18 inch auger on a 3 pt post hole digger

[Zebrafive]

In 1997 I rented a Bush Hog PHD with an 18" auger for $125 to put up my pole barn. Then about ten years later when they had a equipment reduction auction. I bought it for $600. They told me after the auction it had only been rented a few times and so they decided to sell it.It was like new condition.

 

[moriboy]

I used our old el cheapo 3pt auger with an 18" bit to build my shop and barn. No issues, but the ground was pretty soft.

 

[sd455dan]

I am going to be building a new pole barn this summer and will need to dig 25 18" diameter holes for the posts. My dad has a older 3 pt post hole digger that I can use, but I don't know if it can handle an 18" auger. It also does not have down force, so I know that it will be slow. Anyone tried running an auger that large on a standard post hole digger?

I made an adapter for our Lienbach phd and rented a 24" auger for a front mount skidsteer . We have clay soil- no rocks. With that said, it worked great we dug 30 + holes all 40" +- deep for a new 30x40 barn and 30x48 garage The tractor used was a 1967 Ford 3000 selectospeed diesel, a few times the large auger caught some roots and slipped the pto clutch-I just disengaged the pto and lifted , no damage. The type of soil and tractor pto configuration would be the questions? Some other tractor / pto /phd setups may be less forgiving than what we used the Lienbach has only sheared bolts once since purchase and that was putting in fence posts.

 

[Farmerford]

I have a Bush Hog brand phd and 24" auger. It works fine in sandy or loamy soil if there are no rocks. It also works in clay, though slow, if there are no rocks or roots. In dry, hard clay a little water helps a lot; it makes the soil heavy and sticky, so you need to withdraw the auger from time to time. Shear pins do break from time to time, so I keep several handy. In extremely hard clay soil I have first drilled a hole with the 6" auger and then followed up with the 24". The 24" wobbles a bit until it goes down a few inches, but then it works fine.

 

[BRBurns]

My tractor is a John Deere 4300, but I have free access to larger ones if needed. Soil is clay here. I'm thinking I might give it a try and rent the 18" auger. What's the worst that can happen. I figure it would stall my tractor before it would break anything.

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

I have thought about this a little......
If I were to need to do this, I would buy an 18" auger for my PHD. (old Speeco, for cheap)
I would pre drill all my holes about 10-12" deep with the big auger, change to a smaller auger to drill the holes to full depth.
Then clean out to size with the big auger.
Of course ground type makes a big difference.
Good luck

 

[Brad_Blazer]

The risk of digging a pilot hole is that the auger might tend to screw in instead of dig. Trying to un-stick an 18" auger would not be fun.

 

[terry.dinerman]

I just finished setting twenty-three 6x6 posts for my "barn-do-minium"....

Tho I own a PHD that will swing a 12" auger with no problem, I rented a small excavator with a 12" bucket due to the roots, clay and occasional rocks found in the area...

The excavator was outstanding, easily digging precise holes, acting as a crane to erect the poles and hold them steady while the back-fill was tamped.

I put a boom on my tractor and kept it busy lugging the poles around the site for the excavator to erect.

This is, of course, just my opinion...your mileage may vary...

Terry

 

[sd455dan]

My tractor is a John Deere 4300, but I have free access to larger ones if needed. Soil is clay here. I'm thinking I might give it a try and rent the 18" auger. What's the worst that can happen. I figure it would stall my tractor before it would break anything.

Since you have clay it sounds like it's worth a try. I would check the inside diameter of the auger shaft that you are considering renting and the outside diameter of the phd drive you have and verify that the diameters are compatible, also the shear bolt hole(s) can be made to line up.. The 2' one we rented was actually for a hydraulic driven unit and its diameter was much larger it was also only about 2&1/2' long so when I made the adapter I lengthened it to match the length of factory augers for the phd. None of the local rental places had a 2' auger for a standard phd, hope the story is different for an 18" auger.. Adapting a rental auger saved us a lot of money and it might save you some to...Hope it works out