Excavator with stump ripper - for rent??

[The Heretic]

Does anybody know of an equipment rental outfit that rents an excavator with a stump ripper attachment?

This summer I will have a lot of cleanup to do after my timber is cut and hauled off. I will have slash piles to burn and that means restacking and reburning the piles several times. Also, it is good to have an excavator or dozer there to make sure the slash pile fires do not spread.

Meanwhile, instead of sitting around waiting for the fires to burn down and occasionally tending to them, I would like to be doing some stump removing. I know from experience that unless the dozer is huge, it just can't handle stumps, especially fresh stumps, but an excavator can. An excavator with a bucket can do it, but that means doing a lot of work digging - a stump ripper does it much quicker and easier.

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[CHLChris]

As someone who has spent the hours upon hours of back-breaking work manually digging out stumps, that stump ripper is like magic!!

That attachment would be just the ticket for major ivy removal, too!!

 

[jbett98]

That attachment only costs around $800.00. You might want to see if the rental company might invest in one, or you could buy it yourself and sell it when you're done.

 

[The Heretic]

As someone who has spent the hours upon hours of back-breaking work manually digging out stumps, that stump ripper is like magic!!

That attachment would be just the ticket for major ivy removal, too!!

Yes, compare it to using a bucket and even then it works much faster and easier. I have seen excavators take ten to thirty minutes to remove a single large stump with a bucket - having to dig all around it and then get the stump and the root ball out of the hole.

I may have to hire someone who owns one with a ripper for a day or two instead of renting one. I don't want or need to remove every stump, but I do want to not have a "stump farm" back there either; I want to be able to move equipment/etc. around the acreage without being blocked by stumps everywhere.

 

[uscsoldier]

I've personally used a mini excavator with Powerclamp Hydraulic Thumb for the exact type of project and it worked great. You obviously have to use a little different technique than the one in the video but the results are the same. United Rentals has several of them at the salem location, I think it was $1100 a week plus delivery.

 

[CHLChris]

And don't forget that a skilled operator can save days over a novice fumbling away for a week.

 

[The Heretic]

And don't forget that a skilled operator can save days over a novice fumbling away for a week.

I suck at the excavator (a dozer is a lot easier but not as versatile and does not do stumps well), but since I would have to be there anyway for safety reasons, that would be ok. If I can't find a rental I may hire someone. Not sure yet - I will make a decisions after the logger is finished back there.

 

[The Heretic]

Anybody have any experience using a ripper behind a dozer to remove stumps?

Not small stumps, but stumps 3-4 feet in diameter.

 

[CoastRange57]

Anybody have any experience using a ripper behind a dozer to remove stumps?

Not small stumps, but stumps 3-4 feet in diameter.

Not going to happen. Dozers with rippers are primarily used to loosen soil to be scraped up with scrapers or to push up for grade change. Not meant to pull stumps and certainly not 3 to 4 foot stumps and getting the right alignment on them is impossible. Fir and evergreen stumps tend to be more plate type roots and come out easier than hardwoods. I have a lot of stick time on 150 hp dozers and a 3 to 4 foot stump will stop them solid.

A large excavator like this John Deere 250G with a narrow bucket, a thumb and a good operator can get out a 3 to 4 foot stump in about 5 to 8 minutes. I have also seem a stump stand them on their tracks with the wrong operator. Then you have a pile of stumps to deal with and they do not burn that great. I would be cautious about how much money I threw at a stump removal process. This 250G is about $ 325,000 so any kind of rental rate or rate with operator is going to be reflective of that. It costs about $ 1,500 just to move one, one way.