I have a 331G and it is the most used piece of equipment I use on the farm, as far as digging stumps it does pretty good. I live in South Texas and we have mainly mesquite trees and they have a pretty tough root system.Thanks everyone for your helpful advice. I pulled the trigger today and picked up this Bobcat 331. It checked all the boxes on my wishlist with one exception (it doesn't have a close cab) but that's OK because I just ordered my bee suit today. Played with it a little bit and I will say it takes a little getting use to. Unlike a skidsteer there's more moving parts but I look forward to getting familiar with all of them.
I will say I was just about ready to give up the search for a mini and go after another backhoe but then this one hit the market at the last minute, was close and the seller delivered it to my property.
A backhoe could have done the same job but I look forward learning how to use a new toy.
Hey, Countryboy, since you have a 331. I was wondering. I went to grease the machine the other day and noticed there were no zerk fittings for the blade. This may be a stupid question but do you know if they make pins with zerk fittings in them? I really didn't want to have to drill and tap the rods.I have a 331G and it is the most used piece of equipment I use on the farm, as far as digging stumps it does pretty good. I live in South Texas and we have mainly mesquite trees and they have a pretty tough root system.
40 or 50 years ago I saw some stump fences near Grand Rapid Mi. I'm guessing trunks 20 to 30 inches and root dia. 8 or 10 ft. They ran for some distance. There were a few of them in the area. They were actually quite impressive. Never seen anything like it since. I've got a place I'd like to have one but I don't have the trees or the machine or permission from my wife.By the way, you mentioned burning stumps? About 30 or so acres of my ranch is in heavy timber, mainly coniferous and a medium mix of deciduous trees like aspen, birch and western larch. I have logged my woodstand for many years and have burned slash and stumps each fall. I have never been able to reduce stumps much bigger than a foot in diameter to ashes in a single burn. I finally gave up and bought a chipper for dealing with most of the branches. And on a section of my west fence line I started a bullwork of old stumps that I call "stumphedge". I use either the 4 in one bucket on my backhoe or the dipper to transport the stumps and pile them. As you might imagine, stumphedge has become quite the critter condo for squirrels, marmots, racoons etc...we don't have any venomous critters in my neck of the woods so that hasn't been an issue. Eventually, nature will do it's thing and reduce the wall of wood to dirt. I don't have any visible neighbors so no one can claim the wall is unsightly and it can't be seen from the house. I've also started shaving stumps instead of pulling them, where it really isn't necessary to remove the stump. I use a Husky 395XP saw with a 32 inch bar to flush cut the stump. As long as I dig down a couple of inches around the stump I can usually make a good slice without any dirt contact by the chain. I've also shave cut with my smaller 20 inch Husky using the same technique. It takes a little practice and a lot of caution and safety equipment, like chaps, but I think it sure beats pulling the stumps and a lot easier on the equipment and fuel.