Stump grinding

[New Englander]

Anyone have experience grinding a good sized stump with a rental unit?

This one is actually three trees growing tightly together. Although maple we knew it was not just one tree as the leaves turned color at separate times. It was huge and overhanging two buildings. My wife, bless her heart, chipped the slash as I cut it and we gave firewood sized wood to the neighbors. PITA to limb as the individual trees sent their limbs out in all directions interlocking with others. The three trees ground against each other in the wind and some serious rot started, so it/they had to go. I've got a couple of smaller stumps that I was thinking of digging out but this multi one is going to be ground if I do it or have it done.

Thoughts?

 

[jeeper61]

Put rock salt on it and it will rot down fast 

[New Englander]

Plan is to grade over it for more parking so I don't want to wait for rot.

[from H to 80]

Danhuser makes a tree terminator ,a combination puller and saw, on something soft like Maple, you could have it sawed to ground level in know time.

[yellowrosefarm]

I have one of the old Vermeer grinders with the small wheel and 30 hp Wisconsin. That maple will grind pretty easy as long as the unit has good teeth. Rental units are famous for lack of maintenance so be sure to look at that. It will be a slow process with a small wheel, probably have to go over it once, clean all the chips out and go back over it to get as deep as you would want for parking. A tree service with a big wheel/ high HP machine would be fast and may not be much more expensive.

[New Englander]

3 minutes ago, from H to 80 said:

Danhuser makes a tree terminator ,a combination puller and saw, on something soft like Maple, you could have it sawed to ground level in know time.

I don't think local rental has one. They do have a grinder said to grind 14" down, I'll of course cut the stump much closer first.

 

[yellowrosefarm]

This is a common small wheel rental unit. With sharp teeth, it would be a couple hour process to chew up that stump. Sunbelt (pictured) and United rentals are the 2 places here that rent. I see there are some tracked units out there now like a mini skid. I have no experience with those.

[stronger800]

We have tree stump grinder only guys around here.  I see one every week it seems. I try to catch them when I see them close and they usually swing in and will chop a big one line that for $100 cash.  $50 use to do it.   I pay them in advance and tell them where the stamp is, get to it when you can.  Big machine, they’d do that in about 15 minutes. I’d call around just to check before renting one. 

[vtfireman85]

In the time you spend obtaining a rental grinder you could have it dug out

[sandhiller]

Thread is Four hours old and nobody's mentioned dynamite???

Man you guys are slippin'

Couple well placed sticks and @MTO could haul it off in his Del Grande

 

[mark60]

ah the good old days when you could blow it out with dynamite. that was before my time but sounds like fun. might have to ask wiley coyote for some tips how to do it .

[stronger800]

Digging out that stump would be a hole big enough to put a small car in. If I was the one trying to dig it anyway 

[searcyfarms]

i rented one of these from the local rental place for 150 bucks for 1/2 day, we had 5 stumps, 2 BIG ash tree, at least 2.5 ft across - 3 river birch i was done in 1 hour with all 5 - it ate them things like my forestry mulcher with the big beaver teeth - worth every penny and would go id bet close to a foot below grade 

 

https://www.vermeer.com/na/stump-cutters/sc30tx

[New Englander]

6 hours ago, vtfireman85 said:

In the time you spend obtaining a rental grinder you could have it dug out

Rental place is two miles away. Digging those trees out would be a massive hole. 

[mike newman]

...Can't find the relevant picture  NE...but there is one working around here .....855 cubic inch Cummins powered , so it turns big stumps into dust very quickly...

..main use was getting rid of Monterey Pine plantations,   (stumps and general ''offal''..)  where the country should never had bloody pine trees planted thereon..

...the ''brains trust '' of later Left Wing Govt's plumbed new, hitherto unknown  depths of stupidity...and gave ''carte blanche'' to planting these weeds all over NZ to save the planet.....then sold the forests to Asians....

..it is now time to use the copulatory adjective...so I had better quit....sigh

Mike

[FoxrunFarms02]

I worked for a tree trimming/removal company for 10 years and after a slight break I'm back doing it again. The company's I worked for had 3 different size grinders, the biggest being a tow behind with a truck......from the picture it seems like what you'd  need. I've ground stumps with little walk behinds when I had to.......one stump took me a total of 20 hours.  Being in the business I've seen it all, stumps turned into fire pits, vegetable oil and charcoal burning for months, target practice, a little bx kubota with a scoop shovel backhoe, a 4x4 tractor and chain, ma and pop rental unit the size of a push mower. My best advice is hire a company to do it. They'll grind it, clean it out, dirt and seed it.......my guess for no more than $400.00, rental, gas back and fourth, your time struggling, your time cleaning, your time and gas hauling the material away, your gas and time bringing in dirt, your time grading and seeding........spending $300.00 to $400.00 ish price range and having it done and having more time with the Mrs. Just seems like the smartest thing to do, but also get the satisfaction of doing something on your own. 

[TeachersPet1066]

22 hours ago, New Englander said:

Anyone have experience grinding a good sized stump with a rental unit?

Just did it this summer.  I worked out a deal when I rented it on a Sunday an hour before they closed and had to return it before noon on Monday.

I did a very large oak stump that was 1-1/2 years old after it was logged, several good size stumps around the same location, and then 6-8 more stumps.  It took some time but it sure made it nice yesterday driving the grain cart through.

18 hours ago, sandhiller said:

Couple well placed sticks

Dad had a stump back in the 80s in the middle of a field.  This is how he and his brother took care of it.  

[Diesel Doctor]

21 hours ago, sandhiller said:

Thread is Four hours old and nobody's mentioned dynamite???

Man you guys are slippin'

Couple well placed sticks and @MTO could haul it off in his Del Grande

 

Or a nuclear hand grenade?

[Chester5732]

With my luck I would have a sink hole in my parking lot as the remains rotted below what was ground.  

[supermechanic]

On 9/26/2025 at 7:55 AM, New Englander said:

Plan is to grade over it for more parking so I don't want to wait for rot.

Cut as close to the ground as possible, then fill your parking area flush with the level of the stump. Every few years, add more gravel as it rots.

 Remember the genius of the horse-drawn farmer who plowed around the stumps; eventually, the stumps were gone.

In the meantime, food was grown, and time was not wasted doing useless tasks.

[oleman]

On 9/26/2025 at 8:51 AM, vtfireman85 said:

In the time you spend obtaining a rental grinder you could have it dug out

I have a stump just inside my rear fence, other side of the fence is the step-down transformer for this location,  after the Utilities made their survey, when I went to remove my stump, utility experts decided that the neighbors power to their house was about 99% sure to be running through the stump. It basically has to be left until mother nature removes it. 

[New Englander]

The only reason my saw with a 20" bar cut this stump is the fact that it's not one tree, it's three trees that volunteered to grow very close to each other, inches perhaps. There was a small chicken coop that sheltered them. The coop was totally rotted out when we bought the place and my wife took pleasure knocking it down with a loader. What we thought was a single tree was well established by then and it was only when the leaves turned at different times in autumn that it became apparent it wasn't one tree, As it grew it groaned in the wind as what we thought was two trunks moving against each other. As I cut it I realized it was three. 

[Lars (midessa)]

Why not burn it out? Drill a bunch of holes in the top, pour a bunch of lighter fluid mixed with diesel fuel, let soak in for an hour or so, build a small pile of twigs and scrap on top, set it ablaze.

[stronger800]

Guy in town lit a fairly green one off last summer.  Didn’t look very big. Smoldered for what seemed like a month.
 I always thought if I was to try burning one, that I’d make a drip tube out of crimped brake line or something and attach it to jug of waste oil sitting up on a step ladder off to the side labeled “peanut oil”.  
The fire Would be illegal here, unless I stacked a few bricks or threw a rim on it and called it a fire pit. 

[supermechanic]

8 hours ago, Lars (midessa) said:

Why not burn it out? Drill a bunch of holes in the top, pour a bunch of lighter fluid mixed with diesel fuel, let soak in for an hour or so, build a small pile of twigs and scrap on top, set it ablaze.

 

Burning a stump is an incredibly long process.

 As it is in intimate contact with the ground, it is difficult to get enough heat to dry and catch it on fire.

 Back in the day, when it was common practice to clear land by bulldozing and burning, truck tires and diesel fuel were used to get the burn piles going.

 The stumps usually needed a week of burn time to completely go away. This was with the stumps clear of the ground, with air all around; they really are that hard to burn.