Stump grinding on a hill

We did a job yesterday (friday) that was quite a bit of problems; nonetheless we did manage to get it done. It was an urgent request by a billboard company to grind four large Cottonwood stumps on a highway right-of-way. It seems that their permit to work on the right-of-way expired today (Saturday), and that they were also obliged to make sure the stumps were ground below grade to allow future mowing.

Easy, right?

The stumps were located on a three to one slope, with a muddy ditch at the bottom of the hill and a guardrail at the top of the hill. Furthermore, it had been raining all night long, so we could be assured of not having enough traction. It was also predicted to rain more that day while we were working.

Since I wanted desperately to remain the preferred "short notice" service provider for this customer, I took my capstan rope winch, rigged it to the guard rail about 150 feet away, dragged my Rayco 1625 across the ditch end up the muddy hill, and then held it there with the rope while the grinding got completed. There were a few complications while figuring out how to lower the stump grinder on the rope after dragging it up the hill. It seems that I did not think to bring our port-a-wrap, and the rope binds up on the capstan rope winch when you attempt to use it as a lowering device.

One problem that I did not anticipate (in addition to all the obvious difficulties) was that the spark plug on one cylinder kept fouling with oil. It seems that when you point a stump grinder downhill, and then tip the engine further downhill by grinding into the stump, the oil pours down into the lower cylinder, gets past the rings, and proceeds to make your life miserable since you did not bring all the tools necessary to fix the problem.

I wish I had taken a couple of pictures, since I have never seen anyone else operate a stump grinder hanging from a rope.


If the economy was not so tough, I certainly would not have worked this hard on a rainy day for a relatively low fee.

If it wasn't for my "continuing education" here at AS for the last several years, I probably would not have been equipped and skilled at setting the rigging to do this job.

Ur grinder must not have a pressurized oil system. I would be careful on the hills. Running un-pressurized oil systems on a hill can burn up an engine real quick. When the oil can get in to the cylinder, that means the crankcase is very low and the rest of the engine unprotected, causing a lot of heat and friction on the away side of the cylinder. Just a FYI, if ya didn't already know. If it did it several times, I would change the oil, throw a magnet to the old oil and see if ya get anything.

That had to be scary! I have a steep hill on my property that we have to mow, always gets the spincter a little tight when I go down the hill, sliding sideways on a rider!

Challenges over come make a man proud when the job is done.
Sure you worked hard and took some risk, don't ya reckon part of reward is solving the problems.
Nice one Pdqdl.

I had a similar wet embankment group of stumps, backed the trailer part way up dropped the loading ramps reached further then lashed a rope to help stabilize the compact self propelled stumpie, target acquired just a little closer got touch tone fox one gone.

Last one done, I toggled to go back the dam thing just broke traction & slid down, the spinning wheel dug a few bits from ma ramps n she hit the trailer back board almost punched over and through.

See, if you had the video-cam running, you'd be an instant hit on u-tube.