treemuncher
Senior Member
My fastest and easiest method on stumps is with a stump grinder on my FTX140. 140 hp, 69 gpm @ 6,000 psi means fast stump eradication. Most fresh cut oaks & hickories @ 18" above grade and 18" dia at the cut, subsurfaced 6"-10", normally take the machine 3 minutes or less. I remember doing some stumps spanning 6' at the butt swell, low cut, taking no more than 10 minutes. Horsepower and torque are the key.
Unless I have a day or more to justify that attachment and machine, I just plane them flush to grade with my regular cutterheads. At that point, if a customer needs them out of the ground, they will split and extract easier being cut low. There is usually only 6"-18" of solid wood below grade on most stumps so splitting something that thin is much easier. At that point, a dozer can usually easily split the stump into pieces if it takes a glancing blow to a side of the stump.
My favorite method for low cut stump extraction is a Tiger Tooth on the corner of the excavator bucket. You can punch a "split line" into the stump with that tooth and at an end of that line, bury that tooth into the wood then pull back firmly. That will split it apart into smaller, managable pieces that pull out and shed dirt easier. Normally, for me, once extracted like that, I just grind them up with a cutterhead and get on with it. No hauling, no burning, less soil disturbance, faster performance.
Either way, grinding them up on site is much faster and easier than hauling them off. And it puts the nutrients back onto the ground.
Unless I have a day or more to justify that attachment and machine, I just plane them flush to grade with my regular cutterheads. At that point, if a customer needs them out of the ground, they will split and extract easier being cut low. There is usually only 6"-18" of solid wood below grade on most stumps so splitting something that thin is much easier. At that point, a dozer can usually easily split the stump into pieces if it takes a glancing blow to a side of the stump.
My favorite method for low cut stump extraction is a Tiger Tooth on the corner of the excavator bucket. You can punch a "split line" into the stump with that tooth and at an end of that line, bury that tooth into the wood then pull back firmly. That will split it apart into smaller, managable pieces that pull out and shed dirt easier. Normally, for me, once extracted like that, I just grind them up with a cutterhead and get on with it. No hauling, no burning, less soil disturbance, faster performance.
Either way, grinding them up on site is much faster and easier than hauling them off. And it puts the nutrients back onto the ground.