Removing a tree stump????

[abunaitoo]

Cleaning the backyard out to pour a couple of slabs and walkway.
Need to move many things around to clear the area.
Have two small trees and one med tree to remove.
I saw a clip on burning the stump out.
Dig down around the stump to fit a drum.
Put charcoal on and around the stump.
Light er' up.
Suppose to take a day or so.
So any other ways to do this????

[hades]

One way I did that worked OK, was get a 12" drill bit, (whatever size is cheap/convenient), and drill a multitude of holes in the stump and then a bag of charcoal. From what I was told it works best if you can cap it off after getting coals and let it smolder. I didn't have anything nearly big enough for a big old elm stump so I just let it burn down. Took a couple tries and I was using sticks and firewood after the first charcoal burn but it did work and got it way below grade so I didn't have to mow around it anymore.

I say it worked OK because it did take multiple burns. Maybe smothering it and letting it smolder would work in one idk.


I would think the fastest option by far would be renting a stump grinder but I'm cheap and had time so I burned it out.

[deltaenterprizes]

Interesting idea!

[elmacgyver0]

Dynamite would be the most fun.

[georgerkahn]

Bion, I fought with several stumps ranging from using backhoe on my tractor to using commercial stump remover, to boring lots of holes and using the charcoal. In retrospect all were too too much time and effort. With the last one -- an apple tree with a trunk in the 24" range, I dug a hole NEXT to it, about two feet deep. I then scraped and using a regular nozzeled garden hose washed 99% (I hoped) of the sand/dirt off, and followed with a chain saw -- a Stihl 019t, as a matter of fact, ending up with the top of the now cut stump almost a foot below grade. I followed with some pruning blades (worth their weight in gold!) from Harbor Freight in my Ryobi battery-operated sawzall, to round and trim the edges. When I was satisfied, I dumped one bag of Sakrete gravel mix in, which covered the cut stump by a couple of inches -- now, still eight inches or so below grade. Listening to a contractor buddy, I dumped a bag of gravel (from Lowe's) on top of this-- still affording more than enough depth for the concrete foot-path to be poured above it.
It's been four or five years -- NO problems.
What I did.
geo

[elmacgyver0]

Ok, we all know dynamite would be the most fun, put that aside.
What I have done in the past is to just cut the stump off at ground level.
You can mow over it with no problem and the stump will rot up at its own accord.
If this is not good enough, you can pay money to get it ground up.
In the end it is all up to you and how you want to spend your money.

[shell70634]

I got rid of one by cutting flush with ground, chainsaw slots in it, fire ring around it. Took 3 burns about a month apart just using oak firewood. It's below surface and I've filled in depression with top soil. I'll probably have to do more as the roots rot away.

Edit: And I have dynamite but its 10 feet from the garage.

[elmacgyver0]

I got rid of one by cutting flush with ground, chainsaw slots in it, fire ring around it. Took 3 burns about a month apart just using oak firewood. It's below surface and I've filled in depression with top soil. I'll probably have to do more as the roots rot away.

Edit: And I have dynamite but its 10 feet from the garage.

Interesting, I didn't even know dynamite was a thing anymore, as they have more stable alternatives these days.

[country gent]

We burnt out a few over the years. What really helps and speeds up the process is the addition of a shop vac set up as a bower. It really speeds up the burn. We would drill holes in the stump as deep as possible and soak with a 50-50 mix of old motor oil and diesel fuel every few days for a couple weeks before burning. Have everything back away when you turn on the vac it will be a blast furnace.

If you have lead to smelt this is the time set your pot on it and smelt while it burns down. Also make sure open burning is allowed where your at

[Ickisrulz]

I did one this last fall. Cut it as close to the ground as possible. Drill a bunch of 1 inch holes as deep as possible into the stump. Fill holes with gasoline and light. Then cover with wood (left over from tree coming down) and left it to burn. Ours smouldered for 3 days. It is now below grade.

[MarkP]

Drilled holes filled with diesel worked for me on smaller stumps 18" or so. Larger stumps were taking too long. I used a carbide chain with my MS 661 to carve out large blocks to help reduce volume for grinder. Ended up renting a grinder to do two large stumps.

[Hick]

Monterey pines: cut a trench around it and cut the branching roots, then jerk it out with my 1997 F250 4x4 Powerstroke diesel

[pworley1]

I usually use my backhoe, it hasn't failed to get one out yet.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

kno3

[jimlj]

I don't know if renting a stump grinder is even an option in Hawaii, but it was the fastest most effective (and most expensive, but it worked) way I've tried.

[dale2242]

I vote for the stump grinder.

[atr]

I have had them dug out with a back-hoe.

Also, if you are going to pour concrete over the area where the stump was, make sure that all the root debris has been cleared out and that the backfilled material is well compacted. Without the compacting you risk slab settlement and cracking.

[rbuck351]

I use a backhoe but that's because I have one.

[JimB..]

Have used a mini excavator to remove surprisingly large stumps. Don’t fight it, just dig around until the bucket gets under it. I’d think it’d be pretty easy with your soil.

Burning is slow, but I do like the idea of using a blower. I’d hook the blower to a length of black pipe and really get in there with it.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Whatever method you use, GIT 'ER DONE. If you don't the termites will make it their home and it will not take them long..

[gc45]

My 40U Kubota does them is a few minutes.

[GregLaROCHE]

Getting down to ground level is one thing. However if you want to reclaim an abandoned field that you can plow that’s another story. I burned and burned stumps and pulled with my tractor until I was afraid to pull the tractor in half. Finally I got someone with a backhoe that removed them with ease.

[MaryB]

If pouring concrete you want to get as much of the stump and roots as possible out from under it. As the wood rots it settles and will leave a cavity under the concrete.

When they took out the catalpa tree(bean pod tree) stump to build my garage they ended up digging an 8 foot deep trench around it then had to bring in their biggest excavator to yank it out... that stump was 3' across and the main tap root was that wide and went down 9 feet! That would have left a huge cavity under the garage slab after it rotted. Glad I had a reputable company doing the work!

I have yanked smaller 6" stumps with my truck after digging and chopping side roots. Cedars that were to close to the house and were damaging the eaves in wind storms.

[snowwolfe]

Charcoal works much better than wood when burning them out. Backhoe works but leaves a huge hole. I prefer to burn myself even though I have a backhoe with a blade. The bigger the bucket on the backhoe the more difficult they are to dig out.

[country gent]

When using machines to pull/push out stumps cut then 3'-4' above the ground this give leverage and a better bite on them. Running the chain or cable over a log truck rim or post aligns the pull to more up the roots arnt near as strong when this is done. Once cut at ground level your only able to work from there cutting tall you can always cut lower if you need to

[GregLaROCHE]

If you are going to try and pull them out with a tractor or other piece of equipment, it’s good not to cut it flush to the ground. Cutting it four to six feet off the ground give you a lot of leverage. Those cable saws work ok as long as the roots aren’t to big. You will tell yourself that you are not going to touch dirt, but you always do then soon sharpening time soon. If your going to give maximum force pull with a rolling start with slack, I’d suggest a hard hat or even a motorcycle helmet. I had a chain break and it went right for my head. Good thing im hard headed, but I still felt out of it all afternoon.

[blackthorn]

When we cleared the lot at my cabin, we had to deal with 6" to12" diameter pine trees. At the lake the trees that survive to that size have tap roots from 3' to 5' deep. We used a block and rope system using 2 blocks and pulled those trees over, roots and all using my 4x4 truck. To do this we took a tail hold on the base of a tree in the direction we wanted the tree to fall. We then ran the rope to the tree we were pulling, hung a block about 15' up and ran the rope to a second block tied to the tail hold. Finally, we ran the rope up the hill to the road and hooked it to the truck hitch. We rocked the truck a few times and out comes the tree, stump and all. In all, we pulled 20 full sized pines in less that a days work.

[white eagle]

Cleaning the backyard out to pour a couple of slabs and walkway.
Need to move many things around to clear the area.
Have two small trees and one med tree to remove.
I saw a clip on burning the stump out.
Dig down around the stump to fit a drum.
Put charcoal on and around the stump.
Light er' up.
Suppose to take a day or so.
So any other ways to do this????

well there is just depends on how much of a mess you want
I dug one out with my tractor but it made a huge mess

[lightman]

I've used Dynamite, a backhoe and I've burned them out. I knew a guy with a backhoe that made a bracket that held a subsoiler tooth in place of his digging bucket. It didn't disturb as much dirt as a bucket does. The ones that I burned out got several holes drilled in them and filled up with either used motor oil of diesel fuel, then the barrel and charcoal trip. I also used a Squirrel cage blower.

[country gent]

The blower or shop vac speeds things up a lot. When you kick the blower on and it gets going you wont want to be with in 15-20 feet for long, just like the blower on a forge when running it will make heavy steel red hot with out its hit or miss

[.429&H110]

+1 Hire a stump grinder!
But it will leave the roots...

My dad had an A-frame leaning behind the garage.
He called it a "WalkingMan", two 8" tree trunks, 7' long.

Had a 1 inch pipe drilled through the top of the A
Eye hooks for chain to hold the base together
Triple rope block the pipe to the nearest tree
drop a comealong down to the chain run under the stump
Tighten the thing up, pulls the stump straight up
Bar the roots up as they surface, chop the big ones.
Some trees got their tap roots axed, they usually break.
With the A next to the stump
tightening the backstay put an awful force on the stump.
The last time out, we stumped for our new garage.

No machinery, just two boys with adult supervision.



\=\

[abunaitoo]

Tractor can't fit into the back.
Big boom is not a good option.
I'm in the antigun state of hawaii.
Guy that is going to do the slab, has a medium size digger.
I'm trying to remove two small trees to make room for all my stuff.
Make room for them to work.
Can't believe how much stuff I have.
Have a big tree that I'll probably have him pull the stump out.
Or grind out, or whatever he decides.

[akajun]

If your putting a slab over it, dig it out, burning, grinding, etc leaves significant chunks of roots which will rot and cause problems
Idk how big they are or if you have other live trees to pull from but digging one side out, then using compound block and tackles you can pull a big stump out
Other option is rent a mini excavator and dig it out

[firefly1957]

I have had very poor luck burning stumps I cut slots in them drill them even adding Potassium Nitrate and letting it soak in then dry .
The last one was a large wild cherry tree stump it would not burn no matter what I had cut the tree down ten years before .

[facetious]

I have a friend who had to cut done a tree and got a permit to burn the stump.

Said he put a ring of rock around it campfire style and added some wood to it and had some friends over for a cookout and watch the stump .

A neighbor that he didn't get along with calls the cops about the fire, cop shows up, he showed him the permit cop poked the fire to check for a stump and leaves . Neighbor comes out and yells at the cop about the fire, he tells him that he has a permit. Then the neighbor yells at him that hes having a party! The cop told him that the permit didn't say anything about not having a party when the stump was on fire. :drinks:

[Land Owner]

Word of caution when pulling - don't pull in a direction that puts a driver or observer in the path of ropes, chains, pulleys, screw-pin shackles, etc. If a tow line unexpectedly parts, as for example have too many tow ropes pulled out bow cleats in boating, haul lines when retrieving vehicles from ditches, and backyard stump yanking, the "stretch" in the line will explosively act in the direction of the applied force. The tree trunk won't care, but the people in the near field of parting lines have been impaled, mauled, and died as a result of being "shot through" in some of the most gruesome and untended manners. Be REAL careful...

[MaryB]

Word of caution when pulling - don't pull in a direction that puts a driver or observer in the path of ropes, chains, pulleys, screw-pin shackles, etc. If a tow line unexpectedly parts, as for example have too many tow ropes pulled out bow cleats in boating, haul lines when retrieving vehicles from ditches, and backyard stump yanking, the "stretch" in the line will explosively act in the direction of the applied force. The tree trunk won't care, but the people in the near field of parting lines have been impaled, mauled, and died as a result of being "shot through" in some of the most gruesome and untended manners. Be REAL careful...

Friend was yanking his grandsons car out of the ditch. He was using a proper yank strap well rated for the load(60,000 pound strap). Strap held fine... bolt holding a tow hook on the end of it didn't. Bolt went THRU the tailgate of his truck and took out the back window, just missed his head then went out the windshield. We found the bolt 200 feet further down the road. The nut threads sheared and let the bolt stretch and pull thru. When the energy in that tow strap released with no load it shot that bolt like a bullet at the truck. I had told him to put a jacket over it in case of failure... his new yank em strap/rope has woven loops to put over a tow hook or wrap over the frame then pass the rope thru the loop and back to the tow vehicle.

Only metal that could fly is from where it attached on the tow vehicle end and he added a reinforced hook to the tow bar that is welded on, not bolted. That tow bar is massive and is welded to the frame on both sides with reinforcing bars going back to mid frame of the truck. It isn't going anywhere. The new tow hook is rated at 100,000 pounds breaking strength but I asked him if that took into account shock loading it after yanking 10 feet of slack out of the tow rope... he reinforced it after that.

[snowwolfe]

I have a friend who had to cut done a tree and got a permit to burn the stump.

Said he put a ring of rock around it campfire style and added some wood to it and had some friends over for a cookout and watch the stump .

A neighbor that he didn't get along with calls the cops about the fire, cop shows up, he showed him the permit cop poked the fire to check for a stump and leaves . Neighbor comes out and yells at the cop about the fire, he tells him that he has a permit. Then the neighbor yells at him that hes having a party! The cop told him that the permit didn't say anything about not having a party when the stump was on fire. :drinks:

Where do you live that requires you to have a permit to build a camp fire?

[facetious]

Friend was yanking his grandsons car out of the ditch. He was using a proper yank strap well rated for the load(60,000 pound strap). Strap held fine... bolt holding a tow hook on the end of it didn't. Bolt went THRU the tailgate of his truck and took out the back window, just missed his head then went out the windshield. We found the bolt 200 feet further down the road. The nut threads sheared and let the bolt stretch and pull thru. When the energy in that tow strap released with no load it shot that bolt like a bullet at the truck. I had told him to put a jacket over it in case of failure... his new yank em strap/rope has woven loops to put over a tow hook or wrap over the frame then pass the rope thru the loop and back to the tow vehicle.

Only metal that could fly is from where it attached on the tow vehicle end and he added a reinforced hook to the tow bar that is welded on, not bolted. That tow bar is massive and is welded to the frame on both sides with reinforcing bars going back to mid frame of the truck. It isn't going anywhere. The new tow hook is rated at 100,000 pounds breaking strength but I asked him if that took into account shock loading it after yanking 10 feet of slack out of the tow rope... he reinforced it after that.

Had something like that happen to me . The strap held ok but the ring on the other car for towing broke. Hit the back of my truck, didn't do much to the truck but did break the filaments in all the bulbs in the back.

[1Papalote]

Depending on root structure, you could pull them. Last month I used chain and a 1.5T come-a-long (hvy chain model) to pull cedar stumps.

[abunaitoo]

Where do you live that requires you to have a permit to build a camp fire?

We can't even have camp fires in hawaii.
It has to be in a special fire proof pit.
Has to be fully enclosed in a fine wire mesh.
Only allowed in designated areas.
If we do an Imu( pit on the ground to make Kalua pig) need to let the fire department before starting the fire.
No burning of rubbish allowed.
We can still grill, but if it makes to much smoke, fire department might show up.

[abunaitoo]

I was cutting the roots around the stump, and it started to move.
Maybe I won't have to burn it out.
Started to rain, so had to stop.

[William Yanda]

In 3 decades + on our corner lot we have lost over 20 trees including maple, pine, willow and others. Some stumps could be ignored. Some we had ground. one was dug with a backhoe, I pulled an upright Yew with the family car, and I burned one of the maples. I bored holes, treated with used motor oil a couple of times and started a fire over it. As I recall it burned for most of a week but was totally gone.

[Alex_4x4]

https://youtu.be/cMuM40TBvps

[GregLaROCHE]

Interesting video, but what is this guy’s story. It’s obvious it’s in the US. Why is he speaking Russian? Is he trying to sell the machine to the Russian market or post it on Russian YouTube?

[.45Cole]

Just rent a mini ex and dig/pull them out, If you can get a frost claw that will help tremendously

[Alex_4x4]

Interesting video, but what is this guy’s story. It’s obvious it’s in the US. Why is he speaking Russian? Is he trying to sell the machine to the Russian market or post it on Russian YouTube?

This man emigrated from Ukraine a long time ago. I don’t know what status he has in the USA now (citizenship or green card). In the USA, he also works for an employer (installing swimming pools in private households) and, at the same time, independently using this unit, he fulfills orders from homeowners to remove stumps from cut down trees. In his life before emigrating to the USA, he was neither a film director, nor singers, nor an artist of a light genre, but was a handy man, which was useful to him in the USA. He lived in Ukraine in the city of Kharkov. The last year of his life was connected with the events in Ukraine and he did not post videos on his blog for a whole year. Now he is back in the US.

I will not talk about the Russian language in Ukraine - this is "politics".

I will not talk about selling anything from the USA to Russia now - this is "politics".

[GregLaROCHE]

This man emigrated from Ukraine a long time ago. I don’t know what status he has in the USA now (citizenship or green card). In the USA, he also works for an employer (installing swimming pools in private households) and, at the same time, independently using this unit, he fulfills orders from homeowners to remove stumps from cut down trees. In his life before emigrating to the USA, he was neither a film director, nor singers, nor an artist of a light genre, but was a handy man, which was useful to him in the USA. He lived in Ukraine in the city of Kharkov. The last year of his life was connected with the events in Ukraine and he did not post videos on his blog for a whole year. Now he is back in the US.

I will not talk about the Russian language in Ukraine - this is "politics".

I will not talk about selling anything from the USA to Russia now - this is "politics".

I watched a couple of his videos and commented, asking why he didn’t have English subtitles. He responded that it was for a Russian audience and I wouldn’t understand the jokes.

[Alex_4x4]

... He responded that it was for a Russian audience and I wouldn’t understand the jokes.

Funny joke. Not evil.

Unfortunately, I cannot afford here a discussion on the "linguistic theme" - for this is "politics".

But, if you like, a test for a sense of humor:

"In the street, past the pub, an Irishman was walking"