I need to remove a large oak stump. It's about 3.5 feet in diameter and sticks up about 1 foot. Some guy quoted me $400. I think that's ridiculous. I'd pay someone $200, which is about what a 20hp stump grinder rents for a day. How do you use one?

I'm fine with actually doing the work and I am good at selling the job once I'm at the customers property. My problem is advertising and making contact with people, it needs to be relatively local, I'm not interested in traveling across three states to do a five hour job. Also how important is it to be liscensed/bonded/insured if I am the only person working and it is a small sideline business, not my primary employment. Thank you for taking the time to help.

I'm thinking about investing in one to make some money on the side. Anyone know what the price range is to buy one, or have experience with this sort of work?

We are looking to take out a lot of stumps...some almost a couple feet in diameter, and most oak. They're all in our horse's area that we're getting cleared out. We can't bring in a bulldozer or anything like that. But, if we're going to rent a tow behind one, we better get a lot more bang for our buck than the walk behind. They're over double the price! Any suggestions?