Grading Clearing Stumps

[wwalker1959]

I have a TYM T353 HST with a TX3500 FEL and BT300 backhoe. I am in the process of clearing a couple of acres of land that was heavily wooded. We have a couple of hundred stumps to clear and we left about 3ft of trunk sticking up out of the ground on all of them.

Are there any good rules of thumb as to the size limit of pushing a stump and then pulling it out vs. digging out with a backhoe then pushing it over or pulling it out of the ground with a logging chain? The ground is sandy loam with very little clay content which should help.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I would just bring in some big equipment and make short work of them. You can still use your equipment to take them away and clean up.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have a TYM T353 HST with a TX3500 FEL and BT300 backhoe. I am in the process of clearing a couple of acres of land that was heavily wooded. We have a couple of hundred stumps to clear and we left about 3ft of trunk sticking up out of the ground on all of them.

Are there any good rules of thumb as to the size limit of pushing a stump and then pulling it out vs. digging out with a backhoe then pushing it over or pulling it out of the ground with a logging chain? The ground is sandy loam with very little clay content which should help.

From my tree removal experience, it is hard to judge which tree will come out easy vs hard. Some trees just have better roots than others. Some times small trees are harder to get out that one twice its size. Tree species is a big factor also. What I would do is try pushing them and if they move a bit, you may be able to work it out but it is always easier to make a few swipes with the back hoe to break out the main support roots then pull it over. When doing this, I usually set up and dig out both sides of the stump/tree then reposition and cut them on the other side and then I can usually push the over or lift them up with the backhoe. I have lots of rocks and sometimes a tree will root down into a rock bed with its tap root and then it requires digging a deep hole to break out the rocks and loosen up the tap root before it will come out.
You will get the hang of it after digging out a few and it will go much faster.
If you want fast, rent a big excavator to dig them out, but I enjoy the challenge of getting the better of a stump with my little B26. I have dug out a few stumps that I had to get my 70 HP tractor to drag it up out of the hole and away to my burn pile. There is a bit of satisfaction in doing that. So far I have only had one stump win the contest, a big oak about 4 feet across that even after I dug all around it cutting all the roots, I still couldn't move it. I now sits at the bottom of a big pile of limbs which I will eventually set fire and burn.

 

[nc redneck]

A large backhoe or excavator has the ability of reaching out and going under the stump to cut roots. Small equipment like my Kioti 45 can do it but it takes more time and a lot of moving around. Also if you can try to protect your front backhoe cylinder, hoses and connection points. My friends full size backhoe will rip out a stump in 30 minutes that would take me several hours to do with Kioti. Depends on what type of tree and soil also.
Good Luck

 

[dragoneggs]

I don't think there is such a thing as rule of thumb on this. But considering you have a couple hundred, I would consider hiring a large excavator to come in and uproot them. Then you can do whatever clean up moving, etc. with your machine. I don't have the time nor patience for that and it would be hard on your equipment.

I did find it absolute fun to tear out a few (five) medium sized stumps with my little BX but I can't imagine spending the amount of time to remove a bunch of them.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Actually, a good sized excavator can dig a hole the size of a Bus in minutes and bury everything unwanted. Quite impressive! We have a lot of stones, and it's hard on even my larger equipment, so around here it's a no brainer for bringing in true EARTH MOVING equipment.

Or if I am not going to till land, I just cut off the trees and use my rather large stump grinder. That is a lot of fun in itself.

 

[creekbend]

An experienced excavator operator can clear in 8 hours what the normal tractor operator can clear stumps in 2-3 days. I just had a buddy of mine clear 5 acres of stumps. His excavator was HUGE. He charged me $120.00 an hour. He tossed each stump into a pile and moved on to the next bunch of stumps. I used my FEL to clear up branches and debris and placed them on the stumps piles to burn later. At last count, there were over 50 burnpiles. I'm saving up money now for Diesel. I use an old 2 gallon sprayer when starting the burns. I also have a 275 gallon plastic tote mounted on a trailer made from the bed of a Dodge Ram. I also has a Titan pressure washer to spray water if needed. Best wishes.

 

[wwalker1959]

Thanks for the advice. I'm sure by the time I get to double digits I'll have a good feel for what it will take! Not planning on getting in a hurry as we have almost a year before we start pouring slbs. Allways like the challenge of doing things myself and having a little fun along the way. I haven't run a backhoe in almost 30 years so I'm hoping it's like riding a bicycle and the "touch" comes back quickly....

 

[wwalker1959]

Most of the stumps are from cedars that run 6 inch trunks or less. Only have a few dead oaks we had to cut down that were 12 inches or more. Those will need to be dug up. One thing I do have going for me is a father-in-law and two brother-in-laws that can't wait to help. I'll just need to keep the diesel flowing!

 

[katoomed00]

I just cleared out 12 stumps with my little BX24, from 24" to 12", dug around the trees then used my electric chainsaw to cut the roots(don't use a power chainsaw, it will ruin a blade quick) then used a 3 ton chain come-a-long to break the tap root. On average working by myself it took about 2 hrs. a stump

 

[jtygoku]

For stumps 6" or less, I use my Brush Grubber Extreme. Pulled a bunch of cedar stumps that way. Helps to have two people, saves many trips on and off the tractor. My DK40SE in low, hardly grunted at all getting most of them pulled out. As mentioned before, some species are harder to yank out than others. Cedars weren't too bad.

 

[wwalker1959]

For stumps 6" or less, I use my Brush Grubber Extreme. Pulled a bunch of cedar stumps that way. Helps to have two people, saves many trips on and off the tractor. My DK40SE in low, hardly grunted at all getting most of them pulled out. As mentioned before, some species are harder to yank out than others. Cedars weren't too bad.

I had never heard of a Brush Grubber before. Looks like a great time saver. Thanks for the tip.

 

[Xfaxman]

For stumps 6" or less, I use my Brush Grubber Extreme. Pulled a bunch of cedar stumps that way. Helps to have two people, saves many trips on and off the tractor. My DK40SE in low, hardly grunted at all getting most of them pulled out. As mentioned before, some species are harder to yank out than others. Cedars weren't too bad.

I have the next size bigger, a BG-20, it weighs 36 pounds, gives me a real workout!


They make a BG-30 that is 51 pounds, way too heavy for this old man! Brush Grubber from Northern Tool + Equipment

I had never heard of a Brush Grubber before. Looks like a great time saver. Thanks for the tip.

Use the "Google Custom Search" box at the top of the page, under the banner ad. There are many threads here on the Brush Grubber: Search Results - TractorByNet.com

This is what I use now, much faster.

Buckthorn Puller - Custom built Skid Steer attachments to fit almost any need you may have.

And the biggest that it pulled: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/277824-tree-puller.html#post3444397

 

[grandpa1]

Most of the stumps are from cedars that run 6 inch trunks or less. Only have a few dead oaks we had to cut down that were 12 inches or more. Those will need to be dug up. One thing I do have going for me is a father-in-law and two brother-in-laws that can't wait to help. I'll just need to keep the diesel flowing!

Sounds like fun. I'm thinking you may be able to uproot lots of the smaller ones with front bucket.

 

[EddieWalker]

Pushing over stumps to get them out is very rare and requires a lot of weight and hp. I have a full sized backhoe and it wont do it. I have a 40,000 pound, 170hp dozer and it wont do it either. Stumps need to be dug up, and you need to be able to cut through the roots to get them out of the ground. Sometimes I have to go out as much as ten feet from a really big stump to be able to cut through it with my backhoe, but most of the time I can cut them right next to the stump. It's time consuming getting them out. If I can get one in half an hour, that would be amazing, but usually it takes quite a bit longer, depending on the species and the size of the stump.

Remember to compact the soil real good when filling the hole. Once it rains, that fill soil will absorb more water then the surrounding, undisturbed soil and it becomes mush. More then once I didn't have a big enough crown over a large hole that I dug getting out the stump and after a wet winter of storms, I found those old stumps the hard way while out mowing. They will latterly swallow your tractor if you are going too fast!!!!

One of the reasons for foundation failures on a lot of houses is there was a tree growing where the house is going to be built, They took out the trees and stump, but didn't get good compaction on the soil. Over the years, the soil settles and the foundation is no longer resting on anything. I've seen 6 inch gaps under the slab in the middle of the house when remodeling bathrooms.

Eddie

 

[Gary Fowler]

Pushing over stumps to get them out is very rare and requires a lot of weight and hp. I have a full sized backhoe and it wont do it. I have a 40,000 pound, 170hp dozer and it wont do it either. Stumps need to be dug up, and you need to be able to cut through the roots to get them out of the ground. Sometimes I have to go out as much as ten feet from a really big stump to be able to cut through it with my backhoe, but most of the time I can cut them right next to the stump. It's time consuming getting them out. If I can get one in half an hour, that would be amazing, but usually it takes quite a bit longer, depending on the species and the size of the stump.

Remember to compact the soil real good when filling the hole. Once it rains, that fill soil will absorb more water then the surrounding, undisturbed soil and it becomes mush. More then once I didn't have a big enough crown over a large hole that I dug getting out the stump and after a wet winter of storms, I found those old stumps the hard way while out mowing. They will latterly swallow your tractor if you are going too fast!!!!

One of the reasons for foundation failures on a lot of houses is there was a tree growing where the house is going to be built, They took out the trees and stump, but didn't get good compaction on the soil. Over the years, the soil settles and the foundation is no longer resting on anything. I've seen 6 inch gaps under the slab in the middle of the house when remodeling bathrooms.

Eddie

Sometimes even packing it in by using the tractor wheels isn't enough depending on the soil type. I once dug out a pine that was in the middle of my roadway, filled it in and packed it pretty well. It came a soaking rain and after it had dried up, I was running along with my little B26 TLB and when the back tires hit that hole, I though it was going to go over. It sank up past center of the rear rim. I couldn't even lift it out with the hoe, had to walk home get my LS 7010 and pull it out.

Being retired, I have much more time than money so I enjoy the challenge of removing dead trees, stumps etc with my tiny B26. Tiny compared to a full sized hoe but much bigger than a BX. Pines have a tap root and they require more digging to remove than oaks. Most can be uprooted in an hour or so. I have only had one failure and that was a large oak stump about 3.5-4 feet in diameter. I dug around and cut all the side roots but just couldn't budge the stump with my little tractor. I was going to try to cut the under stump roots by pulling a chain under the stump but next thing I know, my brother in law (it was on his property) had piled brush on top of it to try and burn it out.

Thorn trees have the largest feeder roots that are really tough to break loose and if you don't get all of the roots out, they will sprout up more trees from even a small root. I had cleared a fence line a couple years back and this last summer was cleaning up the re-growth with a gator head blade on my weedeather. I found a couple of thorn trees about 3-4 feet tall and left them to dig up with the back hoe. They were a good 25 feet apart, but when digging them up, I found that they were sprouting off the same root that was thicker than my arm. It pulled out fairly easily with the loose soil and the aid of the hydraulic thumb, I think I got it all this time.
I have cleared about all the trees I need to on our property, so now it is just the occasional dead tree that dies from drought or lightning strike that gets tackled. Still have the after winter rock growth to contend with each year.

 

[jtygoku]

Now that has me envious. Next time I'm pulling with the Brush Grubber, I'll really be dreaming of that contraption.

 

[Xfaxman]

Now that has me envious. Next time I'm pulling with the Brush Grubber, I'll really be dreaming of that contraption.

Yep, it is so much faster than the grubber. But I still use the grubber for pulling roots that break off when pushing over big trees.

It only took a few minutes to make this pile.

The view from the seat.

 

[Egon]

Sounds like the OP is quite familiar with tractors and backhoe. If the time is available you will soon find a method that works well for each individual type of stump. Experiment a bit on the first stumps to find what works best for you.. Two acres really isn't that much after you get going on it. Just don't abuse the equipment.


If pushing the stump be aware that it could end up under the tractor. This can happen very quickly.

If renting equipment a larger dozer with root rake and u-blade works very well. Back where I grew up this was the common method to clear land for farming. Only the trees were not cut. Just dozed up in long windrows.

 

[wwalker1959]

We finally got some good weather and started to tackle the 200+ stumps in front of us. Many thanks for all of the advice and input received here. We were all amazed with what we were able to accomplish with the T353 in about 10 hours. Anything under 4 inches in diameter we simply pushed over and pulled out using the Brush Grubber. It was well worth the investment.

We did develop a small oil leak around the left rear axle housing. Hoping to retorque the bolts for an easy fix. If not I'll take it in and see how the warranty work goes. All in all though very pleased with the machine. Very economical on the fuel and easy to operate. The only challenge was getting my brother in law off of it so I could give it a try!