they are indexable to 3 different positions before replacement and the outfit that produces the industry standard carbide teeth is 20 miles from here (Green Manufacturing) so I can drive over there and buy them direct. Greenteeth are the industry standard for stump grinders.