Digging up sweetgum stumps

[highpockets]

Most folks learn the first time but I am a little hard headed.  Several years ago I had a large sweetgum tree in the front yard that was rotten.  The power company took the large forked trunks and left me with the stump.   After digging a 12' hole around the stump, I found I did not have enough counterweight  to get the stump out easily.  With the help of the dozer winch and the winch truck, I managed to get it above ground.




The other day, I decided to remove my second sweetgum from near our little pool and deck.  For some unbeknown reason I decided that I wanted to built a 20' x 20' cover over the deck.  Of course there is a sweetgum in the way.  My reasoning was to dig it up instead of cutting it off.  I needed room for the bar-b-que pit.   



After some thirty minutes of digging some 10' deep around it, I hooked Bertha to the tree and finally managed to pull it over.   Problem is on the last cut with the backhoe, I lost a stabilizer cylinder (cracked) in the weld.




I thought for laughs I'd try to pull the whole tree out of the ground.  Of course there is a 9' rootball covered with dirt.  Not with 23,000 lbs. 



Now it is repair the cylinder on the backhoe, rig up a tailchain on the 45,000 winch, clean some of the dirt off the root and pull.   The sawmill is waiting.



There is one thing that I have learned, never try to guess what kind of root system a sweetgum has. Two months ago I dug up a couple. One was about 12" at the butt and had a root 10' deep.  The other was some 16" and only had roots 4' deep.  There is not necessarly a tap root either. 

:D 

[BBK]

Yeah Bubba ! I've seen a 10" dia gum stop a D-9 dozer in its tracks.

[scsmith42]

Great story and pix.

I've got sweetgums all over my farm, and getting the stumps out give the ripper on my D8 a real workout.  Most of mine seem to have taproots that go down 6' - 8'.

[woodbowl]

HP,
   I would like to see what kind of grain pattern the root ball of that sweet gum saws out. Do you plan to hose off the dirt and saw boards out of it?
   I've made some mighty purdy bowls out of sweet gum, but never the root ball.  ........  Just wunderin'   ;D  ;D  ;D 

[highpockets]

Woodbowl, I hadn't thought of sawing the rootball but it sounds like something interesting.  As for sweetgum, we normally cuss them and cut them.  My plan was to take the backhoe and knock off the extra 10,000 lbs of dirt and pull the stump out of the hole.  Then I thought I'd just dig a deeper hole and roll it off in there and cover it up. 

The problem is my backhoe stabilizers are worn in the bushings. Due to this the cylinder is in a bind and cracked the head of the cylinder.  I removed the cylinder and chucked it in the lathe.  I've got the cylinder weld cleaned out and rewelded but I must rebush the stabilizer pivot point.  It looks like I am going to have to torch cut the bushing mount out and machine new ones.  The cylinder reworking pretty much has me down so I expect a week to get back running.  I'll probably put a tail chain on Bertha's big winch and drag the whole mess above ground for the time being.  Then let it rain if it wants to.