Dave Liquorice wrote:

On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 14:56:28 GMT, postandrail wrote:

Anybody any ideas how much force to pull out a 4 inch dia beech tree
???

Best bet is to cut down as much as possible, leaving a 6' or so stump.

That's a mistake many people make. You should try and leave 4 - 5 feet
of trunk remaining, as with the extra length, comes extra leverage.
With just the stump in the ground, the only leverage you will get is by
digging under it, and putting a scaffold pole beneath it.
What many contractors do now is to cut off at the stump, then use a
stump grider to get down another 6" or so.Unless you are digging deeper
than 6", you would never know a tree was there, though I dont like that
method, I think it is far better to get as much as possible out.

Then dig around as much as possible then try and winch the stump over to
cut root and dig more.

Agreed.See this pic of 3 I got out in July:
http://www.maydavid.co.uk/images/treestumps.jpg

Notice the end one is bigger than my spade - none of this was visible
from the surface.
If they were left 4 feet high, it would have been a much easier job to
get them out - as it was, the only option I had was to keep digging, and
cut through any visible roots. It took around 10 hours of hard labour to
do it.
Alan.
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