Calculator
Cost per stump is the only metric that matters
Cost per stump
$31.42
Cost per hour
$189
Stumps per year
2,700
| Cost line | $/hour | $/stump | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attachment capital | $9.00 | $1.50 | 5% |
| Teeth and tips | $7.50 | $1.25 | 4% |
| Carrier | $85.00 | $14.17 | 45% |
| Operator | $65.00 | $10.83 | 34% |
| Fuel | $22.00 | $3.67 | 12% |
| Total | $189 | $31.42 | $84,825 / year |
Every figure above is yours to enter. No attachment prices are published on this site, because attachment pricing moves with exchange rate, spec and carrier bracket — a published number would be wrong within a quarter.
Make sure you are costing the right tool
This calculator assumes grinding: destroying the stump in place, leaving chip and no spoil. If you are pulling stumps anyway and the problem is transporting and processing what comes out, you want a cutter, and the metric becomes cost per tonne processed rather than cost per stump.
What moves the number most
- 01
Teeth life, not teeth price
A cheaper set that lasts half as long is more expensive. In abrasive or stony ground, tooth cost is a monthly line item you budget rather than a spare you order occasionally — halve the teeth-life figure above and watch what happens to the total.
- 02
Stumps per hour
The single biggest lever, and the one buyers estimate most optimistically. It is set by stump diameter, species, root plate and access, not by the attachment's rated capacity.
- 03
Annual hours
Below about 200 hours a year, hire or subcontract. Between 200 and 500, buy if the tool unlocks work you currently turn away. Above 500, ownership almost always wins and wear-part supply becomes more important than purchase price.
- 04
Carrier wear
Grinding puts continuous load on a machine designed for intermittent load. Pumps, coolers and final drives feel it. If you intend to run hard, raise the carrier rate above to reflect tighter service intervals.
Talk to a specialist
Bring your carrier’s weight, flow and pressure and we will tell you which model in the range suits the stump counts you are quoting.
Request a quote →How the calculation works
The calculator builds an hourly cost from five lines and then divides it by the stumps you complete in an hour. Attachment capital is the purchase price less residual value, spread across expected life in hours. Teeth are the set cost divided by the hours a set lasts. Carrier, operator and fuel are entered directly as hourly figures.
That total hourly figure is the number you can quote from. Cost per stump is simply that divided by output, which is why the stumps-per-hour field moves the result more than any other input and deserves the most honest number you have.
Deliberately excluded: mobilisation, insurance, administration and downtime. Mobilisation belongs in a per-job quote rather than an hourly rate, and downtime is better handled as a realistic allowance once you know your parts lead time. Both are covered on the attachment costs page.
Getting honest inputs
Before you trust the output
- Stumps per hour measured on your own sites, not estimated
- Teeth set cost quoted in writing by your supplier
- Teeth life in hours, in ground like yours
- Teeth lead time in Australia
- Carrier hourly rate, own-cost or hire
- Realistic annual hours from last year's records
- Residual value based on a current, supported series
- Whether buried metal is likely on your typical sites