How do you like your SSQA hydraulic post hole digger compared to the 3pt? Pros/cons?
The jurry is still out.
I rebuilt my 3pt PHD to fit on a quick hitch. It required a hydraulic toplink to work, but resulted in down pressure enough to lift the back of the tractor for the first foot & a half of the hole. I also had 200lbs of
ballast over the gearbox.
With all the mods I never had any issues with digging holes. The loader can put more down pressure on the new auger though. The hydraulics are either less powerful of I'm able to put more of a bind on the auger with the loader down pressure. I'm not sure what 10gpm * 2,500psi translates into for HP, but it feels less than the 25hp PTO on the L3200. The new L4060 has 40hp & doesn't even grunt when I stall the hydraulic auger. I stalled my 32hp L3200 a good few times with the auger.
The 21 holes Sunday went in as easy, maybe a little easier than my previous 200-300. The ground was a bit damp after rain & snow, so not as hard of ground as some of the previous holes. Even so I often stalled the auger, but with little to no consequences. Better down pressure management may solve that.
I'd rarely get the engine above half, usually a third throttle for PTO. I'd have to kick it up to 3/4 RPM or so to get good flow & speed. The programmable rev engine trigger button on the Lxx60 is nice for that. Joystick for down pressure, thumb on 3rd function to spin & finger on rev button to give it some speed.
Offset mounting up front is decent visibility. Certainly no worse than on the 3pt. But you don't kill your neck turning around looking at the auger. Center mount would hide behind the hood & suck. I could see the point on the auger to place it just right & run things with only a little gangster lean to the right in the seat.
On PTO I'd kick up RPMs to fling dirt off the auger. The hydraulics won't spin nearly as fast so I have to spin it forward & reverse to try & jar dirt off. Judging by the hoses jumping when I did that I should think about a pressure relief valve or stop that before I blow a hose or something.
I never corkscrewed an auger on the 3pt, but got close a few times, despite being cautious. I'll love the reverse function if I ever do it on the hydraulic. I needed an adapter for 2" hex from 2" round ($200). But a friend who was borrowing my good 12" 2" round auger just bought the auger off of me for what I had into it & I threw in $20 in spare teeth. The 12" 2" hex auger was $25 more, but is noticeably beefier in the connector & other places.
If I recall the unit was $1,800 without auger. Which is steep when a compatible 3pt is $800ish (cheap ones almost half that).
