Dealing with stumps

[Markbnj]

What did the Tree's really do to you to deserve this....

That's an interesting question. Trees are awesome, right? We all love trees.

Except trees are in a lot of cases, maybe all cases, incompatible with the maintenance and preservation of the structures we humans craft in order to improve the quality of our lives. Up here in the northeast our forests are pretty wet most of the time, and most of our forests are deciduous. Too many trees too close to the house greatly increases the local humidity, accelerates rot and mildew, and drops a metric asston of damp debris all over everything every year. The ground under them won't hold cover and runs to moss and mud. Roots invade and disrupt foundations and drainage. Limbs fall and damage railings and roofs and other parts of the structure, not to mention people, pets, and automobiles. In short, forests are best kept at some distance, and mine is trying a push on my territory.

 

[cabri]

Cut them about 2 ft off the ground.
For the stumps, dig around the root system a little on one side (opposite of a bobcat or truck);
Chop off any decent size (1") roots leaving stubs for the chain.
Hook a tow chain and/or cable down into the root system.
Take a couple of wraps around the left over stump.
Hook other end onto a tow hitch/frame
Tighten the cable, then pop the clutch in low gear.

Yes, I've used my Toyota to pull a couple using this basic method, but not more than about a 4-inch trunk. I'm pretty sure I won't get an 8-inch trunk out without something heftier than my truck or a bobcat, or extensive pre-cutting. I basically just want to thin the canopy and grow grass, so I think cutting them low and renting a grinder might be the way to go. I probably will need several weekends, so I'll cut them low but paint them orange for safety.

When I was a teen, my dad went through 2-3 clutches on a Chevy clearing pine stumps large enough that you could not put your arms around. We would spend 2-3 weekends digging into the root system of a monster and when 1/2 was exposed, hook up the chains and put pressure on the stump. Keeping pressure on the stump; hack at the supporting roots. Eventually, the last roots would give up the fight and the stump was towed to the brush pile for burning.

 

[cabri]

not so good for your transmission, or your towing cable...

Cables are cheap. Metal cables should not break. Tow chains will not break.

One should not use an automatic transmission.

 

[DrPizza]

Cables are cheap. Metal cables should not break. Tow chains will not break.

One should not use an automatic transmission.

I've mangled a tow chain pulling out stumps.

OP: something you can attempt is attaching a STRONG rope higher in the tree - a rope that's longer than the tree is tall, and use leverage to see if you can pull the tree over with a vehicle. The tree must be strong where you attach the rope (or chain) to. Depends on the type of tree, and what's in the ground, as to how easy those trees will come over. Some types of trees have a shallower root system. Especially a lot of the faster growing trees. Others can have one hell of a tap root. I've easily pulled out 8-10" trees with a smaller tractor - though it required me to push from one side, then from the other side, and back and forth once or twice, using the bucket of the tractor. Then with a chain, I was able to lift/rip them right out of the ground, else push them over and lift them out.

 

[NoTine42]

Cables are cheap. Metal cables should not break. Tow chains will not break.

One should not use an automatic transmission.

I've heard broken tow chains have the uncanny ability to whip around into the tow vehicles' cab. So I would rather use a chain too short to reach the cab, or use a proper tow rope.

 

[NuclearNed]

Cables are cheap. Metal cables should not break. Tow chains will not break.

One should not use an automatic transmission.

I broke a tow chain this spring (see story in previous post, this thread). I was lucky that it didn't hit anything when it broke.

 

[JulesMaximus]

I know... I'm going to hell for this.

 

[Markbnj]

I know... I'm going to hell for this.

It's ok, that was inevitable.

 

[moonbogg]

LOL, sick people. G-d doesn't heal amputees, but he heals trees = trees better than us.

 

[kage69]

A lump of semtex the size of your foot works pretty good, but hiring someone to come over with a grinder will keep your neighbors happier. Takes about 20min, and you're left with mulch and no stump (although many of the roots will remain where they are and just die over time).

Those crystals you pour into drilled holes take too long in my opinion, the soaking it with diesel tactic is better.

When I was a kid my dad had a young female horse named Lady, she was half Belgian and half Clydesdale. Gigantic, smart, and provided no spray bottles were near her she was a kitten who would drag huge logs all day. She had a hard time with the stumps though, we only tried twice and decided to add horses to the list of things we didn't want to hurt pulling those bastards out.



Aww Jules... someone slap him

 

[Markbnj]

A lump of semtex the size of your foot works pretty good, but hiring someone to come over with a grinder will keep your neighbors happier. Takes about 20min, and you're left with mulch and no stump (although many of the roots will remain where they are and just die over time).

Those crystals you pour into drilled holes take too long in my opinion, the soaking it with diesel tactic is better.

When I was a kid my dad had a young female horse named Lady, she was half Belgian and half Clydesdale. Gigantic, smart, and provided no spray bottles were near her she was a kitten who would drag huge logs all day. She had a hard time with the stumps though, we only tried twice and decided to add horses to the list of things we didn't want to hurt pulling those bastards out.



Aww Jules... someone slap him

I do long for those simple days when we could blow stuff up and the neighbors would just chuckle, rather than call Homeland Security and dive into their Patriot Bunkers.

 

[kage69]

I do long for those simple days when we could blow stuff up and the neighbors would just chuckle, rather than call Homeland Security and dive into their Patriot Bunkers.

The trick is you have to invite them over to watch, and providing libation and ear plugs seals the deal.

There used to be days so simple that a farmer could go down to the hardware store and pick up TNT and a drum fed tommy gun along with his tin of bag balm and sack of feed. Still kind of amazes me.

 

[Minerva]

www.ferrirotor.com

 

[Red Squirrel]

You could do it by hand like I did. I used a big heavy axe and a shovel. It's kinda tedious but basically just dig/cut around it till it's loose enough to be played with, then just keep working at it. Eventually you can pull it out to the point where what remains is below ground and you end up with a flat surface.


Some stumps already removed in this pic:



Then after:



Work the ground more, add top soil and lawn seeds and you'd never know there were trees there.



There's actually two more stumps I should remove, but I may risk killing the trees around it too so I ended up leaving them. But I may end up having to plant another hedge there anyway since the corner one is in bad shape given it was covered before.

 

[Markbnj]

www.ferrirotor.com

Yeah that would work. And after the stumps were dealt with you could use it to disable telecommunications infrastructure.

NSA note: joke.

 

[Leros]

Stump grinder looks pretty simple (and fun!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyAgbQxyIkE

 

[Elixer]

Just pound lots of copper nails in it, and cover it.... then in about a year from now, it will be basically rotted out.

If that is too slow, you have lots of more violent options, but some of those might not be legal in your neck of the woods, like thermite.
I know farmers that fill a #10 can full of coal, and place it on top of the stump, and use that to burn a hole straight down it.
However, they prefer the method described by NetWareHead, and saltpeter + diesel fuel.

 

[_Rick_]

Get some hydrogen peroxide, distill it to a decent strength, drill some vertical holes down the stump, let a bit of gasoline soak into the top layer of the wood, stand (well) back and ignite. Depending on how well you distilled and how well the peroxide permeated the wood, you'll either get a bonfire or an explosion.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Well, we have a dump I can take them too, but what are you recommending? Leaving the trees is not an option.

I found it easier to work my brain job harder (cube monkey) and let someone else work physically harder for me.

 

[Anubis]

you can just rent a small excavator and pull them out like butter

 

[Markbnj]

Get some hydrogen peroxide, distill it to a decent strength, drill some vertical holes down the stump, let a bit of gasoline soak into the top layer of the wood, stand (well) back and ignite. Depending on how well you distilled and how well the peroxide permeated the wood, you'll either get a bonfire or an explosion.

Ooh, I like the element of surprise with this one.

 

[cabri]

Cables are cheap. Metal cables should not break. Tow chains will not break.

One should not use an automatic transmission.

I've mangled a tow chain pulling out stumps.

I've heard broken tow chains have the uncanny ability to whip around into the tow vehicles' cab. So I would rather use a chain too short to reach the cab, or use a proper tow rope.

I broke a tow chain this spring (see story in previous post, this thread). I was lucky that it didn't hit anything when it broke.

Quality of tow chains must have decreased over the past 40 years ()

We never lost a chain in 10 years of clearing out the pines. These guys had tap roots that go down and are thick.

 

[Markbnj]

Quality of tow chains must have decreased over the past 40 years ()

We never lost a chain in 10 years of clearing out the pines. These guys had tap roots that go down and are thick.

I've rigged some heavy stuff (a few k pounds up to hundreds of tons). I choose what makes sense for the task, and for yanking on anything with a truck that's going to be a strap these days. Just a lot easier to work with and clean up, and much more giving. You can get 2" up to 40k breaking strength and 3" up to 60k, and you're not going to snap that puppy with any truck pulling on a stump. The other nice thing about them is that you can take a couple of turns around the trunk in a sort of clove hitch and they really grab on.

But as I said before, it's heavy work and although I have pulled 4" with the Toyota I'm not willing to yank on anything bigger with my daily driver, at least not without a lot more cutting than I have time for. I think grinding them down still seems like the best option.

 

[Elixer]

Paint some wheels on the stump, then call AAA to tow it away, since, um, it is stuck in the ground!
Bonus, your insurance will cover the tow charge! ()

 

[BurnItDwn]

Gasoline + fire = burn out the stumps!