Anyone have a MechMaxx 3-pt stump grinder?

[RjCorazza]

I've taken care of a 3 stumps already. How do you prevent the tractor from stalling? The stump grinder would shake like crazy and engine would stall when I'm taking too much of a bite. Do I adjust the slip clutch so it slips more?

Also make sure the 3 point lower arms are adjusted tight, and grind starting on the left side of the stump (as viewed from the operator's position).

 

[Runner]

I've taken care of a 3 stumps already. How do you prevent the tractor from stalling? The stump grinder would shake like crazy and engine would stall when I'm taking too much of a bite. Do I adjust the slip clutch so it slips more?

Just stop and back up a little to let the unit spin up again, then adjust your three point so as to not take as big a bite and then start moving forward again.

Also, when it starts to bog, you can just turn the steering wheel slightly so that the rear end of the tractor swings a little to the right, which takes some of the pressure off the wheel. Sometimes that's all you need.

I adjusted my slip clutch to the spec. from the instructions and found that it was constantly slipping, even when not taking too big of a bite, so I readjusted with a couple more turns. Works better now.

 

[deezler]

I've taken care of a 3 stumps already. How do you prevent the tractor from stalling? The stump grinder would shake like crazy and engine would stall when I'm taking too much of a bite. Do I adjust the slip clutch so it slips more?

Ok, one engine stall, we'll forgive ya. But 3 strikes? yer out.

Just kidding but for the sake of your nice tractor, be careful! Slip clutch pressure, small bites, correct side of the stump, etc. All of the advice above is good.

More simply, if you feel the tractor bogging down from a big bite, let off the hydro pedal so it can recover - avoid the stall at all costs.

 

[JJT]

Slow and steady with small bites. I agree the clutch is too tight, it needs to slip before taking out the tractor.

Had a neighbor that ignored his slip clutch, he no longer has a working rear pto. The tractor needs to be split.....

 

[nc73]

Didn't realize I got this many responses... I did 3 tiny stumps today and only stalled once but that was my fault, forgot to get the rpm's up. Adjusting the clutch did the trick. Only 6 stumps left! Well I have 5 more trees to take down so that'll be fun. 11 more stumps!

 

[pmsmechanic]

Time to tell my 11 stump story. I bought a Woodland Mills WG 24 PRO. I thought about a MechMaxx but was concerned about the whole tariff situation.

Anyways it was delivered and I got it all set up and on the tractor. I had 11 stumps to grind. None were very large and some were well rotted. In an hour I was done and honestly I was not pleased.

In the mean time Woodland Mills sent me an email welcoming me to their family etc.

This was part of my response: I'll be honest and say that initially I was rather disappointed in my new stump grinder. I had about 11 stumps of varying sizes to grind and I was done in about an hour. I was really looking forward to having more than an hour's worth of fun out of my new stump grinder. Fortunately my wife mentioned to her friends that I had purchased a stump grinder and so after a few days I was off to the neighbours to have more fun.

And this was the response from Wood;and Mills: I'm not going to lie, when I started reading your email, I got a little worried. Then I kept reading and burst out laughing!

Woodland Mills sent out 2 hats. A pink one for my wife and a green one for me.

Have a good day!

 

[blacktruck]

Time to tell my 11 stump story. I bought a Woodland Mills WG 24 PRO. I thought about a MechMaxx but was concerned about the whole tariff situation.

Anyways it was delivered and I got it all set up and on the tractor. I had 11 stumps to grind. None were very large and some were well rotted. In an hour I was done and honestly I was not pleased.

In the mean time Woodland Mills sent me an email welcoming me to their family etc.

This was part of my response: I'll be honest and say that initially I was rather disappointed in my new stump grinder. I had about 11 stumps of varying sizes to grind and I was done in about an hour. I was really looking forward to having more than an hour's worth of fun out of my new stump grinder. Fortunately my wife mentioned to her friends that I had purchased a stump grinder and so after a few days I was off to the neighbours to have more fun.

And this was the response from Wood;and Mills: I'm not going to lie, when I started reading your email, I got a little worried. Then I kept reading and burst out laughing!

Woodland Mills sent out 2 hats. A pink one for my wife and a green one for me.

Have a good day!

It is good to know that someone in the corporate office actually read and then subsequently understood what you were saying and then acted appropriately. Too many times, it seems like the big offices are disconnected from those they sell products too.
Great story and kudos to Woodland Mills for their response to address your concerns.

 

[Code54]

It is good to know that someone in the corporate office actually read and then subsequently understood what you were saying and then acted appropriately. Too many times, it seems like the big offices are disconnected from those they sell products too.
Great story and kudos to Woodland Mills for their response to address your concerns.

Excatly what I was thinking!

 

[phantom309]

Thanks for those that have contributed to this thread. I've learned quite a bit.

dumb question:

This video:

...says that MechMaxx puts a shear pin on their TSG61 swinging stump grinders for gear drive tractors, but the same(?) grinder for HST gets a slip clutch.

Wondering if anyone knows why that might be?

He refers to "another one" for HST. Maybe it is a completely different grinder (the "pull behind")??? Now that I type this in, I bet this is it. From what little I know, I would think that the pull behind grinders would work best on HST due to prolonged very slow tractor movement, and the "swing" grinders are great on both and save the gear tractors from lots of clutch work.

But even if that is true, why would a pull behind grinder need a slip clutch, but not a swing? Guessing that the pull behind is harder to see what you're doing since you can't operate from the side like you can with swing, so you're more likely to clobber things?

The more I read, watch, and study, the less I know...