I know that there are so, so, so many variable that come into play when discussing stumps that I won't touch that. But with a combination of soft wood, hard wood, different soils, sizes from small up to 36", etc. etc- at the end of the day with the same operator will there be much advantage in a 24 ton vs. a 20 ton? If renting, is it worth the extra $$$ to go with the larger machine?
Last nice size clearing job I had was 60 or so acres in Birmingham. The normal central AL mix of pine and hardwoods (oak, sweet gum, hickory, etc) We had a 325, 320 and a 321 grubbing after the loggers. The 325 was much more efficient than the other two hoes. The 325 would handle the larger oak stumps (2-3') without much trouble. I think that 325 was in the 70K class range. How much acreage do you have and how much price difference in the rental from a 320 to a 325 size machine?
Probably looking at about 100 acres of hardwood stumps. Planning to get prices this week. Is a thumb worth the extra money? And what did you do with the stumps when you cleared the 60 acres? How long did it take? THANKS!!
The 60 acres took us about a month or so since we had to haul everything to a pit burner and we had some steep ravines to grub, in addition to it being winter time. The job was in Jefferson County so even during the burning season, we had to have a pit burner and inspection of the pit every time we moved the burner. Had some support equipment - 725 artic, D6N, 2 953's, D5G and a D5N. We used the artic to haul the stumps to the pit burner and the other support equipment was either raking brush or stripping topsoil into windrows as the site was grubbed. The 320C was put on pit duty, feeding the burner. The burner did a very good job of burning the stumps up. A thumb is a must IMO, I wouldn't rent an excavator without it for clearing/grubbing work.
I heard someone was able once to have the USAF do a practice napalm run on their clearing job... i gather it was night vs day when they left!!
cm1995, sound like you definitely had some equipment to get the job done. I am concerned about what to do with 100 acres worth of stumps. And it sounds like it may definitely take some time for digging. Plus it has about 4 yrs of regrowth to make things worse.
I'd dig big localized holes and bury the stumps 10 ft down. Something like a 35 tonne class machine with narrow tracks and a thumb would be ideal for the job. It would yank the stumps out in no time compared to a 20. Even a 24 tonner would have a significant advantage over a 20. Still, you can make do with almost any machine over 12 tonnes. I do big stumps sometimes with my thumbless 200 John Deere, and it takes me around an hour to take out, bury, and backfill 9 24" stumps or 5 36" stumps. I bury the stumps so that highest stump in my pile of stumps in the hole is more than 5 ft below the ground so that frost doesn't heave it up. I don't know if that is necessary where you are. A thumb would be handy for picking up smaller stumps, because a lot of time is wasted trying to grab stumps without a thumb. You won't have a hope of picking up 36" stumps in one piece with a 20 tonner, so the utility of the thumb is somewhat reduced for the extra big stumps. Still, a thumb is well worth it for handling smaller stumps.
I have ran across some stumps that I definitely underestimated their earthliness.....? It has nothing but a tap root. No idea what type of tree it is, but even a 10" stump dug around 2' deep can still prove difficult for a JD310E backhoe. They are tough! Some stumps twice as large come out in half the time. The only good thing about these are that they usually come out clean without dirt. The bigger stumps without the tap roots dig out easier, but the backhoe has some diffuculty removing the larger ones from the holes.
Sounds like a hickory. What is the intended use of the property after you clear it? I have always worked on building/development sites so we couldn't bury any brush or stumps since they would rot and leave depressions or worse settle a structure.
Owner wants to be able to bush hog land. Possilby farm. I can understand not burying for building sites!! I wonder if the holes are just from unpacked soil around the stumps when buried. Is there enough oxygen in the ground for the stumps to actually rot?
As far as the south goes, yes they will rot. It may take a few years but there will be depressions when they rot and the dirt settles. Problem is it's not catastrophic, the hole settles a little bit every year for many years.
I have seen some pretty nasty 'depressions' from stumps, id even go as far to say they developed into holes. I've always heard Burying is a bad idea, for that very reason. Good luck.
When our property was cleared in the early 1970s they buried all the stumps. They leave some pretty nasty low spots when they rot. Last year I took a load of soil out on the back 40 with the old F600 Single axle dump truck and suddenly the back end sunk in right to the axle. My grandma was putting the chickens in one night and found another hole left by rotting stumps some time ago back in the same area and broke her leg in the process... Not a good day... I'm not a fan of burying stumps and brush but if you have no other choice... As far as a machine goes I've used a 150 Hitachi for clearing and it did good, just takes time. Had a huge fir stump 6 feet in diameter to dig out, it took the entire day and the crater was about 20 feet wide and god knows how deep by the time I was done. It's the big tap root as others have said that will cause some issues. On some trees they grow sideways, others straight down... Are the trees you're trying to clear still standing? If they are you can probably get away with a smaller machine if you can push them down as this gives you lots of leverage to pop the stumps out. But as others have said bigger is better. A thumb is a must as far as I'm concerned, wouldn't want to be without one. Hope this helps!
It is illegal to bury any brush or stumps in our area, plus I hate the settling later.
My father had some land cleared back for pasture back in the mid '80's. The stumps were all buried. About 5 years later, the depressions showed up. Within 10 years there were sink holes.
In NH there are now companies that grind stumps and use the grindings for landscape mulch. One guy has a permitted stump dump that was filling up and had a company come in and grind all the stumps for free if the got to keep the grindings. Due to the lack of new construction they were having a hard time finding a supply of stumps to grind so it was a win win for both parties. Living in the second most heavily forested state in the union, we generate a lot of stumps, both hard and softwood.
Yes as the others have said, the stumps do decompose slowly, but it is fine for agricultural ground. Of course you shouldn't do it on an urban property or on land that may have buildings on it in the near future. I usually bring some extra sand to put over stump holes and bury sites to compensate for future settling a bit. If the land will be put under cultivation, the soil moved by the plow/cultivator will usually just fill the little settling that happens annually.
Well it looks like strictly stumping for a while. Leaning toward a Kobelco SK290 with thumb. Any idea on fuel useage for this machine?
Should be something like 24 litres per hour. That's roughly 6.5 US gallons per hour.
The thing about stumping is, the bigger the machine, the smaller the stump hole you have. I have found a narrow trenching bucket works great at tearing the roots close to the actual stump. The further from the stump you get, the smaller ( and weaker) the roots get. So with a backhoe you can end up with a massive hole for a tough stump. That same stump would come out with almost no dirt moved if you had a 345 to use. So the bigger machine will pop the stump out quicker, and leave less mess to clean up. I use a 26 ton machine, and if you go up against a 2-3' oak you'll be there for 20 minutes. Elm, maybe longer. Those are about the toughest. We did a bunch of mature trees this summer, and were running about 3 trees/hour when they were big. Good luck
100% true. It takes me 15 mins to just yank out a 2.5' maple stump with my 200 John Deere. I just keep on digging and hacking away around it till it comes out with as a big mess. A 345 would take the same stump out in a minute. One 345 can outwork 10 320s or 200s pulling out big stumps. There are other parts to the job though that will consume lots of time even with a 345, and there isn't much difference for small stumps, but still, bigger is better for big stumps.