Reviewing The Barreto 30 SGB Stump Grinder

Today we are looking at Jay reviewing the Barreto 30 SGB stump grinder. All right, exciting stuff for you today. I have shown you in the past how to burn out a tree stump. That was a very fun and interesting video. Today I am going to rent a stump grinder. I’ve never done this before as it is expensive. Having someone come to your property and grind a stump can be several hundred pounds. I am not saying I don’t do that. It is a good idea if that’s within your budget. I have a good four stumps here that I need to remove; I can rent a stump grinder for $187 for a half day or $300 for a full day.

I really can’t say too much about preparation, it’s really important when you’re renting expensive equipment to clean and prepare your work area. I’ve excavated the areas in preparation for grinding the stumps. In my humble opinion, you do not need to excavate the area before grinding tree stumps. Make sure you have plenty of gas on hand, so you don’t return the machine empty and get charged a lot for gas! Large petrol stump grinders burn quite a bit of fuel, however, the more modern EFI engines are much more efficient.

The Barreto 30 SGB Stump Grinder

Let me tell you a little about this equipment; this is Barretto’s 30 SGB stump grinder. It’s manufactured in the USA. It’s a 31-horsepower track-driven stump grinder; the Barreto 30 SGB stump grinder retails for about pounds 26 000. The Barreto 30 SGB stump grinder is an amazing piece of machinery; this is a beast! This Barreto has a 14-gallon hydraulic reservoir; the blades are carbide; they’re carbide cylindrical teeth, so they’re very, very tough. The cutting wheel is fully hydraulic so you get a lot of power and it eliminates having those expensive belts that you need to replace. And, of course, no belts to stretch; there is no need to tighten belts with a hydraulic drive regularly. It is just an amazing piece of machinery built right here in the U.S.

You Can Find More Tree Stump Grinders Here

Prepare Before You Grind

When you grind a tree stump, make sure that you guard the area around the machine, as stones and woodchips can be thrown a long way. If you are in an open area with no cars or properties around, then there is no need to guard up. I have come to a point where I’m going to clean out the debris so I can see what I am doing, so I think I’ll sweep it out or rake it out and maybe pressure wash lightly just to get more exposure. Personally, I wouldn’t bother using a power washer to clear the area. To my mind, this is pointless and unnecessary.

With a full-day rental, there’s no telling how many stumps you could take out, but I think it’s all in preparation. You know you save time with preparation; get your stumps ready and clean out around them. I am going to show you. You can see that I pressure-washed around the stumps. I am going to wash out a little more around here this one, it is not that big a deal, but I don’t know if you can see it but the ground swells with the root mat. You see, I have elevated ground all around here is going to be a gravel bed, 35 feet of gravel by 22 feet wide. So I don’t want sinkholes that are not going to be a sinkhole and neither is this when I’m done with it. However, if you leave a lot of material, you will have sinkholes.

There Is No Need To Excavate

Jay suggests that you need to excavate around the stump area; once again, this is unnecessary. Commercially, when I grind a tree stump, I’d literally go straight in with the grinder; there is no need to make extra work! It is imperative that you excavate your area. The more I do, the more I realize how important that is. That is where my stump was. Look at this massive root over here! This runner! It’s as big around as a torso!

I started about 9 am, this one took me an hour to get to the bulk of it and now I am just fine-tuning it and then I’ll move along to the next one. And then we’ll go over to Mike’s and maybe that one and maybe the two or three on the drain field.
The Barreto 30 SGB stump grinder is on track, so you want to watch out when turning it around sharply because it will tear up your grass. Take caution when you’re on a wet field. This is a wet field; I don’t want to tear it up! I just want to take the root down to below ground level. Make sure there are no bricks or anything in here because you don’t want to tear up those expensive teeth.

How Long Does It Take to Grind a Tree Stump?

Obviously, a lot depends on the size of the stump. For example, there’s a huge difference between a 1-foot tree stump and a 2-foot tree stump, especially when considering the volume. Here is Jay’s example.

All right again, let’s talk about time; I’ve got two craters where I once had stumps. I am satisfied that I removed all the runner roots. The bulk of the big roots, so that’s two, and I am halfway through a third tree stump.

I picked the Barreto 30 SGB stump grinder up at 8 AM; you have to account for everything as time goes by quickly. I am now working on the third stump and it’s 10 30 a.m. I could probably do a decent job on all of these, so that would be five stumps in a half day. At least if I can get these ground out, maybe not cleaned up. Maybe not everything I want; at least I have removed the necessary and offending tree stumps.