What size post hole digger auger

[ElBubba]

This spring I'll probably be sinking a number of 4x4 posts for the garden and an electric deer fence and was wondering how well the post hole digger has worked out for others and what size auger I should get. I'm thinking of getting the 9" but am open to advice. I've got a minihoe for bigger holes (tree planting etc) so I'm guessing either 6 or 9 or 12 are what I need.

I'll be digging through good old virginia red clay and a lot of roots (used to be a lot of scrub pine where I'll be drilling).

 

[Spiffy]

I'd say nine, but we were using a 12 inch on 5"to6" post for easier alignment. The flip side being we were cursing the tamping.

The 6 inch just doesn't seem to leave much room for error or even getting much dirt back down the hole before grabbing the tamping bar.

I don't know how many posts or what your budget is, but as bad as I hate tamping, the post driver is sure tempting.

 

[Piedmont3]

I have the 6" and the 12". /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
The 6" is big enough to put in a 4x4. but it causes you to mash your fingers with the tamping. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif My fingers were really sore.
The 12" allows you to not mash near so many fingers, /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif but gosh that's a lot of tamping for every post. My shoulders and arms were really tired. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
I should have bought the 9" /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[BAGTIC]

I have the 14" for planting trees and the 30" for bulb and flower beds.

I have red clay and a generous amount of rocks. Many times I can not drill where I want because of the rocks but if I offset the hole a little to one side the flighting will catch the edge of a flat rock and pop it up. True it leaves a big hole that then has to be filled but the alternative is drilling a small hole and accepting where it ends up because there is no room for adjusting alignment.

 

[ElBubba]

So far I've got to say response times from power-trac have been out of this world. When I ordered my PT425 about a year ago it arrived that afternoon. Around noon today I ordered the 9" auger plus snow blade plus potato digger and got it about 2 hours ago. It's about 500 miles round trip and the guy was expecting to deliver around 5:30 but there was a big backup on I81 so it was dark when he pulled in. Both my orders were by private carrier and arrived in perfect condition. Kristie Aubrey at PT handled the shipping arrangements (Thanks!).

Now I can play the entire weekend; although I may have to find a secluded spot in the woods for the snowblade lest the neighbors get worried.

 

[Tang]

Let us know how the post hole digger works out. It's on my short list of attachments if/when I pull the trigger to get my own PT! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[ElBubba]

I dug two holes 4' deep this morning. Just like butter which surprised me a little cause I went into some woods where there are plenty of tree roots and some rocks. No problem whatsoever. Could dig hole in 15 seconds not counting time to get auger positioned exactly and vertical.

I found that retracting at full speed made cleaner hole because the dirt got thrown out better. There was probably about a foot of loose dirt at the bottom of hole which could be a little awkward to shovel out but then I don't expect to dig that deep normally.

I've got 11 saplings to plant and was going to scoop out holes with the minihoe but this auger looks like it will do a lot better. The only drawback is that a 9" hole is a little skinny so maybe I'd drill two or three holes together to give the trees a nice home.

As an aside, the post hole digger seems a little pricey ($1,000) now that I've seen it. It basically seems to be just a standard hydraulic motor on a simple mount that swivels. I know hardly anything about hydraulics but it seems a little on the high side especially when you compare it to the minihoe which seems like a lot more bang for the buck. having said that, I'm still very happy with the post hole digger and am glad I bought it.


I also played with the potato digger and was really pleased. Last year I used the minihoe to dig up a 30'x30' garden plot in a clear spot in the woods which was a bear because of all the roots and the time that got chewed up maneuvering the PT for the next "bite". I tried out the digger on a similar test area and realized this is a much faster way to go although I probably wouldn't turn over the dirt quite as well because with the minihoe I'd scoop down several times at each spot and end up digging at least two feet. With the potato digger I expect you could turn over about a foot deep without too much effort and that should be good enough.

 

[Tang]

Thanks for the update! I can't help but think about a hot knife through butter when you mention 4' in 15 seconds. What type of soil were you digging in? Also, what is the maximum digging depth of the PT equipped with the PHD?

 

[Marks481]

wow, I wish my soil was like yours.

The first hole that I dug took almost an hour to get 36" deep. Rock after rock... did more digging with the mini hoe and a shovel then with the auger. One rock was about 500# (it was a b%$&^ to get out of the hole... could barely lift it with the forks). That hole took several days (a little bit of time each day).

The last post hole, I got lucky, hit only one rock, and made 40" in about 3 minutes.

 

[ElBubba]

The test holes are a good 50 yds from the house and surrounded by pines.

I'm going to have to move to another spot and test again. I'm beginning to suspect I might have been going through an ancient flower bed or something. Our property was apparently a pretty nice place many, many, many years ago and every here and there we'll find what must have been part of a swank place. There's even a built in "button" on the floor in the middle of the dining room that the master of the house could step on to call in the butler. I kid you not.

Let's just say we're now in our fifth year of getting it in shape (you walk on a plywood walkway to get to the rear door....)