My 40U Kubota does them is a few minutes.
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.
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.
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.
Wasilla, AK
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
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.
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.
R.D.M.
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.
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
+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.
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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.
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
NRA High Master XTC
DR# 2125
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 .
When I think back on all the **** I learned in high school it's a wonder I can think at all ! And then my lack of education hasn't hurt me none I can read the writing on the wall.
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.
We go through life trying to make the best decisions we can based on the best infomation we can find, that turns out to be wrong.
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...
If it was easy, anybody could do it.
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.
We go through life trying to make the best decisions we can based on the best infomation we can find, that turns out to be wrong.
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.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |