how to get stumps out

i was wondering if there was any thing you could pour on stumps to make them rot faster , also i was thinking about taking a sub soiler and digging around stumps then pulling them out the biggest tractor i have is a ford 4000 would that be a good idea or will i just waste my time thanks for yalls help

FERTILIZER TO HELP WITH BACTERIA ACTION
SALTPETER USE TO BE USED

Drill holes, pour diesel fuel in them, then build a fire around it. I do this, smolders for days. Do it only if you feel like it, but if you can't do it, guess you'll have to rip the roots around it and dig it up.

My dad's answer was "Dynomite" he said LOL. Never fooled with them my self. My anscestors got rid of all the stumps way before I was born and that was in 1937.

i helped my neighbor dig aa stump out 2 weeks ago, about 3 ft across. dug down about 7 feet all around the stump with my backhoe, then he pulled on it with his 7060 allis, about 160 hp tractor. took a half a day to get it out. root ball was dang near the size of a mini van. had to push it with my backhoe loader and his 4020 to get it to the burn pile. next time i'll call a stump grinder out!!!!

You've got the right idea about removing stumps.

Call a local stump removal service and pay $15 per stump.

Saves wear and tear on your equipment and gives you more time to spend looking for old JD tractors!

It could be rough hard work to break those roots, stump size, if large, probably not going to be effective, you'll need that 4000 to be weighted down to get good traction and when you hook onto one that does not shear off or break, something else might.

You will figure this out once you give it a few tries, thing is, you just don't have enough break out force with a subsoiler on a tractor like a 4000, now a single shank 4 barrel ( hydraulic cylinders ) ripper like on the back of a crawler like the size of D6-D8 size CAT or similar tractor may make short work of this task.

I think that most if not all the suggestions given on this topic over the years will speed things up to decay, burn stumps etc., takes time if you cant get em out with an excavator, backhoe, crawler etc.

I've cleared some areas at my place and have plowed same for food plots, one area the power company cleared, I'd have preferred it left as it was but you know how that goes. This area had lots of 4"-6" diameter hard wood stumps, and let me tell you, hook onto one of those with a non trip back plow and same size tractor, will stop you and stall the tractor. I've got a subsoiler, recently aquired N.O.S. Ford, nice find, never been used and well built, I cannot imagine even attempting to use it for this kind of work after remembering what happened with the non trip back 2 bottom. Must have been '02 when they cleared this, and the last of those stumps just came out, most came out within the last few years, say 4-5 years without any aid to make em decay, that was enough time where you might win the battle to pull em out like with a subsoiler or similar, certainly not when fresh though.

I just plowed a swath on the edge of an old field, shooting lane for me, and I've mowed this are since '02, was brush and briars, been just kind of sod bound since, and don't you know it there were some roots crossing through to the woods on either side, stopped the tractor a few times, and sheared a grade bolt in my single bottom ford series 110 plow, I was thinking this area I should have used the subsoiler 1st, the plow broke up some of these roots, but boy were the in there but good, I thought I hooked onto the transatlantic phone line or something LOL !!!

i have always worked them out with a backhoe, how big is the stump, it will take a while for it to rot out i suggest ither hiring a stump grinder or burning it to burn it i always soak with fuel,....however there is an unseen danger as around here a while ago there were underground fires where the roots would burn for days just a caution.


hire it out

Distant 'almost' relative owns a tree service. Says if not in a hurry, drill lots of 1/4" holes 4" deep, fill with table salt. Claims it speeds up the process considerably. Greg

When I was a kid my grandfather had a USDA booklet called the "Blasters Manual". It had instructions on how to mix an ammonium nitrate fuel oil explosive "AMFO", along with how to make blasting caps. It includes pictures on how to blow stumps and rocks out of the ground. That kind of information being published is fround upon these days. I wish I could find that booklet. If any has one I would love to have a copy. Yes I know I am probably on the terrorist watch list after this.

jr,
I tried removing this old willow stump a few weeks ago.The stump been dead over 10 years now.
I drilled holes an poured stump remover liqiud and tried kerosene & fuel oil even tryed charcoal.
Seem the more stuff I tryed the harder the stump got.
I tried to get a few people I new that had a backholes to dig it out but most of them won't bother just to do one stump.

I took my 880 with blade and dug around the stump as much as I could. But the deeper I went the dryer it got.
I used a sub-soiler to help break the ground up several times. We haven't had much rain this summer and being clay ground like digging concrete.
I must of dug down 2 1/2 to 3' until I hit my telephone cable.
I would'nt of thought the line would of been that close to the stump by looking at the Telephone post at the ditch side and eye balling it toward the house.
I figured it was 5 feet away from the stump. I was wrong when they put it in 40 years ago the operator had to been blind or just walked out of the bar? Cause the line curved like a horse shoe from the road to the house.

Safe side call (miss dig) cause you never know!

After hitting the phone line I still couldn't get the stump broke loose so I took a 3-pt post hole digger and the best I could; drilled a few holes around it.

I got the stump out and had five foot of the cable came out with it as one root grew thru it.
Mike

got a couple to do my self been dead drying for a couple years.

Been pouring motor oil on then and let soak in
I will use a fan after starting the fire because they arnt far from electricity. should be gone over night.

Never tried this but I have heard of digging down and hooking one end of a cable/chain on to the stump, the other end to a solid post or tree and put a winch on it, tighten it up tight, the next day tighten it again, keep doing it each day and it will come loose enough to pull it out with a tractor.

Seems no one has suggested hooking to it with an 8N Ford??'

lgc,
Hook an 8n to it? Why? Is the parking brake shot? :lol:

A 8N is perfect. Hook the chain to the top link of the 3 point and take a run at it.

If you"ve only got a couple, hire someone with a stump grinder. If you"ve got alot, hire a bulldozer.

I saw the cable before I read and thought that was the leads for the dyamite,

Gary

Any Newcomers .. Please take note Scott was joking. 8N top link and a stump is recipe for death..

I just sold 50 acres of big timber. The stumps were left for me to clear. I bought a triangular saw blade to fit my HD10 dozer. I have cleared most of the stumps. The saw cuts them about ground level. Roy

Just hire a dozer or excavator in the 10-20 tonne range and get it done.
If it's a bit, the few hours work will be cheaper than the damage to the tractor and the fuel. If it's a lot, it will be quicker than the years it will take screwing around. This is 2009. We don't need AN to blow stumps anymore.

Rod

This is more a bit of information than a true suggestion.
I heard an old guy say once that when he was a kid (this would of been in the 20's) they used to drill holes in the ground with a soil auger around the base of the tree, maybe 6 holes or so about 3 inches in diameter about 3 feet deep. Then they'd fill it with hog feed. As the pigs (obviously fenced in the same area) rooted for the feed they also rooted out the stumps. They could just keep adding holes and depth till it was where they could cut it off and pull it out.
Don't know if it would really work but it sounds interesting.

I have been grinding stumps over 25 years. We have used an excavator at times but then you still have the stump to deal with. It takes a long time to burn them and most of the mulch makers won’t take them because of all the dirt stuck to them. Up north they use them to make fence rows out of. If you take the time to grind them you can just mix the grinding back in to the dirt. With a good machine it dose not take that long. This past weekend I ground 54 stumps at 11 different locations. It took six machine hours and 11 gallons of diesel to get it done.

Bill

Davis is correct. I was joking. Not only newcomers but everyone else. Never pull anything from the top link of a 8N or any other tractor.

My toy (10,000 lb track hoe) Thats how I got my handle, I get started digging stumps, stones, ditches,ponds, or anything somebody wants and I lose track of time cause I have so much fun with this excavator. Took about 2 hours to get this white oak stump out.

I agree! I have mine done by a pro and it is money well spent and fun to watch too!

If you don't want to spend any money on it just soak the stumps with waste oil and then wait until it gets really cold, I mean 20 below zero cold, assuming it gets that cold where you're at, if not just wait until the codest weather comes along and burn them, get them going with a little diesel or kerosine and they'll burn all ther way down into the ground, put a 55 gallon drum over it if you have one, with the bottom and top cut off and some holes in it, acts like a chimney, lots of fun to get a bunch of them going at the same time, otherwise, go ahead and get a bulldozer, your $$$$.

Agree with Pat's statement about being cautious. Was burning out an old maple stump, let the stump burn over night, next morning stump 5 feet away was burning, traveled underground via roots. You can set a field on fire that way if it is dry.

I'm a big fan of keeping worn-out chainsaw chains around just for cutting the stumps off at ground level so I can mow over them. Eventually you will have to add some dirt where the stump was, but that's the extent of the labor.

I have a monster maple stump right next to my house that's going to have to come out the mechanical way though so I can get a proper pitch away from the house. I'm planning on digging down around it for a few feet and using up my old chainsaw chains just on cutting the roots. Then I'll try to yank it with the MFWD. If it doesn't move, I'll leave the hole and try again next year

The last one i did,this summer was little bigger in size of Mike in MI above post,put the 12" bucket on the ol '75 4500 hoe and picked away at it got in there with the front bucket and "poped" it out,charged $100.

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