How safe is it to grind loose stumps?

[Sbusta]

I have been asked to grind 4 large stumps that have been excavated but a 24 ton digger can not lift them. I'm going to have a look at the job in the next few days and wanted some feed back to help decide if I should consider the job. I could use a 35hp Kan Du or an 8018trx, I could also set up the digger to hold the stump.

 

[treeman82]

It can be done, just watch for any rocks that may be mixed in with the soil, and let the customer know that there will probably be some pieces that you can't grind... ends of roots.

 

[Koa Man]

Be extremely careful if you do. When the loose stumps get small enough, the grinder wheel will pull it under the machine, lift it up and most likely make it fall over. The most powerful the machine, the bigger the piece it will pull under.

 

[clearance]

I have been asked to grind 4 large stumps that have been excavated but a 24 ton digger can not lift them. I'm going to have a look at the job in the next few days and wanted some feed back to help decide if I should consider the job. I could use a 35hp Kan Du or an 8018trx, I could also set up the digger to hold the stump.

By digger I assume you are talking about a hydraulic excavator, a "hoe". A 24 ton machine would be in the class involving under 200 size machines (Hitachi ex200. JD 590, 690 etc.). After having been around lots of land clearing jobs myself I am puzzled, could he not lift it after it was free, or is it not busted free? Usually a hoe that size with a rock bucket and a thumb can rip stumps to bits, or at least get them to a point where they can be lifted. Sounds funny, maybe it would be better and cheaper to get a bigger machine to throw those stumps into a dump truck.

 

[Curbside]

I've ground excavated stumps just last week. A hitachi 200 had ripped them out of the ground but the stumps and root ball were too big to fit into the trucks so they needed to be ground to size. There was no problem as the root balls weighted well in excess of 9000lbs. I ground them till there was about 90% gone and then the rest was placed in the truck. I used a Vermeer SC60TX and there was no worry of peices going under the grinder as the root ball was so heavy. It ground just like doing a regular stump except it was above the ground