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Pulling Stumps----------1920

This brings back memories - I tried pulling stumps with a little tractor like that and it was a dangerous waste of time on my property even with 24,000 lbs of pull . . . the stumps just sat their and didn't so much as make a popping sound.

I then bought a TD7E with a 6-way blade and used it to dig around the stumps (far larger than shown in this video) After a summer of weekends working about 24 hours each weekend I only had gotten about 40 stumps out (the largest were between 8 and 14 feet across and some had been dead since the 1902 Yacolt burn and the largest stumps were actually snags often 30 - 50 feet tall and it took a bit of rigging to get them to fall over where you wanted them to land. I got to the point where I could get a fresh 20 inch diameter tree stump out in less than an hour . . . but anything bigger than 36 inches and the time went up by the square of the diameter after that.

I burned the first big pile of stumps over a week long period - largest fire I have ever had to manage. Took 15 gallons of diesel and a road flare to get it started properly and then you couldn't get within 60 feet of if for a couple of days. I just kept pushing it in with the dozer as it burned down.

After that I decided it was going to take way too long to get the rest of the stumps out and I hired a local Cat skinner with a D9 dozer with a Semi-U blade and stump splitter on the back. A stump that would take me 8 hours to dig out, tip over, and push out of the crater I had made . . . this big dozer could split into 4 pieces in about 10 minutes and then push them out onto the surface and then go onto the next one while I would take my dozer and grab the quarters one at a time and move them to the burn pile. Tag teaming we cleared more stumps in one weekend than I had cleared in an entire summer.

We cleared 15 acres working together and the next weekend we moved about 60,000 cu yards of dirt to make a building site . . . fun times when you are young and don't know what you don't know.
 
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This brings back memories - I tried pulling stumps with a little tractor like that and it was a dangerous waste of time on my property even with 24,000 lbs of pull . . . the stumps just sat their and didn't so much as make a popping sound.

I then bought a TD7E with a 6-way blade and used it to dig around the stumps (far larger than shown in this video) After a summer of weekends working about 24 hours each weekend I only had gotten about 40 stumps out (the largest were between 8 and 14 feet across and some had been dead since the 1902 Yacolt burn and the largest stumps were actually snags often 30 - 50 feet tall and it took a bit of rigging to get them to fall over where you wanted them to land. I got to the point where I could get a fresh 20 inch diameter tree stump out in less than an hour . . . but anything bigger than 36 inches and the time went up by the square of the diameter after that.

I burned the first big pile of stumps over a week long period - largest fire I have ever had to manage. Took 15 gallons of diesel and a road flare to get it started properly and then you couldn't get within 60 feet of if for a couple of days. I just kept pushing it in with the dozer as it burned down.

After that I decided it was going to take way too long to get the rest of the stumps out and I hired a local Cat skinner with a D9 dozer with a Semi-U blade and stump splitter on the back. A stump that would take me 8 hours to dig out, tip over, and push out of the crater I had made . . . this big dozer could spit into 4 pieces in about 10 minutes and then push them out onto the surface and then go onto the next one while I would take my dozer and grab the quarters one at a time and move them to the burn pile. Tag teaming we cleared more stumps in one weekend than I had cleared in an entire summer.

I cleared 15 acres and the next weekend we moved about 60,000 cu ft of dirt to make a building site . . . fun times when you are young and don't know what you don't know.


Your western stumps are big for sure, but our eastern Maples go all the way to the center of the earth!

I've resorted to high N2 fertilizer to get them into the ground. 'Takes four or five years, but I can wait ;-)

eta

Pulling stumps directly with a wheel tractor or even a small crawler is a fools mission.
A winch can pull 10X what traction can provide, Unless the big machines are used.

35HP mechanical 4wd tractor will pull a 6 inch fruit tree... barely! ;-)
 
How do you get big stumps to burn? I've pushed out some big ones, 8 ft or more in diameter balls, left them dry for a year, pushed big piles of brush around and over them, burned the piles and the stumps are left behind almost untouched.
 
How do you get big stumps to burn? I've pushed out some big ones, 8 ft or more in diameter balls, left them dry for a year, pushed big piles of brush around and over them, burned the piles and the stumps are left behind almost untouched.

Don't burn them. Hack off the longer roots then post them for free on a woodturning forum. (cutting the big ones in half can help) Root balls can have some interesting figure. It's tough to get most turners to pay for them unless there's something clearly exciting about it, but they'll usually take free all day long.
 
In the video are they running a cable directly from the winch to the stump, or is there a block and tackle out of sight (kinda see a few cables early in the video)?

I'm doing a project like this right now. Our properties containment pond never got dug deep enough and there's some brush and trees in it where the dirt needs to come out. I got a very reasonable quote to have a dozer guy come in and take care of it, but then the economy went to pot and our budget went to more important things than hurricane prep... so now I'm doing the cheap impractical looong route. I bought a 49' Ford 8N and have a plow, bucket, and blade and am digging it down bucket by bucket. The biggest trees to remove are 6-8," and I'm thinking about using a 2-ton chain fall anchored to a larger live tree to yank the stumps out after they've sat rotting for a year or so. The dirt has lots of clay in it, so I'm only able to really put a dent in it after it's rained.
 
How do you get big stumps to burn? I've pushed out some big ones, 8 ft or more in diameter balls, left them dry for a year, pushed big piles of brush around and over them, burned the piles and the stumps are left behind almost untouched.

I've got a pile of stumps out back. I must have started that pile 12 years ago. It has 6-8 stumps is all. The stumps in are well blackened from the yearly brush fires that get burned on around and over them. Heck it took better than three years just to get the rocks and soil to drop loose. ;-)

I would bury them, but then they might grow again ;-) I call the pile habitat developement.....
 
Great video.

At one point I had a 20 ton excavator sitting around here for a while and I pulled some stumps with that. They came out but it was surprising to me that it still wasn't like falling out of bed. They didn't just pop out, had to do some digging.

I wonder if prior to mechanization people didn't just cut the trees down and run pigs on the area for a while to eat everything and root then just wait for the stumps to rot.
 
In the video are they running a cable directly from the winch to the stump, or is there a block and tackle out of sight (kinda see a few cables early in the video)?

You can see in the film that some of the pulls are not straight to the tractor. Hard to tell if they doubled up the line between stumps and just a single line back to the winch?
I was thinking they just did not want the cable to break or come unhooked and get the guy on the tractor.
 
Don't burn them. Hack off the longer roots then post them for free on a woodturning forum. (cutting the big ones in half can help) Root balls can have some interesting figure. It's tough to get most turners to pay for them unless there's something clearly exciting about it, but they'll usually take free all day long.


Excellent idea but these are way too big for that. I can't get them in a 2.5 yard bucket on a trackloader, all I can do is roll them around.

I have found it way easier to push the whole tree down then cut the root off than to dig the root out after cutting the tree down. I push them over with a trackloader with the bucket teeth placed up high on the trunk then use the bucket teeth to carve off as much dirt from the root ball as possible. I've pushed trees over that I can't move until they are cut up. Using an excavator I've seen the same process used. Of course, if the tree is already cut you don't have this option.
 
I've got a pile of stumps out back. I must have started that pile 12 years ago. It has 6-8 stumps is all. The stumps in are well blackened from the yearly brush fires that get burned on around and over them. Heck it took better than three years just to get the rocks and soil to drop loose. ;-)
It's amazing how densely packed the dirt is between the roots, isn't it? Can't even dig it out with a machine properly.
 
View attachment 302450View attachment 302451

This is my 1952 Fordson, with a 12ton Boughton winch. Very useful tool but when it comes to stumps I'd rather have an excavator.


I like that winch, I've seen pics only here in the States

The Fordson I have is a 1950 m.y. E27n That's on gas. TVO was popular for you guys in the UK

This one was built in the Dagenham plant. Likely came through Canada, as I don't believe they were imported here. Family feuds etc.Fordson snow blade left.jpg
 
How do you get big stumps to burn? I've pushed out some big ones, 8 ft or more in diameter balls, left them dry for a year, pushed big piles of brush around and over them, burned the piles and the stumps are left behind almost untouched.



When I started, we had enough old dry stumps that were so full of pitch, that they burned extremely hot. I would guess my first stump burn here was easily 40 foot in diameter and 12 feet high at the center. As it would burn down, I would push new stumps into it.

In later stump burns when more of them were fresh and still alive / wet, I found that a 120V furnace blower keeps it fed with air and keeps it hot to the end.
 
Nowhere in the category of big stumps, but I have pulled thousands of mesquite bush stumps. Mowing them down did nothing, spraying them with diesel and roundup knocked them down for a few months, then they would come back, the thorns on those suckers would go right thru a leather boot. Found a grubbing attachment for a tractor, it was made to go on 3pt hitch, I modified it so it would slide onto the fork carriage of JD loader. Bush might only be 5 ft tall, but the tap roots were 10 to 15 feet long. I spent 2 long summers clearing mesquite, hope to never do that again.
 
It's amazing how densely packed the dirt is between the roots, isn't it? Can't even dig it out with a machine properly.


One time I thought to just roll 'em around over the ground with the front end load to let the dirt fall free, That little effort cost me a radiator when one of the roots decided to roll up under! ;-)
 
Nowhere in the category of big stumps, but I have pulled thousands of mesquite bush stumps. Mowing them down did nothing, spraying them with diesel and roundup knocked them down for a few months, then they would come back, the thorns on those suckers would go right thru a leather boot. Found a grubbing attachment for a tractor, it was made to go on 3pt hitch, I modified it so it would slide onto the fork carriage of JD loader. Bush might only be 5 ft tall, but the tap roots were 10 to 15 feet long. I spent 2 long summers clearing mesquite, hope to never do that again.

Sounds like the multiFlora rose that gets growing here. cows will hardly walk around it the thorns jump out so bad ;-)

If the slope isn't too bad, 6-7 years of close mowing will stunt it a bit. But it always comes back.

Goats maybe...
 








 
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