Posthole Digger My new post hole digger broke

[JCS_in_KY]

About three weeks ago I bought a new Leinbach 7300 with a 9" auger. To date I've doug 21 holes with it. One hole down to about 30" in soft soil, didn't hit any rocks. After that I dug 20 holes to 12 - 15 inches for some pine seedlings I'm planting. All those holes were in soft soil, never hit any rocks that I know of and haven't broken any shear bolts. When digging the tractor was always at idle or within a 100 RPM of it. Today I got everything out to plant more trees, went and marked hole locations and got the tractor in position to dig the first hole. As soon as I engaged the PTO the auger bit begin flailing around. Before I could get it stopped the auger itself broke away from the post hole digger gear box and landed on the ground. When I inspected the bit I found that the shaft of the auger bit had sheared completely just below the point where it's attached to the bottom of the gear box. The remainder of the shaft (section with mounting holes) was still bolted to the tractor. Also the sheet metal guard that covers the point where the auger attaches was destroyed. I called the dealer I bought the digger from and he said he's sold 50 or more and no one has ever had a problem with one. He said he's going to contact Leinbachs in the morning to see if they will warranty the auger bit and guard pieces. John

 

[andrewj]

I bought a new one and the red shield nuts wobbled loose and the shield fell off and was free and clear of the auger but it coul dhave gotten caught between auger and gearbox and cause the sheer. they will say you should have stopped to tighten the bolts. you may respond that the bolts/wingnuts should hve been shipped with locktite as the manufacturere should have known they would be subjected to sufficient vibration. ask about other similar reports of broken augers.All said and done it is a loss of around 140 bucks, not the end of the world.

 

[owenf]

You mean it sheared the whole auger shaft? Wow if it did, I am not sure how? The worst is when emily had our auger halfway down a hole and jerked the tractor forward and bent the shaft, but it didn't shear. Good luck on the warranty.

 

[andrewj]

OK, since we are admitting to auger follies, MY "emily" wink wink augered a 12 inch so far down a tractor with three thousand pounds of lift couldn't haul it out of the ground. through further bad decisionmaking, the thing then got screwed all the way down into the ground. After the cursing subsided I was able to manually unscrew the beast using a large power bar. I then had to go lay down.

 

[JCS_in_KY]

The red shield was tight. After the damage occurred. I still had to loosen the wing nuts to remove the shield parts.

Yes the entire auger shaft sheared. I went and looked at it again after typing the earlier post and the shear at a point about 1/4 of the way up from the bottom bolt attach hole.

One thing I noticed when I took it apart was that the top attach bolt was tight, while the bottom one was only finger tight. The dealer I purchased the post hole digger from set it up for me when I picket it up. He took the parts in his shop and installed the auger bit, then filled it with the required oil. He told me all I needed to do was hook it up to the tractor and it was ready to go. I wonder if only one of the bolts being tightened could have contributed to this problem. Still though the auger seemed to have a pretty tight fit on the shaft so it probably would have been fine either way. I'll let you know how it comes out. Hopefully will take care of it since it's new and like I said hardly used. I'd hate to think what would have happened with this if I'd started on my chain link fence project prior to planting the trees. John

 

[fig]

Do you think that there might have been a stress crack in the shaft where it broke? You might want to look at it and see if the metal has a torn look or if the metal is "smooth" where it broke. Most warranties cover "materials and craftsmanship". Just a thought.

Newton

 

[3RRL]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Do you think that there might have been a stress crack in the shaft where it broke? You might want to look at it and see if the metal has a torn look or if the metal is "smooth" where it broke)</font>
A tell tale sign of this is to look at the fracture to see if there is any indication of rust vs the fresh tear. This tells you that the fracture was there before you twisted it off. That would help in getting it replaced by your dealer.

 

[sweettractors]

John, Do you mind saying who the dealer is?--Ken Sweet

 

[JCS_in_KY]

I got the auger bit trader out under warranty, it was no problem at all. The bit I had was a 9" and while I was there I also picked up an additional 12" bit for $105.00. I bought the auger from Harris Farm Supply in Glasgow KY. www.harrisfarmequipmentinc.com

John

 

[sweettractors]

Sounds like you got it all took care of ok. I was pretty sure Harris was selling that line of equipment. --Ken Sweet