DOES ANYONE ELSE HATE STUMP GRINDING?

[southsoundtree]

It would probably get a wooden box made to fit, whether in the bed of the truck or out on a carrier.

I'd rather keep it on-hand, rather than have to load it up. Probably would take some time to re-organize and re-customized my bed loft system. Its probably well worth it.

 

[Leroy]

I feel I was pretty good with the Alpine at the end of our ownership, could rip some stumps. It earned back the 5k it cost quickly, 3120 power head. One thing I never got over was the exhaust, it's terrible. I used a mask for awhile but that was no good either on a hot day not a pleasant task by any means. We made good money with ours and it was a great tool for various reasons but probably not worth the day taken off your lifespan for every hour you run it. I don't miss it. We sold ours to a local stump business and now refer all of our grinding to him, no complaints.

 

[Leroy]

The thing is tough as nails though, once a gust of wind caught the "wing" debris guard as I was driving down the road 30 or 40 mph, it flew out and landed on the road, no damage whatsoever.

 

[southsoundtree]

I wondered about the exhaust. deal breaker.

 

[Philtreeman#1]

I feel I was pretty good with the Alpine at the end of our ownership, could rip some stumps. It earned back the 5k it cost quickly, 3120 power head. One thing I never got over was the exhaust, it's terrible. I used a mask for awhile but that was no good either on a hot day not a pleasant task by any means. We made good money with ours and it was a great tool for various reasons but probably not worth the day taken off your lifespan for every hour you run it. I don't miss it. We sold ours to a local stump business and now refer all of our grinding to him, no complaints.

I second the exhaust is nasty not fun on a calm day.

 

[OasisTree]

If you hate stump grinding you don't have a big enough grinder!!

Also, Take my advice and DONT get an Alpine Magnum! One of the worst purchases I made.

To be clear, I probably didn't give the alpine a fair chance. But the few times i did use it i spent half my time changing teeth as those small teeth didn't handle rocks at all. And where I am at in Missouri that is all we have!
With our setup now we have room on our trucks for an extra machine, and I have a Bandit 2550 with remote. No complaints there! We still go thru the teeth, but we run Greenteeth and changing them isn't bad.

 

[Leroy]

A good bit of successful magnum grinding time is prep work. Maybe even half the time on some stumps, is spent clearing away dirt and rocks. Kind of like a post mortem rcx, I learned a lot about trees by doing this and the act of grinding with the AM itself, it's an intimate up close experience.

 

[OasisTree]

A good bit of successful magnum grinding time is prep work. Maybe even half the time on some stumps, is spent clearing away dirt and rocks. Kind of like a post mortem rcx, I learned a lot about trees by doing this and the act of grinding with the AM itself, it's an intimate up close experience.

That's very true..However, where I live its not uncommon at all to fine rocks that the tree roots have grown around, and sometimes they are even near the center of the stump! Then it makes sense to sacrifice some teeth and keep going.

 

[Leroy]

True, sometimes there's nothing you can do which sucks because those teeth get obliterated with ease.

 

[NailerB]

I have the Husqvarna. It runs like crazy! Due to the fact that you have to use 32:1 gas mix it spits quite a bit of oil into the air cleaner. So you'll want to swap out the felt air cleaner for a foam one.
I've been bugging Keith to send them out with a foam air cleaner every time I talk to him. I have found that the filter hardly ever needs cleaned, just wring the excess oil out every once in while. The reason you have to run a 32:1 mix is because it is running with a fly wheel instead of a chain therefore it runs hotter. Some what like a 2 cycle motor bike.

I really don't understand this. How does the output have to do with the internal engine needs? Please school me.

Nailer

 

[Philtreeman#1]

I really don't understand this. How does the output have to do with the internal engine needs? Please school me.

Nailer

Do you mean why does it run hotter? A two cycle engine running without a load runs lean heating it up and scoring the cylinder. A flywheel just makes the situation worse. With the AM you must learn to control the rpms and load. I run it so at the start of the cut on the stump the motor is close to full rpms and then at the bottom of the cut it has slowed down but not too much. Keith says if you run it wide open for like 15 seconds it starts to overheat badly. I'm sure sombody can explain it better than I can. Just know the AM runs hotter because of the load & momentem of the flywheel versus a chain that has quite a bit of a friction.