Here's a monstrous Belarussian-made MAZ truck hauling a stump out of the ground by main force. It takes a lot of pulling power to make it look so effortless, but these trucks were initially built to haul tanks or tactical missiles such as the SCUD series, so they're pretty powerful beasts.
That looks like a re-purposed MAZ-537 military transporter (which you can see in action here). I wonder what those things sell for nowadays? It might make heads turn at hill-climbs and cross-country courses around the USA . . .
Peter
I need one. Not for stumps and such...just for driving up and down Main St.
ReplyDeleteThat almost -- not quite, but almost -- displaces the Unimog on my wish list.
ReplyDeleteBetter buy 2 so you have some spare parts, and extras on the MX items like oil filters, brake pads, and tires. Because I'm guessing you aren't going to find anything to fit at the local auto parts.
ReplyDeletehttp://sovietarmor.com/catalog/armored/maz_537.html
ReplyDeleteYours for just $43000.
You do NOT want to anywhere near that thing if/when the cable snaps!
ReplyDeleteI can tell you from personal experience that that method beats all hell out of doing it by hand. Stumping is work from start to finish, and a lot of it.
ReplyDeleteHelped my cousins do some of that the summer I spent in Idaho at their horse ranch.
ReplyDeleteFirst time I ever saw fertilizer and diesel oil go BOOM!
It appears to me that the main factor in pulling that stump is the mass of the truck, not specifically the power or gearing or number of drive wheels. It was only effective when using the slack in the cable to attain a bit of vehicle velocity. A dead pull had no effect.
ReplyDeleteI read, in another video description of that model truck, that it weighs 20 tons. That's a fair amount of energy when moving!
You really have to be cautious when doing a snatch pull like that. Very common to break cables and chains, which can then fly with quite a bit of damage inflicted on people and other objects. Cables are worse, as they can store quite a bit more energy in stretch before shearing or breaking connectors. Chains don't stretch quite like cable does, they seem more likely to deform the links before breaking, with not as much stored energy as a result.