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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Should not be a drama, I have dug out a largish root with my 500kg excavator, took a bit but it got there.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Good for you. Glad it went so well.
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!
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!!!
I want to see those pics too!!!!
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.
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
Yep, these mini exs are incredible little things, mine suprise me all the time!!
Leave him alone, he spelt it like they run TAKEY
You can dig a stump out with a pick and shovel so YES, a 7000K machine can and will dig a stump out...Root balls are not huge on a Cherry. Big tap root, normally grows fairly deep. Time and patience should prevail. Leave enough of a stump so leverage can be one your new best friend. God luck.....
Easy there "special tool" this is a dirt moving, trucking, and heavy equipment forum, not an English or a spelling class... And he didn't say he had 15, 2' stump to remove, he said that he had 15 stumps and the largest approached 2'... little bit different. To Brianpepper01, congratulations on a job completed. "Run what ya brung!"
Since it's been 5.5 years since the OP started the thread, if he didn't get them all out they might have rotted by now...:cool2
Ha ha ha.....you can be sure of one thing, rot is forever....
I'd give anything for root balls, than pan roots...at least with root balls, one is digging in soil, not rock, and the stump is manageable once the dirt is shaken off. These octopuses are a pain to move.
I use the tree scope with a T770 Bobcat. Works awesome. I follow up with a root grapple then blade with bucket to grade. Largest stump was just under 36" was more than I could carry, but was able to drag it out with the grapple over to a burn pile.
I made a ripper for my little excavator and have been taking down well over 2' diameter trees by the root, works great. I have taken out many stumps with minis, including a little JCB 3500+lb machine. As someone said stumps can be removed with a shovel, just depends on how one goes about it.
Madddog, Can you post a pic of that homemade ripper? I am considering doing that. Thanks.
bberry, they do make them to use in place of bucket. If you have the choice and can dig the stump before it is cut the weight and leverage of the tree is a big help to pull the stump. My mini is a right under 10,000 and I have taken out many stumps up to at least full two feet and as has been pointed out the soil type, tree type as roots types vary all come into play. We don't have stones but we have roots that run deep and the trees whose roots run straight down are the hardest as you can not get under the roots easy. Pines here are the ones we need to dig and not wait to rot as many large ones do not rot but turn into lightwood and remain a digging job. Depending on what you have in bucket just begin away from the stump and pop the root where you can and keep moving it for now you are only breaking one end of a root. A narrow bucket is best if you have a choice.
Bberry I can try to get a picture later this week, my machine is 60miles away from me right now. Basically all I did was bought a ripper(the type that goes on a box blade) at TSC then I built the rest of it to fit my machine.
Kthompson and Maddog, I have a new 35D and last Dec. I pulled out a few stumps with a regular toothed bucket. Got the job done but I could see the value of a ripper. I have a couple of the box blade rippers and may weld one behind one with a tooth just to beef it up. I have used the rippers on the box blades and have bent up box blade but never a ripper. The root cutting ability of a ripper or narrow bucket may make for a faster job. On the other hand leveling out the hole after may be faster with the wider bucket if you are doing just one.
If I were going to build a ripper for roots like this would at least use a subsoiler shank for a tractor over a box blade ripper or at least the box blade rippers I have seen. If you live in a old farming community you may can find an old single shank subsoiler for very little in cost. On my mini the time it would take to change back and forth would prevent my using it in digging stumps. Then I have tractor I use subsoiler on for such if I were wanting to. If you do build a ripper I would suggest you think on all the jobs it might be used for, depending on where you live you can use them to bury water lines and electrical lines, also depending on the size of the ripper, again a subsoiler will run deeper than a box blade one will.
cargator your right on the money, works best for me. get rid of the stump in the same hole,
5 ton at work
http://https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-XNGPPn5MgXE/VSqluKqzJDI/AAAAAAAATXk/RyM-su4_BFM/w688-h387-no/20150412_130417.jpg http://https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-hdR4T4V--Nc/VSqlzueHkKI/AAAAAAAATX8/3TtNcUQLCno/w688-h387-no/20150412_130427.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-XNGPPn5MgXE/VSqluKqzJDI/AAAAAAAATXk/RyM-su4_BFM/w688-h387-no/20150412_130417.jpg https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-hdR4T4V--Nc/VSqlzueHkKI/AAAAAAAATX8/3TtNcUQLCno/w688-h387-no/20150412_130427.jpg Here are pics of the stump I removed and moved with my 6000lb TB125. The stump was at least 3000lbs or more.
Billdog350, What year is your TB125 ?. I have a 2005 TB125.
ElCheapo, I believe mine is around a 2000-2001 because the yanmar motor says 2000 on it. The seller said it was a 2002 but I think that might be off. I love my machine so far. I haven't had much time to use it around my house, maybe 10-15 hours so far, but I've gotten a ton done with it. Even a small machine can do amazing things, you just need patience and skill....
Melli; I lived in the Adirondacks for years and had to remove many pine roots, now I live in the TN mountains and most of what I need to remove has been oak. By far the pine roots were much worse(comparable size trees) like the one you pictured. Soil boulders/rocks etc... have a lot to do with it, but the ball system in my opinion is still easier to work with. I had an old hemlock I had to remove once with a 20+ton machine(Adirondacks) made that machine lift off the ground and it still couldn't lift the root out of the ground. What I have found to make the job much easier especially for the smaller machine is to leave the tree attached, use the tree to the machines advantage.
Both these stumps were dug out with a bobcat 331. The second one was too big for the grapple and it had to be close to 3000lbs as the skid steer got a little light in the ass end hauling it away.