dig out stumps?

[brianpepper01]

Could a 7000 pound machine dig out a stump? I have 15 cherry tree stumps that need removed. The biggest on is close to 2 feet in diameter. The local rental companys biggest machine is 7000lbs. I have dug out 2 foot in diameter stumps with my takeuchi skid steer but they were pine, not much of a root ball. Ive never dug out a cherry, are the root balls big? Any advise or suggestions would be greatly appriciated. Thanks

 

[kthompson]

I have dug one or two wild cherry trees maybe up to 10 inches in diameter and they did not have a large root ball. I have a 10,000 machine and have dug a few 2 foot hardwood stumps with wide root balls and pines stumps with roots down 7 feet or more. Then as a good friend told me sure you can dig them, but can you lift them out the hole, nope. We were discussing a 7,000 machine then. I think you will need more machine or a lot, lot of time.

 

[strott]

Should be fine (epecially if you have a bit of a stump above ground for leverage) just dig around the root methodically to break through the major 'tap' roots and rock the stump back and forth to see where there is resitance and then work on reducing the resistance in that particular area. Repeat this untill you can pull/push/lift the stump.

You probably won't be able to lift the stumps out of the ground straight away unless they are rotten!!

Have the blade at the front of the machine to prevent machine movement, use a narrow bucket with teeth to maximise the breakout force applied to the stump, make breaking through the tap roots easier and to prevent excessive wear on the excavator.

 

[carogator]

and you don't need to lift the root out. roll it out or roll it on the side, fill in under it, roll again, fill in until it sits on top of the ground.

 

[brianpepper01]

Thanks for all the ideas. There is about 4 feet of trunk still standing. They were all cut pretty high. I will have my Takeuchi TL26 skid steer to help get them out of the hole. Thanks again and any other ideas will be appriciated.

 

[Hendrik]

Should not be a drama, I have dug out a largish root with my 500kg excavator, took a bit but it got there.

 

[special tool]

15 of them 2 feet in diameter with a 25?
I don't know man......make sure that your patience quota is EXTRA high that day - you're gonna need it.

You will be beating the HECK out of either of those machines to do it, but I guess you could.

 

[Hendrik]

I have dug one or two wild cherry trees maybe up to 10 inches in diameter and they did not have a large root ball. I have a 10,000 machine and have dug a few 2 foot hardwood stumps with wide root balls and pines stumps with roots down 7 feet or more. Then as a good friend told me sure you can dig them, but can you lift them out the hole, nope. We were discussing a 7,000 machine then. I think you will need more machine or a lot, lot of time.

Well the tree stump in the picture above weighed close to 100kg, which is the max lifting capacity of the SK005. A 3 tonne machine should be able to lift 600kg perhaps a little more depending on machine and back fill blade position.
I dug another tree stump out and used high pressure water to clean the soil away from the roots and cut them with an axe, hard dirty work but it got the job done.
Perhaps you could ask the hire center if the 7000 pound machine is capable of doing the job, more than likely they would know.

 

[brianpepper01]

I did ask the rental company if they thought it could dig it out and they had no idea. Lots of help, huh? How heavy can the root balls get? My skid steer can easily lift a pallet with 1 ton of wood chips on it.

 

[wilddanz71]

I saw heck ya! Its a rental who cares if you beat on it, every one else dose.
I have pulled plenty of cherry trees out on my land and they have a very small rootball atleast in my clay they do.

 

[EastCoastEquip]

No problem, we dig them out all the time with our Kobelco 25 mini excavator which isn't a big machine. The last one we did was a 25" diameter red oak. We've taken out a lot of Cherry's 24" and smaller. we also have pushed over a few smaller trees with our T190 track loader.

 

[captain charlie]

Wild cherry stumps suck around in british columbia, the tap root goes pretty deep i just dig and cut them off as deep as i can.

 

[brianpepper01]

Well I got them all out. You probably wont believe me but I only used my Takeushi TL 26 Skid steer. Took out 15 stumps in 5 hours. I will try to get a picture tomorrow.

 

[kthompson]

Good for you. Glad it went so well.

 

[special tool]

You took out 15 2 foot cherry tree stumps in 5 hours with a skid steer that you don't know how to spell??
Show that machine some respect, man!

 

[brianpepper01]

Sorry, Takeuchi. I didnt realize I was in english class!

 

[special tool]

Sorry, Takeuchi. I didnt realize I was in english class!

Get those stump pics up, bro.
One 2 foot stump every 20 minutes is unbelievable!!!

 

[wilddanz71]

I want to see those pics too!!!!

 

[brianpepper01]

I will take a picture tomorrow. I have all the stumps lined up ready to get loaded on a trailer to dispose of them. A couple of the stumps were extremly heavy. I was right on the edge of tipping the machine while I was moving them. Tipping load is 3750 pounds for the TL26. I was planning on 2 full days with the excavator to get them out. I started with the skid steer to see what I was in for and was amazed at how good it dug them out. I started at 9 am and by 2 pm I was done. I started to backfill and grade it back out even before I called it a day. The homeowner was extremly impressed. He said he had a guy come in last week with a 763 bobcat and he spent 2 hours on one stump and gave up. He had a smooth bucket while my bucket had teeth.

 

[upnover]

Just thought I would post some pics of Yanni and I digging stumps this summer at ranch in the horse corrals. The stumps were mostly spruce. Some of the big suckers went down about 6-8'. This was the most fun I have had in a long time. Took about 20 minute to dig out the worst then another 10 to backfill! I was amazed at what an 8000lb machine would dig and lift out. I just wished I had another job to do the same thing all over again