How to Make and Use a Pipe Stump Puller

In this article I will show how to make  and use a stump puller pipe.  There isn’t much on the internet on doing this, but the technique is pretty old.  The problem with pulling stumps is that they are set to resist lateral pressure from pulling them sideways.  They (and those old cedar posts) come out much easier if you pull them straight up.

In the one youtube video I saw with this tip.  A guy used a 8 foot 4×4 as the upright.  That would work awesome, but when I was talking with my buddy about my plan he offered a 54 inch length of threaded 2 inch well casing and a base plate.

We drilled out the holes in the base and screwed it into a 2 foot length of 4×6 treated post.  I used large 5/8 lag bolts as this would take a lot of pressure.

Next I drilled a 1/2 hole through the pipe top.

I threaded the lifting eye into the hole and used fender and lock washers and bolts inside the pipe to secure it.

Then screwed on a eye nut to finish it off.

I probably did not have to use the internal nuts, but I don’t want anything shifting or deforming under the stress of the winch.

Finally, I attached a 6 foot and a 5 foot length of chain to the eyes using a clevis hook.

How to Build a Stump Puller Pipe

 

How to Use a Stump Puller Pipe

 

 

Using the pipe is simple.  For the first attempt used a standard eye bolt.  However, the power of the machine actually bent one straight.  When working with cable under pressure a snap.  This can send the chain or wire through the air like a giant weed wacker.  It will can enough force to cut a man in half.

In the Marines, I once saw a 27 ton winch cable snap and it was over before anyone could do anything.

The idea is that instead of pulling the stump sideways, the pipe acts as a lever and as it is pulled sideways the chain from the pipe to the stump pulls it almost straight upwards.

The longer the pole, the closer the chain on the stump is to the ground, and the higher the chain on the pole is connected the less energy is needed to pull up.

I am using a come-along in the video as I can’t get my winch to work after pulling the trailer out.

A winch is easiest, but anything that puts pressure on the chain will work. As you can see from the video, using a stump puller pipe is pretty simple.

How to Recover a Trailer with a Stump Puller Pipe

 

 

On one side of my driveway is a very steep drop and it is overgrown with brush.  We are dumping clean but broken lumber from the trailer dismantle.  Also we have stumps and brush we cut so that we can burn it this summer when the burn permits are not required.

Unfortunately, there are deep ruts and Dad’s heavy trailer got stuck. He could not get traction with his tires to pull it out and one axle was in a foot deep rut that was acting like a chock.

Having the stump puller worked to my advantage as it lifted the wheel up out of the rut and pulled the trailer forward. It only moved a foot at a time.  Next we pulled it, chocked the rear wheels, released the pressure.  Then we reset the puller and then took another bite with the puller.

Finally, we were done.  It only took about 45 minutes to for the process to recovering a trailer and did it without damage.