Stump grinder?

ch74

TreeHouser
Joined
Jun 8, 2013
Messages
841
Location
Milton, Fla
Im looking to purchase a used stump grinder. 35+hp... im in fla but will travel if price is right. Any direction/ help, would be appreciated...
 
I used to have a couple of stump grinders but I found it to be more cost effective to sub out the stumps. With only one crew, we don't do enough stumps to justify the cost of purchasing and maintaining our own grinder. YMMV
 


I have this for sale for $16.5k with the trailer, ~23 hours on it. I've gotta find the title/certificate of origin for the trailer (I didn't tag it).
 
By the time you pay it off, it could be time for a new one, so maybe if you can find a really good deal on a dealer refurbished one. A tree co I worked for got a dealer refurbished 15" chipper for what I thought was a very good price, and it worked well too. The chipper we had been using had a fraction of the hours, but reached a point of breaking down all the time. Strangely the dealer seemed to have a hard time getting it back to 100%, so we got the refurbished one.

You might just wait until you have enough stumps to grind to make renting a good big grinder worth it for a day or 2. Then maintenance and total machine cost is not your problem, and you can plan to use a large grinder only when you know it profits you. You'd just have to check with the customers to see if they are ok with a 2-8 week waiting period as you get enough stumps on the list. Stumps aren't normally as urgent to get rid of as the tree is, and it can give the customer a chance to save up a little for the grinding.
 
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  • #6
How do you put that in your bid? But yes that sounds like a better plan for now. Ty nutball
 
I'd think you'd bid it like a separate stump grinding job. It's been a long time since I've priced stumps, so unless others can help you out there, you'd just have to get a feel for stump size and the time it takes to grind, number of stumps per job site ( allowing for quantity discount), plus travel time/cost and rental cost. I figure most stumps will run $50-400ea depending on size and number per location.


That's a nice looking Bandit in the video, sounds reasonably priced.
 
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  • #8
Yea i appreciate it lumberjack but im not looking to spend that much right now.
 
I like keeping the mini skid handy for filling in the holes and packing down the mounds, a mixture of dirt and wood chips can be difficult to move with a rake or shovel. Just dirt or just wood chips isn't so bad.
 
The very best thing you can buy for your mini.

Branch manager grapple. Takes a helluva beating and keeps on ticking.

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I just ordered a stump grinder yesterday. I searched around for decent used ones but all I saw was junk. So I got a new rg55. It’s not the diesel rg90 I was hoping to get but oh well. Up until now I had been renting once a week. I probably spend about $15,000 a year on renting so I might as well just buy one. scoops on the bmg are killer for removing grindings. Been doing it a bunch lately for some reason.
 
Once I've purchased my mini, the follow up purchase will be the BMG as well as the 38 Special stump grinder attachment. That way, one machine, multi function and no need to tow anything else! :transformer:
 
I had one of the original 38 specials. I had great success with it but others found it hard to operate, because if you're at the controls of the mini you are kind of grinding blind. By feel. You can't stand to the side and watch what's happening. So I ended up doing most all of the grinding which sucked.
 
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  • #19
frig yea guys. :thumbup:

Whats a good name brand one ? Im thinking of getting the one that has manual turn instead of the hyd turn one.

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This one to be exact. Spartan equipment
 
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  • #20
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Purchased this one several months back when I first started cause it was cheap. 20190525_114351.jpg

First job i used them both on right hur. I f'ing love tree work, especially now that i don't suck like when i first came to this site. I owe a lot to a good hand full of y'all. Thanks guys, any of y'all come to the panhandle of fla around Pensacola or within 100 miles hit me up ill come help your gig out.
 
I have one on my loader, the ‘knockabout’ type that you describe works great. Once you get good with, it you can do wonders.
 

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