Huge stump reduction

[Tmacmullin]

I have a 40" diameter hard wood stump that I need to extract from the ground. I know that even if I successfully sever all the peripheral roots that my Bobcat E50 (maximum lifting capacity of 6000 lbs) will not be able to lift that stump in its entirety into my dump truck. So before I sever the side roots I was thinking I could use my newly purchased serrated ripper to "cut" through the core stump into at least 4 separate pieces then sever the side roots and subsequently hoist each quarter into my truck, after removing as much dirt from the stump quarters as possible.
Do you think the use of the serrated ripper will be a good substitute for a chainsaw in this case?

My other alternate thought is to rip free the entire stump and then use a high-pressure washer to "clean" the stump as much as possible then use a chainsaw with a 3' bar and quarter the stump accordingly!

What's your thought?
Btw this stump was recently a live tree brought down by storms last month here in the Boston area. The owner thinks the tree was either a silver maple or a silver oak! So hard, non-rotten Wood is what I have to deal with!

[jason.weir]

if you think your ripper will split the stump then by all means do that while it's captive - once it's out of the ground you're left with sawing it as the ripper will just push it around.

And remember that 6K lifting capacity is usually rated close to the machine and at the bucket pin.  The further you move out and up capacity goes down fast.  That's a big stump for a 10k machine..

[Southside]

Can you not grind it in place?

[mike_belben]

You can plunge cut the inner meat from the top plane and head down toward the tap root with a chainsaw to make sectioning go faster for the excavator.  If you cut up the center pretty deep itll be like a cored orange.  Your ripper can pick at the center you sawed out and fold out chunks pretty easy against the sideroot's strength.  A root on the south side uses tension to keep a tree from falling to the north.  That same root isnt very good at preventing a fall to the south.  So by sectioning the middle you immensely weaken the structure.  Id probably try for 6 or 7 segments and peel it open like 'bloomin onion' from the center.  Try to cut out good pockets you can really bite the ripper into.


Stuff like this i use a 18v milwaukee angle grinder and freehand sharpen often.   Deeper you cut, the more imbedded rock within the wood to fold the chisel corner over on you.  Its gonna finish off a few chains on you.

[SwampDonkey]

The fellow I had tear down an old farm house on my build site rolled out a big old maple stump around that size with an excavator. I didn't want him to dig it, because it is next to another. Didn't leave much of a crater behind. Does need some fill on it, but not huge.