Need help with a big stump

[snoboy]

I have dug around this thing 360. and am ready to really work it. It has to go. Any veteran stump removal advice? I dont want to do something stupid to my tractor. Mike

 

[anthonyk]

A picture would help. Can you post one?

anthony

 

[Woodbeef]

What kind of tree? Have you found all of the tap roots yet? How deep are you down? Go deeper then the stump is around.

 

[sassafraspete]

I have the same questions...what kind of tree, how big in diameter is the stump....eg is this a 300 yr old oak, or a 5 inch hickory. Speaking of hickory.... I dug out some small ones and found their tap root to be much longer than other trees. What kind of ground? clay?

sassafraspete

 

[snoboy]

I got the stump!!! I put 8 hrs. on the tach this weekend and the stump is gone and I have a really big parking area now. I will post pics in a few days. Man this 4020 is a work horse.

 

[sassafraspete]

After doing a few of those, you'll start perfecting your technique. I will be looking forward to the pictures. Sound's like you are really enjoying the tractor.

sassafraspete

 

[herdfan]

I pulled out a 36" oak tree a few weeks ago!
I lopped off the branches first and then did some excavating around the roots with a Cat 420 backhoe (my 3045 was in the shop getting the axle bolts replaced).
I'm glad I had the Cat, because that thing was a monster!
Here are a few pics.

 

[herdfan]

I figured the loader was a little more stable for me to use instead of a ladder (but I'm sure that still wasn't the safest thing to do!) to get up there and lop off the branches.
The branches were as big as some regular trees!

 

[herdfan]

Here is the Cat before puncing on the prey - in the background /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[herdfan]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Here is the Cat before puncing on the prey - in the background )</font>

uh - I meant "pouncing" (getting a little late) /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Here's the defeated stumpage.

I can't find the "action shot" of digging out the roots, but they were pretty impressive. It took a while to even get the tree out of the hole because there was so much soil/clay on the roots. I had to scrape off lots of material with the hoe, and still had trouble. It was kinda like a weeble-wobble.

Luckily, the center of the stump was half rotten, so I was able to split the stump in half and pulled it out in 2 pieces. They were still pretty heavy.

I really think this job would have been nearly impossible to do with the 3045. I guess I could have nibbled away at the roots with the 3045 hoe, an axe, and a chainsaw and then cut down the stump into smaller chunks and got-er-done that way, but that would have taken quite a bit longer to do. This took around 1 to 1 1/2 hours using the big hoe.