With Yooper running his fantastic post on his home built stump grinder I thought I'd tell a bit about my 'store bought' one.
I had the timber guys come in and take all my pine trees a year and half ago (pine beetles were getting them and the pine straw is a PAIN!) I was left with some 75-80 stumps that I wanted to get rid of with 40 or so being large and 10-15 really large - 30-36". This definitely left out the small hand operated rigs like the Depot rents and I could not find anybody local that rents the larger ones (was told several times that upkeep was TOO much so they quit handling them)
So after agonizing over this for months and after checking out the 3 point hitch units I decided to buy one, figuring (hoping?) I can recover a fair amount of the cost on reselling it. I chose a SG26 Worksaver from Iowa Farm Equip with assurances from them that it would fit right up to my little BX and that it would drive it ..... well ... thats a yes and a no. It would NOT "fit right up" The lift points were shown as for a cat 1 or 2 lift - well they looked to be more closer to a cat 2 and with the BX's small tires on an already small tractor and the width/height of the lift points on the grinder, it just wasnt gonna work. After having a discussion with my buddy we decided to 'modify' the lift points on the grinder, lowering them 4" and moving over 4". In the pic you can see the original two 'eyes' above the ones that are being welded on - just much to high for the BX to lift high enough. This turned out to be a good solution.
Next was getting hyd to the grinder. The mfg was a bit vague on what was needed to accomplish this, just sayin that hyd was needed at the rear of the tractor - well, after all I've got a back hoe there so I got hyd, right! So
when it was delivered I was a bit taken aback realizing I was gonna have to plumb in spool valves - or something! Well, here again after discussing with my buddy we decided to just disconnect the FEL and use the existing joy stick for control, figuring I wasnt gonna be needing the FEL until I was through. Again here, this method has worked out good - and was cheap too, just a couple hoses and a few fittings.
Now, will the little BX drive this big hunk - it weighs 690lbs. Well, it does ... fairly well. I thought from the start that it was gonna crowd the engine and figured I would just have to take it slow (remember whats said about the BX25, "it'll do anything a big tractor will do, it'll just take longer") this holds true here too. I have to really watch the teeth and dress/sharpen them probably more often than more HP tractor would require. I've done some 40 stumps and just finished the second sharpening - really makes a difference! (ps: if you get one of these things, get yourself a diamond wheel to sharpen, the green wheels toooo slow!)
The cutter wheel on this grinder is 26" and as you can see that stump in the pic is about the same size as the wheel - this is one of my "medium" stumps. I can grind one of these - without many roots running out from it - in about 45mins. One of the large ones with lots of 'runner' roots can take 2 1/2-3hrs.
I had the timber guys come in and take all my pine trees a year and half ago (pine beetles were getting them and the pine straw is a PAIN!) I was left with some 75-80 stumps that I wanted to get rid of with 40 or so being large and 10-15 really large - 30-36". This definitely left out the small hand operated rigs like the Depot rents and I could not find anybody local that rents the larger ones (was told several times that upkeep was TOO much so they quit handling them)
So after agonizing over this for months and after checking out the 3 point hitch units I decided to buy one, figuring (hoping?) I can recover a fair amount of the cost on reselling it. I chose a SG26 Worksaver from Iowa Farm Equip with assurances from them that it would fit right up to my little BX and that it would drive it ..... well ... thats a yes and a no. It would NOT "fit right up" The lift points were shown as for a cat 1 or 2 lift - well they looked to be more closer to a cat 2 and with the BX's small tires on an already small tractor and the width/height of the lift points on the grinder, it just wasnt gonna work. After having a discussion with my buddy we decided to 'modify' the lift points on the grinder, lowering them 4" and moving over 4". In the pic you can see the original two 'eyes' above the ones that are being welded on - just much to high for the BX to lift high enough. This turned out to be a good solution.
Next was getting hyd to the grinder. The mfg was a bit vague on what was needed to accomplish this, just sayin that hyd was needed at the rear of the tractor - well, after all I've got a back hoe there so I got hyd, right! So
when it was delivered I was a bit taken aback realizing I was gonna have to plumb in spool valves - or something! Well, here again after discussing with my buddy we decided to just disconnect the FEL and use the existing joy stick for control, figuring I wasnt gonna be needing the FEL until I was through. Again here, this method has worked out good - and was cheap too, just a couple hoses and a few fittings.
Now, will the little BX drive this big hunk - it weighs 690lbs. Well, it does ... fairly well. I thought from the start that it was gonna crowd the engine and figured I would just have to take it slow (remember whats said about the BX25, "it'll do anything a big tractor will do, it'll just take longer") this holds true here too. I have to really watch the teeth and dress/sharpen them probably more often than more HP tractor would require. I've done some 40 stumps and just finished the second sharpening - really makes a difference! (ps: if you get one of these things, get yourself a diamond wheel to sharpen, the green wheels toooo slow!)
The cutter wheel on this grinder is 26" and as you can see that stump in the pic is about the same size as the wheel - this is one of my "medium" stumps. I can grind one of these - without many roots running out from it - in about 45mins. One of the large ones with lots of 'runner' roots can take 2 1/2-3hrs.
