How to move stumps?

[mrusk]

I looked at a job today. A guy had a 4 acer feild cleared last year. Tree guy took all the logs and sold them and never came back to clean up the rest of the stuff.

About 50 stumps need to be moved from one side of the feild to the other. Stumps are currently all throughout the feild (already pulled out). Whats the best way to move them? They are big stump.

Can i just push them with a dozer or will that take to long?

Matt

[srl28]

Large loader or the like with pallet forks. Might be best

[dozerman21]

I would use the dozer, but go with whatever piece of equipment you already have. A highlift (crawler loader) is what I would use, especially if you needed to pile them.

[Gravel Rat]

If the stumps are already ripped out of the ground a trackloader with a 4in1 bucket would move them. If the ground is smooth enough or if there is any roads a rolloff truck and a excavator can do the job. If they are going to be burned or ground up in a tub grinder the cleaner the stumps are the better.

[mrusk]

The guy has 30 acers. We are just going to pile them up on the low side of his property.

[MarcSmith]

Skid or track loader with a grapple bucket. pick up the stumps and then drop em in a dump truck and haul em to the low side. or pick em up one at a time and transport them one at a time....

[RockSet N' Grade]

MRusk.....I don't know how big BIG is. I would prefer not to push them with a dozer. That would be 50 forward pushes and 50 return trips plus fixing your stump made roads ( 50 of them). Load them on a trailer and transport them to dump spot and push them off? Load them onto dump truck? Anything you can think of to minimize your back and forth trips. Heck even throwing them like baseballs with an excavator would be better than tracking each one back and forth.......Use your creativity to minimize trips, that is one of the keys.......

[tnmtn]

i do these jobs with a backhoe and root grapple. if you have a dump truck it would save time on the trips as others have said.

[Gravel Rat]

If it comes to it you may have to rent a articulated dump truck or a tracked dump like a Morooka truck.

[zz4guy]

I'm looking to do the same thing - move about 4-5 root balls accross a field into a pile/area.

I was wondering if it would work to use a plain track skid loader and drag the root balls with a long log chain wrapped around the balls?

Skid loaders are cheaper to operate and if you drag them you wouldnt need a trailer/dump.

[Scag48]

I'd use an excavator depending on the size of the stumps, but a Cat 953 would probably do the job nicely.

[mrusk]

I signed this job tonight.

Now i got to figure out how to get it done. I have enough money in the bid to sub it all out, and make ok money.

If i do the work myself i can make good money.

Almost thinking about buying a 12-15k ton excavator for 40k and then selling it after the job.

Any chance of that working out. I just don't want to lay out 5k for 2 weeks rental!

[tnmtn]

how big are the stumps and how far do you have to move them? for loading into a dump maybe an ex with a thumb but i'm having a hard time imagining tracking back and forth to move the stumps. its nice to push the trees down with an ex but if that is already done i don't see where the ex is needed.
good luck,

[earthmover]

I agree I'd use a track loader or load into dump truck with and excavator.

[mrusk]

For the stump part of the job i need to move about 25 stumps 100 yards.

[RockSet N' Grade]

Mrusk........do you have a trailer?

[YellowDogSVC]

Skid or track loader with a grapple bucket. pick up the stumps and then drop em in a dump truck and haul em to the low side. or pick em up one at a time and transport them one at a time....

I would vote skid steer. This is what I specialize in and we move monster stumps with a Bobcat s300 and industrial grapple. Very precise positioning and little earth disturbance.

[YellowDogSVC]

How big are these stumps? I beefy skidsteer with a grapple can still carry about 3000lbs of stump without tipping. This is by far the cheapest method because you can rent a big skidsteer or CTL.

[janb]

how big is big? We had one this week that the D8 struggled to move, We had been splitting them, but this one came loose in one piece ~ the size of a 10 yd dump truck (the Whole truck, not the box...) There were several split ones I couldn't lift with the CTL, and it will lift huge rocks (~ 5' dia, and 7'x3')

Can you rent a flatbed dump? (grain / farm / lumber truck) Then you don't have to lift so high or worry about them getting stuck in the bed.

For 100 yds, I would consider just using my Skid with a grapple, hopefully you can grab more than one at a time.

[ksss]

The only issue I see with buying a 40K excavator for one job and then selling it is that your money is tied up in the machine. If something major goes wrong with the excavator your 40K machine may go to 50K and it has to be fixed to sell it. I would probably rent a machine just to be safe, yes it sucks to spend money on renting but atleast in this case when your done your done. No reselling to get your money back and the headaches that can go with that. We can rent a 160 for about 475 a day if your rates are similiar it really is not worth the risk.

[GreenN'Clean]

Id rent a small dozer and rip them out of the ground

[Kepple Services]

If the stumps are already out of the ground like you say, and the ground can support a on road dump, just hire a local dumper for the day or 2, with an excavator load them into the dump have him drive over and dump em, then be done with it... depending on how you opperate, and pre pile the stumps for the truck it shouldnt take to long. Without seeing pictures, or the job itself though it is extremely tough to say what the best wat to get it done it...