Would you pay $1,500 for 14% more HP?

[paulsharvey]

People on here will often say not to dig sumps with a tractor, and that's partly true, but it's not completely true. You Do need to dig around the stump a lot, and then wiggly them some, don't ram it or try to force it too much. If the stump is still fighting you, ramp yourself down more, and take more soil out from around it; cut/break more roots.

Now, if we are dealing with a 72" live oak stump, maybe we relocate the shop...

I think maybe I should have clarified; digging maybe upto a 12" stump Can be done, safely, with patience and care, and a lot of time; once we get into 24"+ of a well rooted stump, we probably are past what you want to use a tractor for

 

[sd455dan]

About 50 of these

Should be OK with a add on but 50 will take some time.

This is the Old Days, but a Turbo Tractors often are Under Rated on a Dyno.

I recall Clocking 6610's right at 78hp (Rated) Dyno'd and 7710's would do 91-93 PTO Dyno'd (Rated @86hp)

The same 4.4L 4 Cylinder, Naturally Asp/Turbo.

@ $1500 would you really want to go through the next 20 years or so "Wishing you Would Have?"

Some tractor diesels picking the Turbo model will get you much stronger Pistons with steel insert ring land supports as well.

 

[halfBaked2024]

People on here will often say not to dig sumps with a tractor, and that's partly true, but it's not completely true. You Do need to dig around the stump a lot, and then wiggly them some, don't ram it or try to force it too much. If the stump is still fighting you, ramp yourself down more, and take more soil out from around it; cut/break more roots.

Now, if we are dealing with a 72" live oak stump, maybe we relocate the shop...

I think maybe I should have clarified; digging maybe upto a 12" stump Can be done, safely, with patience and care, and a lot of time; once we get into 24"+ of a well rooted stump, we probably are past what you want to use a tractor for

I’m betting there’s a measurable limit with Mother Nature’s stump diameters here, although I’ll tell you, roots and stumps are either cakewalk shallow or your worst, deep nightmare with the shale in the Ozarks. It can be like trying to navigate your first set of bra straps after the sophomore prom dance.

 

[halfBaked2024]

Sounds like you could use a dozer more than a tractor?

If the area I had to cut and fill were bigger and if I was in a hurry… yes. I’m trying to level up an area that is about size of 2-3 doubles’ tennis courts to begin with. Then, onto driveway extensions and landscaping retaining walls.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say part of this is to get somewhat proficient with a piece of equipment working a piece of wooded and sloped land that is challenging to me.

 

[halfBaked2024]

Yeah 100%. I added 2 rear remotes but definitely would have preferred 3 and one with float so I'm going to have to do some machinations to work around that. The pre-wired 3rd function is also definitely nicer. I opted for rops not cab so the rear 3pt control isn't "as big" of a deal. The trim is most definitely nicer on the T series no argument at all. I'm also more used to old crusty tractors without any of it so it didn't.. I guess .. feel like as much of a deal? I might change my mind in 10 years

But it did feel a bit like I was paying (about) $2k more (dealer made me an ok deal and I'm installing the rears myself... otherwise it'd have been more..) for what I felt was a slightly chunkier looking chassis and a castle nut instead of a circ clip... How much any of that matters? IDK.. I was also kind of basing it off of visible complaint #'s which I also realize aren't normalized for volume so kind of more than a touch hand wavey...

The stump grinders are $$$... That and (mostly) the chipper is why I opted for the extra HP... I'm not sure I'll bother with a grinder anytime soon as I can mostly either just leave (lots of thinning so those can just stay), pull (only a few), or cut flush (and deal with later..) the smaller stumps (mostly under 12") I have to deal with.

I've also been looking for a decent used forestry winch...

If you haven't found the old "farm tractor in the forest" doc it has a lot of useful, if slightly dated (so grain of salt, use judgement) information.

https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/publications/general_publications/farm_tractor_in_the_forest.pdf

O-M-G, thank you so much for sharing this doc…!

 

[MJZ]

I say yes. I. Bought a yanmar ym342. Saved a few bucks over the ym347. Same footprint. Extra hp is better than not enough. $1500 over the life of the tractor is not much.

 

[TN8Man]

People on here will often say not to dig sumps with a tractor, and that's partly true, but it's not completely true. You Do need to dig around the stump a lot, and then wiggly them some, don't ram it or try to force it too much. If the stump is still fighting you, ramp yourself down more, and take more soil out from around it; cut/break more roots.

Now, if we are dealing with a 72" live oak stump, maybe we relocate the shop...

I think maybe I should have clarified; digging maybe upto a 12" stump Can be done, safely, with patience and care, and a lot of time; once we get into 24"+ of a well rooted stump, we probably are past what you want to use a tractor for

I agree with ~12" being a safe max for a stump bucket. Anything bigger I call in the dozer.

Getting all those meaty roots first is the key to success.

If your tractor can't handle that its not a tractor.

 

[5030]

My experience out here as well, having hired out stump grinding in the past. The other thing that happens out here is the stumps will petrify.

Hard as a brick or punky as a sponge don't matter to my stump grinder other than it takes a but longer to grind a brick like stump. The solid and indexable tungsten carbide teeth can care less. I don't get concerned about them every sprouting again anyway as a quick blast of Roundup Ultra takes care of that issue if it arises and it rarely does, except with softwood stumps.

 

[5030]

Tough call...
I shopped the L60 series 8 years ago, and quickly determined that I had to draw the line somewhere. I ended up with the L4060 because it was a similar weight (very slightly less than the 4760-6060) and that it shares the same basic engine as the higher HP models.
The only time I can run out of HP is grinding stumps, but a dense stump will anchor any one of the L60 tractors if you go too fast.

So long as you compensate with your feed rate it's all good. Why my stumper has a slip clutch on it.

 

[jyoutz]

Hard as a brick or punky as a sponge don't matter to my stump grinder other than it takes a but longer to grind a brick like stump. The solid and indexable tungsten carbide teeth can care less. I don't get concerned about them every sprouting again anyway as a quick blast of Roundup Ultra takes care of that issue if it arises and it rarely does, except with softwood stumps.

Softwood stumps? Conifers don’t resprout from stumps.

 

[5030]

Softwood stumps? Conifers don’t resprout from stumps.

Keep in mind that you live in an entirely different geographical area than we do. Cottonwood's and willows like to resprout after grinding. Evergreens never resprout.

 

[jyoutz]

Keep in mind that you live in an entirely different geographical area than we do. Cottonwood's and willows like to resprout after grinding. Evergreens never resprout.

I understand cottonwoods and willows. We have them too. Technically, softwoods are only conifers and hardwoods are only deciduous trees (with leaves). But yes I understand that the wood on cottonwoods and willows is soft even though they are categorized as hardwoods. Was just being a forester and a language cop. My apologies.

 

[halfBaked2024]

Hard as a brick or punky as a sponge don't matter to my stump grinder other than it takes a but longer to grind a brick like stump. The solid and indexable tungsten carbide teeth can care less. I don't get concerned about them every sprouting again anyway as a quick blast of Roundup Ultra takes care of that issue if it arises and it rarely does, except with softwood stumps.

Curious… what PTO stump grinder make and model do you use? I hadn’t even looked for brands using or not using a slip clutch; I figured that would be standard equipment!

 

[rumwrks]

I hadn’t even looked for brands using or not using a slip clutch; I figured that would be standard equipment!

You can get a cheap slip clutch for about $50, or an expensive one for about $80. So given the cost of the whole setup I guess I wouldn't let that be a deciding factor. One bonus is that these tractors have a "live" pto that free wheels when you turn it off so while you do want to ease it on with a heavy load like this (back to idle, engage pto, then rev up not too fast) but disengaging is relatively safe. Some of the old tractors if you disengaged it locked the pto up up on the tractor so if the implement had a lot of momentum **** went to hell in a hurry (yeah yeah clutch blah blah.. but you still had to pay attention more). The live pto is also vastly easier to hookup as well cause you can rotate it a bit to get it to seat (especially with like a tiller where turning the implement side is.. more challenging...). I would still idle down before disengaging and make sure the load is off because that puts less strain on the coupling / decoupling system but it IS safer...

Another thing to know with slip clutches is that you really ought to check them at least yearly by loosening them up and re-adjusting, maybe twice or more if you don't use the rig very often especially if it's in a wetter area. They usually come with instructions, but here's the ironcraft version which is fairly universal How to Properly Adjust & Maintain Your PTO Slip Clutch | IronCraft | Tractor & Skid Steer Attachments. Otherwise they can be seized and things can go poorly.

Evergreens never resprout.

Except Cyprus and Redwoods Although we might be splitting hairs there, I just think they're kind of cool

 

[halfBaked2024]

Keep in mind that you live in an entirely different geographical area than we do. Cottonwood's and willows like to resprout after grinding. Evergreens never resprout.

And those darn elms… they’re very pesky resprouters.