Tips on getting large stumps out of the ground?

[jk96]

You'll need more undercut. As much as possible. It's amazing how much hold even a few large roots have. Here's one of the biggest and most challenging I've done.

 

[cwjones]

I have a few stumps this size and a bit bigger. I've done completely around them but they do not budge. Any tips how I might be able to get them out? I'm running a CAT 306 which I believe is around 15,000 lb. I want to say that I pulled a stump out bigger than this with roughly the same size excavator before, but I don't remember exactly what I did.

Neighbor has helped “rip” many stumps for me. He has what I like to call a “dinosaur tooth” welded to the back of his bucket that he can curl through the roots around the stump and even right through the middle of the stump. It makes mince of the whole thing in minutes. The “tooth” is kind of semi-circular, maybe 1.5”-2” thick metal with the leading edge serrated. Photo grabbed from the internet. Kind of like what he has.

 

[bgr]

One thing I have done to cut roots underneath after digging all I can around the stump. Take a 50 foot 5//16 trucker chain, wrap it one full turn around the stump below where you have not been able to dig so one end is out about 6 feet and the other end is out 40 feet. Have the two chain ends coming out about 45 degrees apart. Attach something heavy(a big log, for example) to the 40 foot end. Attach your tractor to the short end and pull straight away. The moving chain will saw through the roots under the stump and loosen dirt.

Repeat as necessary till stump is loose enough to remove. A smaller diameter chain is better than larger. If your machine can't pull the chain, open the angle between the chain ends until it can. You may have to start with the ends 180 apart if your machine does not have good traction.

 

[TGM5040]

I've got a Komastsu PC78MR-6 that is just a bit bigger than the 306 (it's 308 size) and it digs out some pretty big cotton wood root balls pretty easily. The bucket curl provides the most prying force. As someone said, leave more of the tree sticking up to act as a lever. You can always try to soak the ground around the tree to soften the dirt as well.

 

[jwmorris]

Leaving the rest of the tree attached and pushing it over from above, as high as you can reach, is easier.

 

[Bill Guenthner]

I grind them even with the ground and leave them. I've probably done 30 that way. As long as the brush hog or mower can go over them I'm good. Fill in the holes as they rot, which takes a very long time.

 

[Rockbadchild]

What to do with the stumps all depends on Ops plans, I would assume he has a reason for wanting them out.

 

[CoyPatton]

Get a ring (fire ring if 55 gallon drum won’t fit around it) fill with dead downed limbs and other burnable debris. Soak the stump with diesel about every 3 or 4 days for a month, then set it on fire. Might drill some holes in the stump to get fuel in deeper. Once it starts burning, it may burn for a couple of weeks.

 

[pmsmechanic]

I grind them even with the ground and leave them. I've probably done 30 that way. As long as the brush hog or mower can go over them I'm good. Fill in the holes as they rot, which takes a very long time.

This is what I have done in the past. If you cross hatch the top of the stump with skill saw cuts 2" apart I find the stump decomposes considerably faster.

This spring I bought a stump grinder. Now the stumps will disappear even faster. It's not that difficult to periodically level the resulting divots with a bit of dirt.

 

[D&D]

You'll need more undercut. As much as possible.

Exactly, nice thing about an excavator, you can set the angle of the bucket by raising one track on a dirt pile or digging one track down. With a TLB, you just offset the outriggers.