Flying Stump -- a PSA for range safety

[oldfart]

This video is dramatic and amusing. Enjoy.

But I’m posting this as a PSA for range safety when working with systems that can store serious energy in the cordage.

Shown is my stump pulling system. It is a 42:1 compound block and tackle sized to deliver 20T to the stump using a modest size pulling vehicle. I’ve done about a dozen stumps with this rig and, in all prior cases, the stump tips over slowly, inch by inch, and grudgingly crawls out of its crater carrying a dirtball about the size of Montana.

This time the combination of tree rot and ground condition produced a dramatic fracture. The stump flew fifteen feet in less than an eye blink. That weight at that speed would certainly deliver lethal force to anyone standing downrange.

Keep the range clear and take the time to cover or enclose cordage that could let go.

And one more thing if you’re thinking about a rig like this:
It’s fun to focus on the force side of the MA system but remember that 42:1 cuts both ways. To move the stump top five or six feet, you’re going to need enough cordage to drive into the next town … !


Flying Stump

Flying Stump, the Backstory



OF

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Why go through all of that work and risk? Why not grind the stump? How is the stump disposed of?

Unless I could hide small stumps in a brush load I was always charged a LOT to dump them.

 

[oldfart]

Tom,

I do just that when the stump is on an embankment or, especially, near the water. I want those roots holding for as long as possible. But in the lawn or near the house, I hate tending the ever-growing sink hole. So out it comes.

The key is that our town has set up a transfer station for stumps, logs, branches and brush. No tipping charge! Twice a year, a guy comes in with a huge Blue Ox tub grinder and munches everything. Cost to the town: $0.00. He makes out on the chips to a power station. With oil at $100/barrel, it won't surprise me to see this happening much more often.

Tom

 

[Daniel]

nice set up.. we know you were just having some fun! Never would have worked on a sump that size unless it had significant decay.. I'd like to see on walk out of the hole slowly as well, if you can... thanks

 

[oldfart]

Actually, Dan, I've pulled a 22" that was so heavy, I couldn't lift it with the bucket. The rotted one was very light by comparison. The secret is sandy/ gravelly soil and I leave a tall stump to get tipping leverage. But is it a pita project? Oh my God YES. If I ever do another I'll do a vid ... but it will need to be time lapse.

OF

 

[oldfart]

No vids, sorry, but I did find these ...

 

[RopeShield]

I love rippin stumps out of the ground, some hard and fast diggin with a couple of pulaski and number of well placed cuts, a good low stretch bull rope. The sound of the stump bein torn out of the ground is awesome.

I will lay tarps on the rope in the extreme rope sacrifice ssituation and back tie the stump so it doesn't damage the tailgate(only make that mistake once).

Cheers

 

[fireaxe]

Funniest thing I ever did...

A significant part of my "rope stretch" education.

So I am pulling these fence posts out of the ground. Using a lever technique I came up with working for the park service removing bollards. Pulling sideways isn't always the easiest way to skin a cat. Placing a heavy timber at a 80 degree angle to the post and looping the rope(this was my decision at the time) at the base of the post and over the timber. This provides upward force for the pull.

Well, the truck wouldn't reach and get traction on the grass, sooooo, I decided to attach a rope to the situation. About 60 feet of 1/2 nylon - who knows how much elongation it had. So off to the races.

The post and 14" concrete ball came out alright. The setup I was using sent it 30 feet skyward. Through the front yard maple. Landing absolutely perfectly through my wife's sunroof in her car. I laughed so hard. She stood in the doorway crying. $1400 lesson learned.

 

[AxeTree]

haha would love to see pictures of that!

 

[guymayor]

[ QUOTE ]
The setup I was using sent it 30 feet skyward. Through the front yard maple. Landing absolutely perfectly through my wife's sunroof in her car. I laughed so hard. She stood in the doorway crying. $1400 lesson learned.

[/ QUOTE ]

Props to you bruddamon for telling on yourself like that. would that every ego here could lay their soul so bare!

My wife loves her sunroof, but we both would laugh so hard we'd be crying if that happened!

 

[fireaxe]

Nothin wrong with fessin up, ever. I dun did sum dum stuff...

 

[jomoco]

Back in the mid 70's my brothers and I were total amateurs, but liked to think of ourselves as palm tree experts here in SoCal. We used Montgomery Ward electric chainsaws and lots of extension cords see?

We actually removed palms, fans, cocos, dates with those torquee little 14 inch chainsaws. Then would dice the stumps into two inch checkerboards going down into them vertically till the saw through dirty chips. Then pop each two inch square out with Pulaski axes and mattocks,

After many years of this grueling method of palm stump removal, we had all built up plenty of muscle to handle good ole Homelite Super2 gas chainsaws! You know the one's with dual triggers?

So as you can see my first decade as an arborist was as pathetic in terms of professionalism as it gets!

But we sure had fun!

Jomoco

 

[oldfart]

Funny stories, guys.

The bumper sticker will be "My sunroof's open for safety"

 

[oldfart]

[ QUOTE ]
I love rippin stumps out of the ground, some hard and fast diggin with a couple of pulaski and number of well placed cuts, a good low stretch bull rope. The sound of the stump bein torn out of the ground is awesome.


Cheers

[/ QUOTE ]


Enjoy this! And thanks to Murph for the teachin' ....
Widowmaker Trip, Stump Pull

 

[RopeShield]

A few well placed saw cuts on the larger root flares will make the pull out a whole lot easier.
I try to cut in or set a log in the pull side of the log to increase the force for a better fulcrum.

Also in that environment if you cut the stump low as possible and cuta bunch into the stump and cover with dirt and then cover with a layer of leaves and then more dirt it is possible to rot out the stump in year.
Mother nature does it best and then you have zero collateral root damage to neighbouring trees.

Cheers

 

[oldfart]

Hi againTom, been a while.

I much appreciate the tips . Would you expand a bit on the log fulcrum idea?

Thanks.

 

[RopeShield]

The log fulcrum is the same idea as placing a block of wood
under the tip of the pry bar opposite the handle end to create a strong lever.
I find that the roots will just fracture and push into the dirt with out the logs and with the log fulcrum they snap and lift the stump into the air where they can be pounds down and cut into a more manageable size.
Works well for me.
Happy stumpin.
I'll see if I cna upload the vid I made a couple yrs ago.
Cheers

 

[RopeShield]

Here it is!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKipHlvIsDM&feature=youtu.be

 

[oldfart]

Perfect, Tom, thank you.

 

[mark_sauls]

Well if were are telling stories about flying stumps the funniest one we ever did was in Syracuse after the straight line wind ripped through town about state fair time many years ago. I was a green tree worker and my buddie Pete's X had some tree damage (20" wind thrown norway maple) in her yard. Well we got down there and the rules were if you could get it to the curb your job was done. The wind did most of the removal work, but how to get the root ball to the curb? I climbed a street tree and put in a snatch block, hooked the stump to pickup with a wire rope and had Pete drive down the road. That's why they call it a snatch block right. The stump came flying out of the back yard and over a 10' wall and landed on the sidewalk. Close enough. We could of learned some things the hard way (wire rope) on that one, but we had a good laugh and used the same technique to snatch a 40 spuce top off the neighbor's roof. That worked too. Just git er' to the curb. Now that's cut and run urban logging at its finest.