Need PHD Help!

[bota7800]

Hello all,

We live in the foothills of northern Colorado. The land has been grazing land for cattle in the past but has never been farmland.

We are putting in horse fence and I am having trouble using my PHD. After reading posts on this site and talking to neighbors I decided that I needed a hydraulic PHD to do the job. I found a deal on a Rhino low volume hydraulic PHD with a 9 inch auger. I am finally ready to put in the fence.

Here is my problem. The digger did auger down into the ground (but slower than I expected) but it did not evacuate the dirt. I tried raising the auger every so often but mostly I have a 30 inch deep hole filled 25 inches with dirt. When I used a rental single person hydraulic PHD at a different location it evacuated the dirt as I lifted it. What am I doing wrong?

The ground was dry but not rock hard as we have had some rain in the last week or so.

Thanks

 

[alchemysa]

A fencing contractor I bumped into the other day mentioned he was dropping posts into mud slurry. In other words he was using the auger plus water to drill a hole full of mud. He said it sets very hard. I've never done it or seen it, but perhaps you could could consider it.

 

[LarryD]

Are you running the tractor at 540 rpm speeds? I can use an auger in sandy soil and if it's turning fast enough, a couple of dips at least gives me a half cleaned out hole.

 

[Timber]

A PHD is a great tool but don't think your done with your clam shell and bars

 

[VABlue]

The PHDs need some fast spinning to throw out the dirt, even then you'll end up cleaning it out some. I've never seen a PTO driven PHD clean out the hole very well. And the hydraulic auger I rented last month didn't clean out the holes, either. So enjoy the shoveling you didn't think you'd be doing!

At least it'll be soft, broken up dirt...

 

[Slacker]

My PTO driven PHD needs to turn above 540rpm to "throw" the dirt out of the hole. I still use the clamshell, but only for the last bit of dirt at the bottom.
How fast is your auger spinning?

 

[Bird]

If I understand the original post correctly, it's a hydraulic, rather than PTO powered PHD. However, I would think the same recommendations would apply; i.e., it needs to spin faster to throw out the dirt, and I would think the hydraulic fluid flow should increase with an increase in engine rpm. I've only used a PTO driven PHD, but always started it into the ground at a very slow speed, then increased rpm once it was in the ground. I would think I'd do the same with a hydraulic PHD.

 

[Farwell]

Bota,
I have a lot of sugar sand on my property. I can bore holes quite well in the Spring while the soil is damp but in the mid to late Summer I have to keep water handy if I want to clean out the dirt/sand. It doesn't take much moisture to stick the sand together. I also think you will need the RPMs to clear the dirt out of the holes as others have written on this thread.

 

[zzvyb6]

You will be a lot happier if you stop the auger when its at the end of travel and gently lift it out. The dirt & rocks will stay on the flighting instead of falling back in.

Add some water to the mix if you want. It may be that your auger has lost its "curl". This is a feature on many augers which puts a lip on the edge to keep the dirt on the flights. If you've crowded a rock on the way down, the curl may actually been turned down which causes the dirt to fall off. Take a Crescent wrench and put a bit of curl into it if you are handy.

You'll notice that I didn't preamble my post with " ... well I've never used a PHD on my 30" deck garden tractor, but it seems to me that you ought to blah, blah, blah, and furthermore your dealer should have yada, yada, yada".

 

[3RRL]

If I understand the original post correctly, it's a hydraulic, rather than PTO powered PHD. However, I would think the same recommendations would apply; i.e., it needs to spin faster to throw out the dirt, and I would think the hydraulic fluid flow should increase with an increase in engine rpm. I've only used a PTO driven PHD, but always started it into the ground at a very slow speed, then increased rpm once it was in the ground. I would think I'd do the same with a hydraulic PHD.

I have a PTO driven PHD and would do exactly as Bird describes, doing the actual digging at low rpms (as generally recommended) then when you go to raise it, speed up the rpm to "help" throw the dirt off the auger. For me, this has worked best, but there were still a few holes that I had to use the clamshells to get the last part out. Seems like the "crumblier" the dirt, the harder is was to get a clean hole.

I know by increasing rpms you can vary the auger rpm, but I don't know if you can vary the rpm on your hydraulic PHD as much as I can with the PTO driven PHD though?