Ground four stumps Tuesday

[Soundchasm]

This is not the job for a "Type A" personality. Very slow and methodical, and you have to plan. And lots of patience. I rented a tracked model from Sunbelt Rentals for $250 (8 business hours or 24 real hours). Got used to the steering and joystick. Got pretty sick of the red button you have to hold down the blade to spin.

Oddly, it's very sensitive work. Possibly removing 1/4" a pass before lugging starts. I would go straight to the left edge of the stump, and grind swinging to the right. On level ground with Pine, this worked well

On a hill with a Hackberry and Black Locust stump, it was more challenging.

Conclusions - work with somebody who can help keep that hole clean so you can see what you're doing. A blower is perfect for getting the grinder where you can see the task.

Also, I'm sure I wasn't efficient or overly aggressive with it. But fuel is an actual concern. I'm sure it burns at least a gallon an hour minimum.

The debris follows exactly what we learned about different species. Pine - lots of noodles. Locust - still in excellent shape, gave up lots of fragments and sawdust. Hackberry - still no fun to work with - stringy noodles.

Cleared about 20 wheelbarrows of debris from the holes, and that will amend the mulch patch nicely.

With experience, completely organized and a straight plan, and an ASSISTANT to help spot and clean, I bet I could have gotten them all in four hours.

Will try to post photos, but that won't be just momentarily.

Hoe this helps somebody.
Thanks,
Greg

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Wow Greg. I guess they are not all created equal. I got to watch a fellow grinding some stumps at a neighbor's place. I don't remember for sure how many he ground but am thinking it was somewhere around a dozen and the work went really quick. Maybe it is just the size though as I am not very familiar with the grinders having never needed or used one.

 

[Soundchasm]

Hey, B-Savage, I was no expert using that thing. One stump was three feet across and three were probably 1.5-2' across. Since I had the time, I did my best to go as deep as possible. And then there are the roots that branch out. So, doing my best to see some dirt at the bottom, I'm sure I was at 1 hour per stump.

So, nobody would pay me by the hour to run one of those thing!

 

[HDRock]

Thanks for posting

 

[Soundchasm]

I did two pines, one black locust and my nemesis, that stupid, stupid, stupid hackberry. I was pretty much able to march through the pines because that wood was soft and on level ground. The locust stump was several years old (5?), and ground beautifully into sawdust, but adjoined a cherry tree and I didn't want to hit those roots. The stupid hackberry (did I mention it's stupid?) was thoroughly rotted on the top, but viable a few inches down, good and moist, and it seemed to be rubbery enough that the cutting bolts were bouncing off of it as much as they cutting into it.

And for even more entertainment value, the s----d (fill-in the blanks) hackberry was on a 30 degree slope.

Here's what I rented- Mine was green, but I could have gone faster if it had some racing stripes.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

That looks like a good machine!

 

[Paulywalnut]

Not a bad price. It's expensive to have someone come in and do that. It is very tiring and it kills your hearing.
Hope you had ear plugs or some king of ear protection.

 

[Soundchasm]

My original plan of letting them rot was taking too long! I always wear ear and eye protection when I'm doing stuff, but I'm sure the neighbors were happy to see this thing leave. The hardest part was just standing with a slightly bent back.

The machine totally has an "Empire Strikes Back" vibe to it. I'll be so happy to get those spots back and plant some really nice hardwoods. And when THEY come down, it's not gonna' be my problem...

 

[weatherguy]

The guy that did mine had a huge machine he borrows from his employer, he did 6 stumps in about 45 mins, left a huge pile of chips. The one he has was definitely bigger than the one at the rental place I checked out. Worth it to rent one out if you cant find anyone to do it for a reasonable price.

 

[Soundchasm]

The guy that did mine had a huge machine he borrows from his employer, he did 6 stumps in about 45 mins, left a huge pile of chips. The one he has was definitely bigger than the one at the rental place I checked out. Worth it to rent one out if you cant find anyone to do it for a reasonable price.

It's hard for me to imagine a bigger grinder - that thing must be industrial strength! When I was researching how big a unit to rent, I looked into those rototiller-sized pieces. The single best bit I read on the net was a guy cautioning another to go rent one for a few hours, and see if he still felt like buying one... Words of wisdom and experience, I thought. Rent the big one!

 

[weatherguy]

It's hard for me to imagine a bigger grinder - that thing must be industrial strength! When I was researching how big a unit to rent, I looked into those rototiller-sized pieces. The single best bit I read on the net was a guy cautioning another to go rent one for a few hours, and see if he still felt like buying one... Words of wisdom and experience, I thought. Rent the big one!

Its hard to tell from the pic with nothing near it to compare, maybe it was about that size, the guy worked for a big company and he used their machine on weekends to do side jobs. It ate the stumps like butter but he does this all the time so maybe once you use the machine a thousand times you get quicker with it.