MtnViewRanch
Elite Member, Advertiser
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2005
- Messages
- 10,454
- Tractor
- Mahindra 7520, Mahindra 3215HST, Case 580 extendahoe, Case 310 dozer, Parsons trencher, Cat D6,
Well, I guess I'm just lucky, I love my 3pt PTO auger. I don't have one single problem that has been talked about. I would prefer to see what I need to do 5 feet away with my 3pt PHD vs 15 feet away with a bucket mounted auger. If I were to have a hydraulic PHD, it would be a 3pt unit.
To start with I have the PHD on a stand that makes it very easy to hitch up the unit. Zero wrestling with it, usually takes about 5 minutes.
2nd, I bought a top of the line unit and bits. A Land Pride PD35. Now these cost some money, but I'm sure that it contributes to me not having so many of the problems so commonly talked about.
3rd, use some common sense, there is no need to have your tractor above an idle and while you are digging stop and lift the auger about every foot of depth dug. You should not dig a 3 or 4 foot deep hole and never have cleared the auger. Don't set the 3pt to just let it go. (lever all the way forward) Have it set so that it will only go down a short ways at a time. I have always wondered how people have their augers get caught on a root and just screw itself in. What, is it lifting the front of the tractor up in the air? That is what would have to happen if they would have set the hitch properly.
4th, to deal with very hard ground, a down pressure kit will almost always take care of any problems that you may have.
I have DG (decomposed granite) in a lot of areas at my place. Sometimes the ground is so hard that I could put 20 gallons of water in a partially dug hole and it would be there for days. Once I bought my down pressure kit, no more digging problems of any kind. Holes that use to take days to dig now take at most 2 minutes and that is NO exaggeration.
To start with I have the PHD on a stand that makes it very easy to hitch up the unit. Zero wrestling with it, usually takes about 5 minutes.
2nd, I bought a top of the line unit and bits. A Land Pride PD35. Now these cost some money, but I'm sure that it contributes to me not having so many of the problems so commonly talked about.
3rd, use some common sense, there is no need to have your tractor above an idle and while you are digging stop and lift the auger about every foot of depth dug. You should not dig a 3 or 4 foot deep hole and never have cleared the auger. Don't set the 3pt to just let it go. (lever all the way forward) Have it set so that it will only go down a short ways at a time. I have always wondered how people have their augers get caught on a root and just screw itself in. What, is it lifting the front of the tractor up in the air? That is what would have to happen if they would have set the hitch properly.
4th, to deal with very hard ground, a down pressure kit will almost always take care of any problems that you may have.
I have DG (decomposed granite) in a lot of areas at my place. Sometimes the ground is so hard that I could put 20 gallons of water in a partially dug hole and it would be there for days. Once I bought my down pressure kit, no more digging problems of any kind. Holes that use to take days to dig now take at most 2 minutes and that is NO exaggeration.