👍 Excellent audio, Neil! Narrative over excavator sound is surprisingly clear! Nice!

Neil laughing like a crazy man..."there is something extremely gratifying about that!" hilarious. I know the feeling well and I too have the same laugh on things of that nature.

A narrower bucket works best for breaking roots. With big green roots you may want to go wider out from the stump to break them. Once broken you can move closer to the stump and break the root shorter. If digging big pine roots they go deep. I have dug 6” deep to get some of them loose. A couple of tricks. Get a rubber floor mat and cut it to fit your floor. Easy clean up. I also have a seat cover for the same reason. I also bolted a large piece of conveyor belt that covers the blade pivots and grease fittings keeps the dirt out and reduces the chance of the pins freezing up.

Thanks Neil, good video. Your place is looking nice, thanks for taking us along as you improve it.

thanks for posting the most instructional video on stump removal, and how to really do it.

Not sure what you call it in the US, but in Australia we have ripper blades. It's basically a single bulldozer ripper with an excavator mount. They can be used for breaking up really hard ground, but can also make precise cuts through the root systems with minimal digging. One of the things that makes me cringe is watching you track (drive) the machine in circles on the spot. Instead, drop the heal of the bucket on the ground in the direction you want to turn, but still inline enough with the undercarriage to lift both tracks. Lift the tracks, drive the tracks as you normally would to turn, but also slew the cab (house). It will still dig up the ground a bit, but much less so AND it also helps prevent dislodging or breaking a track. Another tip for you, 4in1 buckets or buckets with thumb / grapples can hold things. We often use a levelling frame with skid steer loaders and 4in1 buckets in Australia. It's basically a box section frame with a few crossbars and some wedges that the 4in1 can bite on. It leaves a finished surface better then any grading (flat) bucket can. But I have also seen other "tools" being used, like very wide brooms held by excavators to smooth out job sites. I have had the pleasure of working with one great excavator operator. Owned his 20 ton machine with tilt bucket, laser level and GPS guidance systems. He could leave a site so perfect that no other man or machine could even attempt. Hats off to those operators and cheers to all those who acknowledge that they still have some learning to do.

great video Neil. Make more like this showing how to operate different equipment.

Digging stumps, the thumb is a must. It's also much better to have the rest of the tree still attached. Its called leverage.

You do just fine operating that excavator stumps are a pain in the back side thanks for sharing

Nice video! Size does matter when it comes to machines doing heavy work, but sometimes you're limited to what will fit where and your budget. I'd watch for yellow jackets though. Twice this year (2020 the worst) I have had to abandon ship and run. I'll tell you from first hand experience, those little buggers won't give up no matter how fast you run.

Me and my dad took out a large stump in our front yard with no mechanical or electrical tools other than a chainsaw. Took us 2 days of hard labor in 100 degrees weather. Man how’d I not think of renting a tractor. 🤦‍♂️

Hi Neal, from Australia just want to say I bought a BX23S because of your vids (five acres of hard ground and a lot of tight spaces for mowing so I went for the BX) and I've dug out about 25 green hardwood Box tree stumps similar size and bigger as the one shown here with it, but yes I had the help of a chainsaw and it took about 1 - 3 hours per stump.

Best description and step by step. Thank you!

Using the bucket swing to ground level is by far the hardest and quickest way to cause excessive wear on the pins and bushings on the entire boom resulting in new pins, bushings and line boring to correct. Even regularly greased.

Good video 👍. It brought back memories. I rented one similar in size to take down about 20 sweetgums that were 10-16". It was much easier taking the trees down than digging stumps

As a salesmen u did an awesome job. Man what i could do with a machine like that. 1 tip. Pull the throttle back a bit when not popping roots. Lot smoother

Appreciate your time, one of the best videos I’ve come across. Most just roll in some music with no description of what they are actually doing.

Nice job. I’ve been doing the same work on my place. It takes a bit to figure out. I was looking for some yt vids and the ones mention in comments are helpful and those guys are good operators, but yours is most instructional.

Outstanding tutorial. Thanks!

Neil, don't think the boom ram protector was that bent at the start of the video?! 😜🤣😅 But that is the trouble with dealing with tree routes, very easy to knock the machine about

Have taken out stumps of similar size with a BH77 backhoe...it takes 1-2 hours start to finish depending on conditions. If all sides are accessible to back up and dig out, it's no problem. Can use pallet forks or bucket+chains to get it out of the hole...key part here is to remove dirt from base to lighten it up as the stump itself is relatively not that heavy. I have a ripper blade that can break some big roots that the bucket can't...I'm sure you can get one for excavator too...it makes a big difference. You can also move further out and the roots get weaker...I find that there's mostly a few main 'side roots' that hold the stump in place and there normally isn't too many going straight down...I've been surprised that there are less roots than I would have thought. I haven't had to, but worst case you can clear up dirt and chainsaw these side roots. I think any of these machines are capable of removing stumps and the questions is more about how long it will take. With a tractor, you can easily clean up after...I've also went to some other part of land to bring 1-4 scoops of topsoil to cover the mess of roots and replace the stump mass (otherwise you end up with a low spot once stuff settles)...can't do that with a mini ex.

Some useful tips and help. Good content. Nicely done.

Hi Neil, I really enjoy your videos, I know you said you weren’t the best at grading but could you do a video on the basics? I’m great at digging with my small Kubota excavator, but not that good at finishing an area neatly after work. Many thanks

Great video, thanks! Very helpful.

Very helpful! Thank you for doing.

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation. The how as well as the why.

Were getting one of these tomorrow. Great video! Thanks

Great demo! I have doug pine stumps out that were 6 feet deep. Tap roots go deep. Also have used L3901 to push out small trees. Cut roots with bucket and get under tree. Push it out with well weighted tractor. Tires weighted with water and a bush hog.

Excellent video...period! Thanks!

An inspiring and informative video on the beauty of an excavator doing its thing. Well done and good all round operating skills.

That wicked laugh... I couldn’t believe it was you Neil 🤭!

Just bought a 2020. KX057-4 can't wait to use it

Thanks for a lot of great information

hey hey Neil I don't know if you have seen Mike Morgan with that big machine ripping stumps out. He would pick them up and drop them to get the dirt off , But that machine is bigger than the one you are using . Interesting to see different techniques. Nice video, Thanks

cool video, thanks

A frost tooth makes stumping much quicker and easier with less ground disturbance.

KZfaq channel - LET’S DIG IT is a good channel to watch about diggin up tree roots and stumps !!!

I like how the booms hydraulic gaurd wasn't bent at the beginning of this job!

You know the little details well compared to most salesmen, but what separates you even more is your delivery. Smooth and silky as a babies butt.

If you used a BX you could have filmed a 3 hour Thursday video. :D

So much easier, and a lot more fun to use explosives.

Lol... you definitely need a bigger unit.. The 80-4 would have been a better choice or even bigger.. Picking the stump up and dropping it will shake off a cast amount of dirt as well..

So Neil, Mike Morgan at Outdoors with the Morgans has been using a Kubota excavator lately that he rented. You might want to check that out.

well done!

Perfect size Excavator. Love the 57

Any video by Andrew Camarata is educational

A couple more bites and you could bury the stumps. I buried a LOT of them 20 years ago and zero cave ins.

A non-common rail KX057-4, rare machine right there.

The smaller the excavator the bigger the hole

Thanks for the video and information. I thought you were going to fill the right hole with the dirt from the left hole?

letsdig18 if you want to see an absolute master on an excavator. He doesn't do instructional vids, but you can watch him work and learn a lot.

I love these videos. I have an l5740 that I put a backhoe on that cant dig worth beans. It is a complete waste of money as a digger. So I bought a new L47 and its a digger. After owning 5 different Kubotas I learned the difference of a TLB versus a farm tractor. I sometimes think I should have bought a mini excavator and kept the 5740. The L47 does EVERYTHING better other than keep you at temperature. If my garage doir was higher I would have bought an M62.

Man I miss running an excavator

What becomes the determining factor between using an excavator to dig out a stump vs using a stump grinder to grind the stump down?

Kubota diggers are fantastic I’ve got one

A frost tooth makes a smaller hole and you can use a smaller machine

I found if you pick up and drop the stump the ground comes off

One ripper on the box blade. Start appx 2/3 out from the trunk into the drip line circle. Do circles around the tree slowly moving in, ripping roots. Push it over.

Great advice if you want to get maximum power out of hydraulic equipment without breaking parts.

Cotton top 3 is a logger and has a Kubota mini excavator. He has added other attachments to his but there are several videos of him using it .

instead of burning that, why not throw the stump into the woods to decompose and act as fertilizer/habitat for the beautiful forest you have?

LOL,,,,, You bent the protective cover on the lower hydraulic arm,,,,,

"Close my hole." How about, "Fill in my hole." Genius.

Think what our grand parents had to do to clear the land for planting and building a house without the use of any machinery.

I so want a digger for my yard. I have a bunch of trees fallen into my creek. A bunch of trees fallen into a river that cuts through... ugh. The things I could do with this. The holes I would make. EDIT: Advice about the dirt. If you your machine is able. Pick the stump up and just let it drop back down. Gravity will clean those roots better than any digger teeth.

guess he didnt find letsdig18 or Dirt Perfect

Thank you for the informative film. There is another method they do: to cut the tree stump as much as possible and then to grind it w/special machine (you can rent fm/HD for ~$150). So if you grind it and level well, will the stump start to regrow? Maybe you had something like that in your experience. We need to remove one tree, which grows between 2 houses (they are at a distance ~ 3 yards), there is no place for excavator machine there. I would burn it in a slow manner, but there is AC unit sitting next to it. So it looks like to grind that stump to the surface level would be the best option, but I'm afraid it will start to grow back again. I would appreciate any opinions on this matter.

Quick question, what’s the price tag on a unit identical to this one in road about ball park new?

Chris at youtube channel Letsdig18 is a stump removing master

What , no rocks? easy peasy! some times it helps to push down with the boom as you curl the bucket tearing off roots

The KX080 would have made that even easier! :-)

Andrew Camarata makes a lot of videos he shows how he digs out stumps

You obviously bent your boom cylinder guard 😅

Good video but did anyone notice the guard on the boom cylinder was not bent in the beginning of the video but it is at the end of the video? lol it happens to the best of us

whats this bucket called?

Two words; stump grinder. All that work and now you have a stump *and* a root ball to get rid of *and* you need some fill dirt to go back in the hole.

I just bought a place and current owners left a mess in front yard. 2 acres was completely wooded but they cut an acre worth of large oaks and hickory’s and left stumps everywhere. I’ve cut up and split the large logs on the ground but not sure if this method would be faster at removing or renting a stump grinder. The rental grinders don’t seem to be strong enough to grind down the stumps in a days rental. Also the stump grinder daily rental is $400 and local kubota dealer rents this out for $300 a day and is 5 min down the road. I just don’t know if this excavator is large enough. 2-3 stumps are a good 3 foot In diameter.

You don't necessarily need a commentary ,, Us oldies that have been round the ridges for a while watch dozens of vids by all types of operators ,, some good others bad ,, prob the best all round operator is Andrew Camartra ,,, practice makes perfect

That soil is incredibly rich.

My neighbor pulled a stump out like that and found a fully intact flint arrow head in the rootball.

Seems like unless there is a need to remove the root ball, using a stump grinder is much more efficient and cost effective.

DIY excavator, who duh thunk it? I'd love to try it.

You should see MY over size hole, HA! lol

Nothing wrong with Neil's efforts but to see a lot more of what this machine can do see COTONTOP3 on youtube. It's incredible what can be done with this machine.

try a andrew camarata video.

There's an easier way to do that. As soon as I figure it out, I'll let you know.

Is the machine not big / strong enough to pick it up and drop it to knock the dirt off - and tote it to where it needs to go -- ODD - i thought these were rated at 1 ton of weight - and yea I guess that stump may have been close -- ahahahaha

Hey Neil, just wanted to bring to your attention KZfaq has added commercials to your videos with explicit words that seem to up the volume when said words are spoken. Was shocked to hear them in the middle of your videos. Anyways, just thought you might want to know. Thanks!

letsdig18 channel have video of clearing house lot

Hi brother how to get excavated machine Operators job nz .I’m now still working Singapore 5 years over???

Watch letsdig18. Much bigger machine but his method on stumps is pretty clear.

Cheap just under 100,000 dollars

Would have made a better video if you would have mowed the grass around the stump before you started the video

Just rent a 10 ton digger and ripe it out

M

First!

Take ads out Jesus Christ. It’s got so ridiculous.

So what? Get in there with the chainsaw! How many chainsaws can I buy for the price of just one one of those excavators?