TORO Stump Grinder ... 1st use

M.D. Vaden · Feb 28, 2014

If you have one, how is it doing for you after some time in use?

I used one for the first time recently, rented from Home Depot rental dept. It was one of the better machines I've used in recent years. Have no idea about long-term durability or maintenance. But since I rent, I'd used one any day. I was a bit surprised how much power it had for it's small size.

First time I've used tracks.

CalTreeEquip · Mar 1, 2014

How was the visibility with the controls in the rear like that?
Stability?

Mowingman · Mar 1, 2014

I rented one of those from a rental place 2 years ago. I hated it. I thought there was not enough weight in the front-end. I also could not see much of anything I was doing from the control location behind the machine. Maybe I was just spoiled from using bigger remote control machines, however, the owner of the rental store warned me before hand that it was light in the front, and that most folks prefered to rent his Bandit machine if it was available. He was right. I waited until his Bandit was available next time I had to rent a machine.
Jeff

AshTree · Mar 2, 2014

I used that for quite a few jobs, its for jobs on impossible slopes or when you have to go off-road, it's surprisingly fast and its sweep pattern is a bit odd, it goes on all the way to past 90 deg. on one side and has a total of about 120 degrees of sweep in towards the unit. I drove over juniper hedges and had this thing through ditches and mud before, other than that its an average machine, has a learning curve since the controls and sweep are odd.

Hoowasat · May 24, 2014

I rented one of these a year ago to remove four stumps. I found the best postion was to stand to the right side of the machine while manipulating the joystick. The only time I was behind it was when I moving it into position. This was the first time I used a stump grinder, and I found it extremely easy to maneuver and operate. Yes, it did seem a little light in the front, and I took smaller cuts with each sweep (probably about 1/2" to 3/4" deep). A 24" diameter stump took about 90 minutes to clear 12" deep. I think it's a great machine for rentals and first-time users like me, but I doubt I'd buy one because of it being somewhat slow.

CalTreeEquip · May 24, 2014

90 minutes to grind a 24" stump???? That can't be right.

Hoowasat · May 24, 2014

The Toro wasn't old in that it had about 60 hours on it, but its teeth did not have sharp edges ... they were rounded a bit with about a 1/16" radius. Being a rental, someone else may have dogged it and wore them down prematurely ... but I really don't know. Trunk was a maple, so it wasn't hardwood. The Toro seemed to bog down when I took a swipe with too deep of a cut, so I kept my cutting depth around 1/2" to 3/4". I also repositioned the grinder to the opposite side of the trunk about halfway through. Plus, there were a few roots I "chased down," but y'all could probably write off my excessive time since I was a newbie.