Off- topic mini excavators

I have a Woods BH750 that is about the same size as some of the mini excavators I see. My experence with digging out stumps/trees is that it helps a LOT to still have the tree trunk on the stump. The trunk gives you some extra leverage when you are trying to break the roots donw under the stump that you really can't get at with the bucket on the hoe. It also helps a lot if you can get all around the tree/stump so you can dig/break all the radial roots. I have dug out stumps up against a stone wall where I could only really get at three sides, was not easy! As I remember, it took over an hour to get a stump out that was 12 to 14 inches in diameter. The tree in the picture was around 8 inches and I could get all around it. I think it took about fifteen minutes to get out. So the time goes up exponentally as the trunk diameter goes up. :-)

On big stumps, breaking the under roots gets hard. You have to "worry" them to death, like a small dog does to something much larger than it. You push/pull from one side for a while, then go to the other side and do the same. Back and forth until you get where you can get the bucket under and use the "curl" to let the bucket pry between the ground and stump. That will give you the most force where it need to be. The boom and dipperstick cylinders do not have enough force because they have long lever arms which are not capable of getting the force where it needs to be. That is, you cannot just pull up on a tree with either one and pull anything out but the very smallest tree.

Have fun!! Be SAFE!!!

HTH,
Larry