questions for the stump removal guys?

[tree MDS]

I thought they were promoting it thats all, kind of looked sad and funny too, thats all-geez ya all seem awfully thin skined to me, lol. So what if I think the "Alpine Fagnum"- or whatever is gay and I'd rather let it rot, sorry. Much better things to waste all that money and energy on, JMHO, again-no offense.

 

[John464]

The Alpine Magnum allows any stump anywhere to be done....but it is darned strenuous to use.

Lots of work for little money. How many aggrevation stumps like this before you even get to break even on your investment/expenses? Looks like a few ruined chains, many hours, fuel, worn stump cutter teeth and to pay your helpers? Expenses for the first year, initial cost of machine plus the forementioned Id guess approx $10,000 the first year? To double your money with this machine may take 2 years and will shorten a man's lifespan by 10years!
When you cant travel a SC352 sized machine in, CRANE, plop, grind. Less expense. Less headaches. More profit! We do this a few times a year and get $1500 minumum. I split it with my crane guy In and out in usually under an hour $750. See ya!

 

[rbtree]

Some good points, John. however, that stump could have barely been done with a craned in 352 (woulda been atight fit to get it positioned if at all possible....and it would have taken lots of digging to get the machine low enough to go 18 inches down...and careful positioning to keep off the sidehill.

I'm not real happy with the AM, but when sharp, it will grind nearly as fast as that 352. And it will do stumps on slopes or other inaccessible areas that can be done with no other machine, even craned in.

Only expense is teeth, a few gallons of fuel, seldom bring a helper.... I don't use it much, but it has more than paid for itself.

There are a slew of guys very happy with their units, do a search here...

 

[ropensaddle]

Wow no way, not me. I will let someone else do that, I don't
even like 352 too small, slow etc. Anything under 60 hp is wasting my time.

 

[bigearl]

I decided to keep the rayco and never mind the small 25 hp machine My cousin is 40 miles from me and He has a small machine so we are gong to trade services. so I think that will work out for me for now. I was thinking about buy something to assist with the cleanup of the grindings. I thought about this have any of you used these? thanks www.giant-vac.com/products/truck_loaders/hitch_mount.php

 

[tree MDS]

This reminds me of when I first started, you know the anything for money mentality-glad those days are over. I'm actually thinking of buying a 352, used I've seen them for 14k or so with around 300-500 hrs. A friend does mine with one now and it seems to work pretty good. Not that I'm gonna get rich with it but its a good investment/turnaround. I've got about 1000$ in stumps now and I dont even push it, it seems like a good time to invest sinse its just the start of the season. I'm thinking of (if I can afford one) driving it on my trailer that I use for my tractor and then using some short ramps to drive it onto my one ton, that way I can cleanup, bring grindings to the dump where I can get my topsoil as well. This seems like the most profitable plan to me, any opinions??

 

[Curbside]

I decided to keep the rayco and never mind the small 25 hp machine My cousin is 40 miles from me and He has a small machine so we are gong to trade services. so I think that will work out for me for now. I was thinking about buy something to assist with the cleanup of the grindings. I thought about this have any of you used these? thanks www.giant-vac.com/products/truck_loaders/hitch_mount.php

I used to own a 20hp billy goat leaf vacuum. The problem with sucking grindings is that there is always mud mixed into the mixture. The mud gets stuck to the impellars and greatly reduces the sucking. Then you have to take the housing off and clean off the impellars which is not easy to do because that mud packs on their lock concrete. If you had just dry wood chips it sucks quite well. The other problem is the machine is fairly heavy and you would have to get the machine very close to the stump as you can only have a 10 - 12 foot suction hose.