Posthole Digger bucket mounted posthole digger?

[Anonymous Poster]

Roger, Wow!...weird timing!

I just posted some more auger questions, and found this new post from you, as soon as I returned to the 24 hr. list

Don't know what to think... I've got plenty of time, working only to suit myself. Only have to drill as many or as fast as I choose. Seemed to me the backhoe "visibility" couldn't be beat. And the "hole" placement a snap with the backhoe. As for placing the tractor itself, I thought "about right" would be fine, considering that any adjustment could be fine-tuned using the backhoe.

I have no experience at this, and I know that my "imaginings" may not match reality. So I'm listening carefully to what is offered on this list.

Larry

 

[W5FL]

Barry,

I have spent a lot of time trying to find a good solution to the drilling in North Texas Rocky soil. Search on post hole and you should find some similar discussions listed in either attachments or rural conferences.

The only thing that seems to work is the HEAVY DUTY stuff and it is expensive. The rear mounted one sells for about $3000 and requires a 60 HP tractor /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif plus the auger is about $1000 or so, but it will drill chunk and solid rock and is used by most of the commercial fence building places and some ranchers in this area. It is built by a place in Texas.

Unfortunately Danuser (wonderful or any of the bucket mounted augers are little more than toys when it comes to drilling in rock, although they are wonderful for tough drilling and chunk rock. It takes way too much hydraulic flow rate to even come close to the power of the PTO (the tractor would just be a hydraulic pump, otherwise).

You can rent the heavy duty units here for about $200 or so a day and you pay $7 for each tip you break.

<font color=blue>The previous thread was in attachments titled "Post Hole Diggers - again"

The subject seems pretty easy, but apparently it is not. I have a lot of rock on my place and would really like to be able to fence without it becoming such a time consuming effort.

I saw a solution today, but as usual it costs too much. This guy had just bought the BELLTEC hydraulic digger with 3000# (not a typo)downpressure. I was really impressed with everything except the price. Over $4000 with a couple of rock bits. Sure worked well.

I also have seen the hydraulic units that mount on your bucket. The BELLTEC unit looks like it would work but again costs over $2000 and that is probably without a rock bit (which is about $900). I have heard mixed data on how well this one works and would be afraid to buy one without talking to someone with one.

Found a Rhino unit that has a hydraulic motor in place of the PTO shaft input so it can be mounted on the loader bucket. It gives no data about what downforce it will take - and you can put a lot of downforce on a loader bucket. The cost is considerably less than the BELLTEC but again no one has seen one in operation.

The HD units from Bush Hog with a heavy duty bit seem to work fair for chunk rock but look dangerous when they are flailing around trying to get a bite. Used one once without a slip clutch and sheared 50 shear pins in a day.

My wife found one in the paper today for $350 complete with augar. Wonder if that will work. Could get 12 of them for the price of the BELLTEC and use a different one each month. </font color=blue>