[How do I?] Remove green tree stumps

[Cadillac]

Over the weekend I cleared about a half acre of land at my summer house. Have a lot 12-15 stumps ranging from 3” to 8”. I cut them about two feet from the ground.
I’ve tried drilling 1” holes in old stumps soaking with diesel and burning but that doesn’t seem to work just chars and doesn’t burn through the whole stump.
Ripping the stumps from the ground with a pickup doesn’t seem to work and it’s pretty harsh on the truck.
My question is how the heck can I remove this stumps easily. I am way outside town to rent a stump grinder. There’s got to be a old timers way of getting these stumps gone. I really just want them flush or just below the surface. I do not need them completely gone.
Any insight on the matter would be greatly appreciated thanks in advance.

 

[macd55]

search on YouTube for "removing a stump with a tire" Shows how a rope/chain pulled with a truck, without jerking can pull a stump.

 

[RJSakowski]

The old timer's method was a half stick of dynamite.

 

[RJSakowski]

I removed a 30" diameter dead elm stump this summer. Several days of hard work with chain saw, splitting wedges, axe and shovel. If it were green, it would have taken much longer.

Lye poured into a bored hole was one method. I also bought some Spectracide potassium nitrate, aka saltpeter, sold as stump remover although I bought it for a different purpose. Both act by destroying the lignin.

 

[Cadillac]

search on YouTube for "removing a stump with a tire" Shows how a rope/chain pulled with a truck, without jerking can pull a stump.

I’ve manually cut out stumps before digging and chopping. It’s no easy task. I’ve used skidsteers with a toothed bucket on 12” plus diameter stumps and you end up with a big hole and acouple hours work. I e used grinders on a skid steer it’s the least work but I can’t get one out there.
The soil there is mostly clay. I cannot see a truck pulling out a stump. I could be totally wrong. In those videos is it a sandy soil?? I will check the videos that’s where I got the diesel idea. I made Swiss cheese of a flush stump that was cut about two years ago. Poured about two gallons of diesel and let it soak in for the day. Came back at night poured another dose of diesel on it. Light it up and it burned for about three hours. Next day checked what had it done and all it did was char everything the stump still felt solid. I ended up checkering it with a burnt up bar and chain then axing it till it was below grade.
I have a gmc 3500 4x4 it should have the muscle but traction will be the downfall. I’ll check out the videos thanks.

 

[Gnpenning]

Tannerite, you might as well have some fun with it. Stay back, you never know what is loose in the ground around them.

 

[RJSakowski]

I've watched a number of how not to do it videos where they end up tearing the truck in half. A big ass tractor with a heavy chain stands half a chance. One trick that might work would be to use a nearby stump as an anchor. Run a heavy cable ot chain between the two, as tightly as you can. Connect a chain at the midpoint and pull at right angles. The force applied to the chain between the stumps is multiplied by 1/sine of the angle in the chain. You can leverage your force by up to ten x that way.

 

[rabler]

Rent an mini-excavator or backhoe is the conventional approach to be done with them quickly. For the small size stumps you're dealing with you can use a small one. Bonus is a mini-excavator will have a blade that can be used for rough grading. Use the bucket to dig them out rather than trying to pull them. Otherwise I'd go with the chemical methods (saltpeter or lye) mentioned by @RJSakowski

 

[benmychree]

My neighbor had the best way, we had a fire on his property 2 years ago and it killed most of the trees, mostly grey pine, a junk tree, he knew that they would be falling down and got to work with his D8 Cat bulldozer and took down the ones that would do damage to my property, that and a full size excavator and some chain saw guys resulted in several massive burn piles, meanwhile they continue to fall on the rest of the property.

 

[rabler]

My neighbor had the best way, we had a fire on his property 2 years ago and it killed most of the trees, mostly grey pine, a junk tree, he knew that they would be falling down and got to work with his D8 Cat bulldozer and took down the ones that would do damage to my property, that and a full size excavator and some chain saw guys resulted in several massive burn piles, meanwhile they continue to fall on the rest of the property.

A D8? Yep. At roughly 80,000 lbs, definitely falls in the "Overkill is Underrated." at least for the stumps @Cadillac is talking about.
That's my way of saying I'm envious.