Will a Rented Excavator Take Care of my Oak Stumps?

[Suburban Plowboy]

I paid a crew to cut something like 15 oak trees and one cherry, ranging from maybe 10" thick at chest height to over two feet. I now have a bunch of stumps. I had the idea that the crew had some kind of Kaiju-type machine that would rip the stumps out of the ground, but it turned out I was the only one who believed that.

I don't know what it costs to have 15 fairly large stumps ground, but I'll bet it's a lot.

A buddy of mine says I should rent an excavator. I am probably looking at around $750 for a full day, including dropoff and pickup. Around here, best I expect to do is a 6-ton machine.

Will a machine that size remove 15 stumps in a day, or should I just wait for them to rot?

 

[steve tym]

The rental companies idea of a day is 8 hours. That's a half hour a stump. Maybe an experienced operator, but if you have little to no experience running an excavator, I doubt you could do it in a day.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

I can rent a stump grinder, but they look pretty weak. Like 30 HP. I can get 37 from my tractor's PTO, and my understanding that it would still take forever.

 

[2manyrocks]

Excavating stumps those size will leave big holes and then how will you dispose of the stumps?

What kind of soil do you have? Easy to dig or hard as a rock?

The ground in middle Tennessee is about as hard as a rock right now. If I were digging out stumps, I'd prefer to do it in the spring when the ground is moist.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Just realized the local Kubota dealer will rent me an excavator of 8.5 to 10 tons. I don't know why I didn't think of checking them.

If I rented one for a week, I could totally transform this property. I have some nasty buried boulders I'd like to get rid of.

I could also bury the bodies behind the garage a lot deeper than they are now, but enough about that.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Excavating stumps those size will leave big holes and then how will you dispose of the stumps?

What kind of soil do you have? Easy to dig or hard as a rock?

I do not have soil. I have sand. It's no wonder this area has so many stray cats.

Getting rid of stumps and filling holes...no problem at all.

 

[2manyrocks]

Might be a good idea to ask the rental place/Kubota dealer what they recommend. You may have an easier time popping them out where you are because of the sand.

I can dig for about 2-3 hours, but once I start getting tired, I'm not the best operator after that. If you rent a unit with AC, that would really be nice.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

AC would be fantastic. We are in the 90's now.

 

[Thomas]

I would plan on 2 days of work,if left overtime on clock have another things to do ready.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Maybe they would let me rent for two days and then extend if I had to. Three days cost more than a week.