Best way to yank a stump with an H?

braol

Member
Well...I got three stumps to pull and I got a Farmall H...let the games begin!

Two pines and an old oak in sandy soil. I wouldn't dare just hook up a chain to the back and go for it...I sort of figured there is a way to connect the chains to the frame?...somewhere in front of the rear wheels to prevent the tractor from doing a back flip. I'm open to experienced suggestions.
 
If they're under 3" or so in diameter just hook up a chain, if the stump is a foot or so high, and pull it out in 1st. If they're bigger you'll need to dig around them and cut the roots,
then you can pull them out once they're detached. Hook the chain on the drawbar, as long as it is below the axle it won't flip over. Jerking on larger stumps is a good way to either
get yourself hurt or damage the tractor, not a good idea.
Zach
 
2x on what Zach said, just be ready to ease the clutch in if the front starts to rare up. The best way is to use an M or ideally push it out with an the dozer blade of a Cat D7. Lol.
 
I've pulled stumps with my H but there are easier ways to do it. I dug around roots and broke off the big ones first. Then you can get a chain around that side of the stump and pull. You can work your way around the stump doing that. Be real careful about jerking the chain - if it breaks it going to fly somewhere.
 
Make that 3x. While these older tractors were meant for pulling, they definitely are not indestructible! Hopefully you still have some height on those stumps. Hook your chain as high as possible, but where it cannot slip off the top of the stump. Hooking it high gives you maximum leverage. As for preventing the chain from slipping over the top, I have used long lag bolts going through the chain links deep into the wood. Only need one or two. Another method is to cut a small notch in the wood for the chain to bite into. Regardless, always be cautious. Bad things can happen when a chain or cable is under tension and something gives way. And usually, the operator is right in the line of fire.
 
some times takes two .
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Great advice. I'll tell my wife the advice about getting an M to do the job. I'm sure THAT will go over REAL well (don't think I didn't think about that...).

I never thought about making sure to cut the stumps high so as to get extra leverage...and the advice about cutting a small notch in the backside for the chain to dig into is something I have not thought of before.

These stumps I have are about 14" diameter for the Red pines and a good 24-30" diameter with the Oak. Lucky for me my sandy soil has a layer of sandstone not too far underneath, maybe 3-4 feet, so those Oak roots can't get too deep. In fact, a big problem around Central Wisconsin is that old trees get hit by high winds and then come tumbling down, roots and all. Heck, maybe I should get a super long chain and just pull the trees down with the H, leaves, branches, trunk, roots and all!
 
We pulled several stumps with our jd mod a. We first cut the stump higher than usual, then dug around it, cutting the side roots. We found a cable worked better than a chain, wouldn't slip as much. Be careful, do lots of prep work.
 
if the stumps are that big around, i would not attempt to try an pull them with an h. dig em out with a backhoe, trackhoe, or put a barrel over em and burn em in place.
 
I pull over the whole tree with the stump attached. The weight of the tree provides leverage and momentum to pull the stump out of the ground.

Attach a chain, cable or tow strap as high up the trunk as practical. Dig around the tree, cut the roots off on the side you want it to fall. Apply some tension on the cable and start cutting the roots off the back side of the tree. Leave two or more large roots at 90 degrees to the fall line to act as a hinge and then pull the tree over. Works best with two people, one on the tractor and one cutting the roots.
 
safest way is to place a metal something or other around the stump and throw scrap wood inside the barrel (metal something ot other) and light a
fire to the wood. you may have to do this several times. the stump will catch fire and burn the stump and the roots out. the metal helps to keep
fire from spreading
 
several years back we were taking out an old tree at a friend's place, in town no less. We cut it too short. We had 2 Ms, one hooked in front of the other pulling on it and still had to cut roots to get it out. Had we left some height I think with the leverage we could have pulled it over. Trees in my area have to go down a ways for water at times so seem to be deep rooted. A few years back a volunteer at a local state park got the skid steer loader stuck. He went and got an H that the tractor club fixed up for the part and hooked the chain to the top link mount on the 3 point. tipped over backwards and he was killed.
 
You're not going to pull stumps that size with an H. You'll be lucky to be able to move them once they're out. MAYBE the smaller pine stumps if you do a lot of digging and root cutting first.

Even in your sandy soil a 24"+ oak stump will stop a Cat D6 in its tracks.

Remember the sandy soil not only makes the root structure weaker but it makes your tractor's ability to pull weaker as well.
 
Soak it with used oil for a while then burn it out. I use a backhoe to dig some of them out and it is not unusual to have a basement size
hole when dug. Always hook to the swinging drawbar and remember the chain will try to level. If your wrap around the stump is lower than your
connect point on the tractor the connection on the tractor will drop to lower the chain, usually by raising the front end. Make yur wrap
arounf the stump even with or higher that your drawbar.
 
Stumps that size can be extremely dangerous to pull out, so be very careful! My tractors are fitted with swinging drawbar, and I tend to use that for heavy pulling. The IH swinging drawbar is designed so that you will not lift the front of the tractor off the ground.
For stumps that size it may be easier to burn them out or use a a double winch tree puller, if you have or can get one. They were made by a company called Trewalla Brothers here. Slow, but they will pull a large tree right out of the ground.
SadFarmall
 
I'm not sure now if it was elm or not. There are a lot of hackberry close by and years ago, when I was a kid, there was a silver maple in that area also. This is out at the old farm Mon and Dad had and then my brother bought it . He had a stroke, I was guardian until he died and now I am caretaker out there. My other brother and a couple of my kids bought the farm site but they don't live in the area.

There is a story behind that stump as the wife wanted me to pull it out to get it out of the way for mowing. Well, I hooked onto one part of it, and a chunk came out. Looked inside, five kittens about three weeks old. Sizzy little buggers. Walked by that hollow stump every day we were out there but had no clue they were in there. Put them in the barn and mother claimed them alright.

The only way I could get that stump out of that hole was to eventually tip it over, fill in under it, and tip it back the other way. Then when I got it on top, the darn thing busted into several smaller pieces. GRRRRR.

This was a few years ago as I was only 72 then. Would not be able to do that now.
 

Kinda OT, didn't the govt used to give farmers the recipe for ANFO for blowing out stumps? I was told a 1 qt zip lock bag full would take out most any stump...i know the recipe is online, just wondering if the rumor is true.
 
hooked to the drawbar there is no way you will flip that tractor, it will just spin . no mension of the stump size though., if they are 4" you should do ok.
 
Dig chop repeat. Hook a chain to the stump and dig ruts with the tires. After you are finished, you will see that a stump grinder would have been easier and faster. If you are very unlucky, the grinder would have been cheaper too. I use a 400, and I work the crap out it to get stumps out. But I am stubborn and to cheap to rent a grinder
SDE
 
An H is not enough tractor to pull even a small stump. Get an open top steel drum. Cut a hole in the round side for a door to feed firewood.
Use the piece of metal cut out and a hinge and gate latch to make the door. Use a hole saw to cut a hole near the open end for a draft control.
Use the piece cut out to make the draft control. Cut a round hole in the flat end and use a stove pipe flange and a 3 ft piece of stove pipe to
make a flue. Set the "stump burner" over any stump that it will fit over. Add firewood and kindling and build a hot fire. Keep it going for 24 hrs
and the stump will be history. I tried to upload a photo of mine, but could not get the upload to work. I've burned a lot of stumps with it! Works
to remove small rock out crops too. 24 hrs of a hot fire on a limestone rock and it will crumble with a few blows from an 8 lb sledge. Use
safety glasses!
 
in the old days a few mules would be hooked to a long pole chained to the stump and twist the sucker out .
 
I cleaned up 2 acres of pines with an MT John Deere. All went well until I hooked to a small cherry tree. I shattered both spud shafts. I ended up burning out the cheery stump.
Another time I had 3 stumps in the front yard that were the result of a tornado whipping through the trees. I had a 4000 Ford with an I Beam on a 3Pt Hitch. I backed into one of the stumps and out came a Mad Mama Copper Head. She left 12 eggs behind. My chickens had eggs for supper that night!
 
Just a bit of an anecdote here, but when we added on to the house we had to drop a sizable maple tree and get rid of the stump. The stump was definitely less than 24" because the chainsaw had a 20" bar and it only took 1 cut to drop the tree.

The contractor who did all the excavation work dug the stump out with his Ford 555 backhoe. It was all he could do to push it out of the way with his backhoe.

From there we wrapped a couple of heavy chains around it and hooked it to an IH 856, way bigger than your H. To get the stump moving I had to push with the loader tractor, and he got hung up a couple of times after that where I had to push with the loader tractor.

...and you think you're going to "yank" a 24" oak stump out of the ground cold turkey with a Farmall H.
 
Lets see here stump pulling witha whell tractor ----- Don't do it . Ya want a stump out then add a D 8 before the H in other words a D 8 H problem solved . Helped a fiend remove a stump fro where it sat after he spent and hour digging with a 215 Cat track hoe and with the help of his 6030 Deere and a D 4 and the 215 and a half hour of wheel standing fun we got it up and out of the hole . Would have been easier to dig a deeper hole next to it and put that one eight feet deeper and cover it over . I brought my S/MTA in to the house in town to pull out some shrubs the War Dept did not like and scared the neighbors watching when the ft end went four feet in the air on just shrubs pulling off a 16 inch high draw bar.
 
Come on now guys. If an old man like me can dig around a stump with roots 8 inch's thick, any good farmer can do that. Of course, I didn't do it all in one shift.
 
I know its been mentioned, but always pull from the draw bar. I have no idea why anyone would suggest anything else. And pulling from anywhere else runs a serious risk of breaking the tractor in half and who knows what might come flying into you at a split second. Splitting an H like that might mean the steering wheel goes into your chest possibly crushing and killing you.
So long as the tractor isn't weighed down, either the stump is coming out or the tractor is going to spin tires. I doubt highly that you will hurt the tractor unless you start popping wheelies. When and if I ever need to pull stumps I always use my pulling tractors because they have wheelie bars already.
 

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