Does anyone have any recommendations on a stump grinder for a skid steer and how well do they work compared to a dedicated rig? I have a large dedicated rig but I’m interested in something that can easily travel out in the fields and timber to remove stumps. The standard version isn’t very well suited for getting to the spots we need to get to but I don’t want to buy something if they don’t work very well either. If anyone has any first hand experience I’d appreciate some insight. I’d be looking for a high flow grinder for a CAT 299 D3 if that helps any.
I guess nobody uses them lol, that’s not a good sign
I am going to get a stump grinder attachment for my Gravely 5665 walk behind,.. does that count?
I used to own a Rayco S C 130 stumpgrinder and was a good bit of gear. However using a grinder on a skidsteer can be a problem when working on a slope, the machine needs to remain stationary for each swing of the grinder and I havent found one that does that. My grinder was on a C140 which had a mode that locked the track brakes. If you can get Cat to set this up I'm sure there many good grinders that are fit for purpose except for StumpX. Apparently they are junk
I was in the stump grinding business for 15 years. I never owned a grinding attachment for the skidsteer. They are not all that good as far as efficiency goes. Hard to see what you are grinding, not enough weight on the grinding head and too much on the rear of the skidsteer, and, throws chunks and cuttings all over the cab area. Unless you have an enclosed cab with the forestry door, don't even think about grinding. I had several dedicated, tracked machines that would go anywhere, and grind most anything, quickly and efficiently. They would travel across a field or through the woods as quickly as a skidsteer. Both of the tracked machines would narrow down to about 34", allowing access to backyards. Then the hydraulic system would widen the tracks back out for grinding. Carlton makes the best stump grinders you can buy in my opinion. Not cheap, but a used, diesel, tracked machine, can probably be found for around $40,000. New ones are upwards of $60,000 in many cases. Jeff
We have rented a cat one for the 279d worked fine there are some obvious horsepower limitations took off 5 acres of oak stumps in a couple days
I used a high flow Quick Attach model on stumps a couple years ago. I thought it worked damn good. The attachment belonged to the customer and I used my machine a 2018 SV340. Plenty of power, visibility good. If I did enough of that to warrant one, I would buy one.
Thanks for the insight gentleman, I’m about to pull the trigger on one and give it a shot..
Please post a review of what you buy here when you get it. I'm very interested as I am getting a lot of calls for stump grinding lately. I line up a days worth of work and rent a stump grinder for now. I can rent a much bigger grinder and be very productive for a day compared to the size of grinder I could actually afford to buy. That said, I do have a bobcat that would give me the mobility and the horsepower part of the equation if a suitable grinder was out there to maintain production.
2 things to weight up. A dedicated grinder will grinder stumps faster but is slow moving over the site. The opposite applies to a skidsteer and grinder attachment. A dedicated machine can't do anything else
Like Tones, I have used a Fecon/Rayco 140 with a purpose built stump grinder attachment for a while. At 6000 psi and 69 gpm that little machine is a beast compared to a skid steer grinder. I've tried a couple other stump grinder attachments but nothing came close to my Fecon 140 unit for speed. 2' diameter, 18" tall and subsoil out 6" of material for a 24" depth of cut in 3 minutes or less on oaks and hickory trees. 72" wide stump bases (about 36" at cut) were usually done in 7-8 minutes on oaks. I've also had that machine climb and hold oil pressure at 47 degree slope for extreme work conditions. My old ASV at 38? gpm @ 3k psi was a Chihuahua compared to that little 140. It's all about dedicated flow rate to the attachment if you plan on getting a lot done in a day. I don't do any paying dirt work so the ASV is long gone and it is not missed. I don't do enough stump work so the 140 will be finding a new home, too. For me and what I concentrate on, raw power is the key to efficiency so I stick to a larger machine that fits my needs better.
I agree, you can not have too much power behind that grinding or mulching head. I used a Fecon 140 for 2 years, for clearing a little over 1000 acres, as well as doing stump grinding with it. It was a workhorse. Of course, it kept the rental house mechanic busy for the whole 2 years. I have to disagree with Tones on travel speed. Both of my tracked machines, in high range, would move fast enough that I had to do a slow trot to keep up with them. I did learn to hate all that walking though. I liked riding in the airconditioned machine. Jeff
I’ve got 2 dedicates machines now but their not user friendly when your having to go a mile or more to the stumps and their isn’t any way to drive the truck any closer plus I’m dang sure not walking that far lol. Mainly looking to grind the larger stumps along newly cleared fence row lanes and road beds, an excavator is the easiest for removing the stumps but then we’re stuck with the root balls to deal with. We’ve tried that route and it works but simply a pita and grinding the balls with a mulcher gets expensive with all the rocks in the balls. As far as the size of the machine, theirs always a bigger better option that works better and faster but I’m looking for one to work on the 299’s for simplicity. We load tools and attachments on off-road trailers we built and pull it to where we are working for the day or at least close by and the 299’s are what’s already on site for the other work plus a dedicated rig won’t drive posts, run a mulcher or brush cutter or allow you to cool off In the ac. I’ll update the thread when I get one on site and run it a while,
I’m leaning toward this one, it’s hard to find first hand knowledge of how they work though https://diamondmowers.com/products/skid-steer-attachments/skid-steer-miller-stump-grinder/
That looks like a legit attachment. I trust what Diamond puts out for attachments, my experience has been good, but I have never run this one. It looks to be be built heavier than the Quick Attach stump grinder I ran. The little dozer blade would be nice to have. My guess would be about $10K?
I was quoted $12k but I’m waiting on a couple more guys to get back with me on a price.
Some company has a skidsteer stump grinder that grinds sideways, thus throwing the cuttings left or right, instead of into the cab window. I have seen it advertised in Tree Trader Magazine, but can not remember who it is. Might be worth looking into from a safety aspect. Jeff
Their are several that cut sideways but you have to move the skid steer to move the cut which seems really hard to do and a pain by watching videos on them. Some are spring loaded which seems kinda flimsy me as well but who knows, they may work great. As far as the safety aspect, I hear what your saying and if you were running a glass door that would be the best way to go for sure imo. It would be great if you could demo some units before buying something but that’s not going to happen lol. Trial by fire, be a Pissarro to buy one and it didn’t work worth a flip.
Owned a Quick Attach Stump Grinder. Put it on a John Deere 326D Skid Steer. It came with the harness wired wrong for the Skid steer. Had to rewire the entire thing. They did not offer 1 cent towards the fix up. Tried to say it must be in the machine. When after 1 day of wiring I got it going it worked not too bad . It would grind a stump down but would bury itself with chips so that you had to get out and rake away chips to see what was going on. I would lower them about 8 inches below surface. That being said for rubber tired machines I had to put the machine on 2X12 planks or it would sink into the ground because of the vibration and work action of the cutter head. On a track machine it might work better especially if the ground is not soft. Was taking about 15 minutes to do 1 stump. Pretty much needed someone on the ground to rake away the chips as you go or you have to get out and do it yourself. Can't see otherwise. Thats my experience with one. Simon C
skid steer attachments are really versatile, but that is one that I could see as being a poor substitute for the real thing.
As I said the stump grinder did work, but having to set up wood under it everytime was a pain and not being able to see what was happening because of the vast amount of chips was no fun either. Less money than a dedicated machine to do stumps but not 100 stumps done in one day either. Simon C
I rented one of those last summer along with a Bobcat MT100 mini skid steer. Very disappointed. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a power issue but rather control of the attachment. I found it very difficult to make controlled moves with the skid steer while grinding. You’re running at wide open throttle to get the most flow which on a machine like the MT100 translates into rapid moves with the joysticks. I rented a mini because I was working in a tight area that i couldn’t access with my T595.
Reuben- you ever get to try anything yet?
Used several over the years, wasn't impressed with any, the diamond version kicks the junk towards you, you need a cab with a good bullet proof front window to keep you clean and able to breathe. The side mount versions are better to see the stump and kick the debris to the side, but are harder to control and none of them can transmit the hp to the stump like a dedicated stump grinder driven off of belts and a larger dedicated engine. The unit I was most impressed with a pto drive unit off a larger tractor, three point, but that whole 150 hp to the cutter head made everything else I'd seen look like a toy, took about five minutes to grind what the skid steers did in an hour or two. We just ground four stumps at one of my son's houses two weeks ago, used a skid steer unit and talk about slow, about an hour per stump, but the price was right [free] and I didn't have to run it, so all the better.
If you have full time work stumpgrinding then a dedicated machine is the way to go. For part time work then ancillary grinder is the go and sure they are slower but here's the thing. When you're not grinding stumps the base machine can perform other tasks associated with your business like bucket work etc. It all comes down the economy of scale.
Another thing to consider is, do you mostly have stumps to grind that are in front or back yards. A dedicated machine is much better for "in town" type work, and for working on any type of lawn. Many lawns where you are have gates that are supposed to be 36" wide, but are actually about 35" wide. I ground stumps for almost 20 years just north of Dallas. A dedicated machine always worked best for me, even out in wide open fields, a quick travel speed and ease of positioning were a big plus, as well as the narrow width for in town yards. Of course, on a big property I did a lot of walking, instead of riding.
Every area is different and you have to have a machine that fits your area, in my area, nobody has fences in their backyards, and not many care so much about the lawn as long as it doesn't cost a fortune to grind the stumps. It also depends on what kind of tree's are in your area and what size of stumps your talking about. If you have stumps that are hardwood and up to or more than five foot in diameter, a smaller tracked machine takes too long to get it done, if you have to get through gates and fences like has been mentioned and your stumps are soft wood and only a foot or so in diameter, either a pull type behind a pickup or else a tractor mount isn't really going to work the best. The only one who can really answer your question is you, go with the size of stumps you have to deal with and also what the homeowners in your area want and expect. Everyone can tell you what to do based on their area, but that won't mean much if your area is completely different. For my area, large hp and big capacity and reasonably priced gets the work. Those running pull behind units with a dedicated engine either use their pickup to move from stump to stump or else hook it to a skid steer or small tractor to move it around the houses, or else they have a dedicated self propelled unit, tracked but the one with the bulk of the work always did it with a older JD 4020 and pto drive unit. It would not surprise me if he's passed away by now, I haven't seen him around since covid19. He used to grind stumps in the thousands if not tens of thousands of stumps per year, but the last I knew he was in his 70's and it gave him something to do in retirement.
I use a ritchie brothers Handy 27 inch on CAT 289D3. Takes some practice, I've ground about a dozen stumps, ranging from 12 inches to 30+ inches... it does the job, not fast, but saved me paying to have them ground. Stumps I've done paid for the attachment in savings.