Page 22 - Moving the Earth_ The Workbook of Excavation

LAND CLEARING AND CONTROLS

1.22 THE WORK

FIGURE 1.16 Digging out a stump.

dozer cuts a big root, it may turn and push the stump to see if it is loosened. The operator will
often be able to tell when it has been softened up by the way it shakes as the roots break. Many
operators do not bother with cut number 4, but it helps with very heavy stumps, particularly when
cut low. The ramp need be built only after an attempt to uproot from a lower level has failed.
Roots should be cut as close to the stump as the power of the dozer permits, but it is a waste
of time and power to buck at a heavy root repeatedly when it could be easily broken a foot or two
farther out and the stub crumpled back.
Pushing over a stump may leave a hole so large that the dozer cannot cross it to complete the
tearing out. In this case the dozer may be stopped at the edge, with brakes locked and the blade
holding the stump up. The operator can climb down and block the stump from settling back with
stones or a log, then back the machine and push dirt into the hole, or break down its edge so that
it can walk into the stump.
If an area is to be excavated after clearing, stumps may be left until digging has undermined
them and cut many of their roots when they can be easily removed.

Shovel Dozer. A shovel dozer or front-end loader can remove stumps in the same manner as a
bulldozer, or make use of the hydraulic control bucket in special techniques. A stump of small to
medium size may be dug by tilting the bucket floor downward from 30 to 60 degrees and forcing
it into the ground close to the stump, as in Fig. 1.17, using both down pressure and forward
motion. With the machine pushing forward, the bucket is then flattened and may be driven under