Bulldozer - Small Stump Removal

I have cleared a rather large old pasture that was growing over with apple trees, ash trees, aspen trees and other misc. scrub. I need to push out the stumps (Most are small, 5 - 10" in diameter) but the larger ones from the aspen and ash trees go up to maybe 16" or 20" in diameter. We plan to just push all the stumps into piles around the perimeter of the lot. I was wondering what size of bulldozer would be best suited for this task. Thanks

The bigger the machine the less time it will take, but you'd be way ahead to hire one with a rock/root rake. I built one for my JD 420C and hardly ever put the blade back on.

A Backhoe. Get a rubber tired TLB. Unless you have tons of money to throw away, stay away from a tracked dozer. Voice of experience, I owned many different dozers and tracked equipment over a period of 30 years.
Just get a backhoe and you will be happy.

Alek, FWIW, seems to be a lot of discussion about dozers vs. excavators for stump clearing. Have seen several areas cleared that ranged from 3 ac. to 50+ ac.; trees were scrub (old house areas)to mature oak, ash, pine (after being commercially logged). Almost all were done with excavators. Supposedly less earth disturbance, less dirt carryout, easier stacking for burning, and easier loading if hauled off. Not sure of the economics. Good luck.

I have a John Deere 650H hydrostat. It's about 18,000 lbs. and 95 HP. It takes a lot to push out a 20 inch stump. You have to cut the roots 3 sides around and then knock it out. Lots of fooling around. Get a D10, or hire one of those self propelled stump grinders. Not the little toy kind for the front of a skidsteer, but the big one that is on caterpillar tracks and weighs 15 ton. You can clear a lot of stumps in a very short amount of time.

Why use a bulldozer? A backhoe would work much better.

Agree with the others, use a backhoe or excavator.

Years ago saw a fellow try to remove a large stump without first cutting the roots. Took a D-7 and rammed it at speed, blade glanced off the stump and the dozer ended up being high-centered on top of the stump. All said and done, dozer ended up looking like a statue on a pedestal.

D9

ive done a lot of this,for stump removal a excavator in the 20 to 30 ton class with a hydraulic thumb will make a dozer look silly the excavator can outwork it 3 to one if the operator knows what he's doing 2 to one if he has to learn lol

Have removed several, and tried everything from a D7 down. Ended up using an Excavator. Best job will be digging them out.

Ive pushed small ones out with my 420c and its not very fast, I was always told an excavator is the best to use. However just depend on what you want to do.

thats what i do dig a hole on one or two sides then push the stump over with the bucket and boom, then grab it with the bucket and thumb and pick it up and toss it in a pile,move on to the next , goes pretty fast

backhoe.

I have a D9 with a angle blade. On the left side (point farthest from dozer) has a point that I can hit the center of a stump and it will split it in half.

I have a triangle shaped saw that bolts to my dozer blade. I saw a notch on each side of the stump and it ususlly pops right out with a little push with blade. Roy

backhoe will take out the smaller ones with hoe. Leave 4-5 ft stump and you will get more leverage pushing or pulling them over. If you have to, use the hoe and take out a few roots first.

10+ tonne machines will do the job as long as they've got a decent root rake on them. It'll certainly make a rubber tired backhoe look foolish.
A 15+ tonne excavator with a root rake or at least a bucket and hydraulic thumb will also do a very good job and more efficiently than a dozer. D6 class tractors were the most common land clearing tractors around here. That's most often in the 15 ton range but if dollars are a big deal a 5C/D or 4H will do the job quite effectively. They'll just take longer on the big stumps. A big tractor may not necessarly improve your work rate in the small crap either.

Rod

Not sure if anyone mentioned but you may want to avoid a dozer with a 6 way blade, they'll take some abuse, but a dozer with push arms mounted on the track frames will take a lot more abuse, one of those with tilt, you can align the corner or end bit on the blade and usually get a bite.

I think its far better if all you have is a dozer is to push over the trees, if can be safely done, ROPS, brush cage on the operator station, using the leverage of the trunk, once you cut those trees short, you lose the leverage on the stump, pushing them over you get the stump, rememeber soils and conditions vary, but if possible, you can then sever the trunk, and push the logs off, being cognizant of not piling dirt, logs and brush together, you can still make use of the logs, push the brush, tops etc. to a pile.

I would prefer a small excavator or backhoe for stump removal, mostly likely take half the time, as with the dozer there is going to be a lot of backing up, aligning with the stump, severing of roots and lots of tight turning and repositioning, vs a hoe which will be stationary and you can dig all around each one and work them out of the ground. Matter of preference but I've done a fair amount of this full time way back when, we used to take the tail gates off the dump trucks to haul them off to the pile.