Question for those with a ripper tooth.

[dickfoster]

I recently bought a Bro Tek Ripper tooth to help with ridding my property of numerous stumps. I was hoping that it would rip and cut it's way right through the roots but so far it isn't working as well as I'd hoped it would.
The way the tooth came it was kinda sharped at but I'd say it's about as dull as a foe if not duller. Has anyone tried sharpening up their ripper tooth to help it cut through roots better. I would be easy to do with my angle grinder but I was thinking that I'd first have to hard face the edge otherwise it's would too quickly dull from use. Any thoughts or experience along these lines?

 

[bikerdib]

Mine is not sharpend like a knife but it does have a pointed edge with no flat along the cuttin edge. They are made more to break the root than cut. Are you using bucket curl to break the root, curl has more breaking force than retracting the boom. Drag the ripper through the ground till you find a root, work the ripper behind/under the root and curl the ripper upward. If you are pulling towards the tractor you are pulling too much ground. A root will be the weakest if you pull upwards from underneath.

 

[bikerdib]

One other point that should help, remember that roots taper as they grow outward from the stump so if you can't break it on the first try, move outward from the stump and try again. Good luck.

 

[Code54]

The rule I always tell people is the smaller the backhoe or larger the stump the farther out you need to dig/rip.

 

[dickfoster]

Mine is not sharpend like a knife but it does have a pointed edge with no flat along the cuttin edge. They are made more to break the root than cut. Are you using bucket curl to break the root, curl has more breaking force than retracting the boom. Drag the ripper through the ground till you find a root, work the ripper behind/under the root and curl the ripper upward. If you are pulling towards the tractor you are pulling too much ground. A root will be the weakest if you pull upwards from underneath.

Yep but it just hits the pressure relief and progress is halted Little stumps curl right out of the ground but some of the larger ones just won't budge so I try cutting the roots but no dice. That's why I thought it might help if I made the edge of the tooth sharp but then I'd have an edge to maintain.

 

[dickfoster]

One other point that should help, remember that roots taper as they grow outward from the stump so if you can't break it on the first try, move outward from the stump and try again. Good luck.

Yeah I do try that where I can. I'm doing this in a forest so there are lots of other trees around that I want to keep.

 

[BigCountry1689]

I know you already purchased yours but this is a design that Michigan Iron offers. I do not have it, this is another members but I am looking at ordering it. Maybe you can modify yours similar to this design.

 

[dickfoster]

I know you already purchased yours but this is a design that Michigan Iron offers. I do not have it, this is another members but I am looking at ordering it. Maybe you can modify yours similar to this design.

View attachment 468581

That's a thought. I think if I want it to actually cut through the roots I'll need to do something to it.
Is that a Piranha? I thought they were very brand specific and didn't cover my Mahindra hoe.
Maybe I should think about making the blade a bolt on affair. That could make sharpening and design changes a bit easier.

 

[BigCountry1689]

Go to Michigan Iron and Equipment's website I "think" they custom make the rippers to any backhoe. They actually have a pretty ingenious way of doing it, they have a PDF form with a diagram that tells you the exact points that they need measurements from to build your particular attachment. They are a Kioti seller and I have purchased a few things from them always ship fast and prices are reasonable.

 

[bcp]

Has anyone designed a tooth whose front sawtoothed curve is close to a constant radius from the pivot pin? This would allow a sawing motion by curling and uncurling the tooth, for roots too large for smaller backhoes to break.

Bruce