3 PH post hole digger

[TerryR]

And a guy that digs 6 holes a year can't justify the cost of a hydraulic auger. I use my neighbors 3 point auger, it is all but shot but still more or less works. Good enough for the small amount of holes I have done over the last several years. And beats the heck out of a manual post hole digger.

Maybe. I had to dig four holes 3 ft. deep in the woods last year for posts for a small shed I was building. Would have been difficult to get to with my tractor and I would have had to get the post hole digger at a rental yard and get it back. I found it easier to just dig them by hand. Worked fine except when I hit the coax/power/phone line I put in two feet down to a satellite dish 20 years ago.

And yes, I did have my 75th birthday a couple of months later. Just take it easy and it gets done.

 

[frugalangler]

Perhaps use your back hoe as suggested to dig out in the needed area. When done you could do two things.
1. Put the dirt back in and compact it with the front tractor tires if nothing else then Auger out your hole.
2. Get sono tube (card board tube) from local supply house or box store and set it in hole. Back fill and compact around the sono tube.

Be sure the bottom of your holes have no loose dirt in them however you get it done.

Got to admit, I don't do a lot of this type of stuff, so my experience is limited, hence why I ask the questions in places such as this! Thanks for the suggestions!!

I have an idea since I don't expect a lot of other holes, I'll dig these w/ the backhoe (and ripper if I hit small roots), axe the bigger roots, see if my SIL will assist, and place tubes as recommended. I'd planned on using tubes in the augured holes, but the thought never crossed my mind the hole could be way bigger than necessary, as long as I support the tubes to maintain vertical and level to tops of others, not a big deal, pour, then backfill and tamp, rinse and repeat! The good thing about an over size hole is since the concrete will be free run ends, if there is too much, let it spill over the tube and partly fill the hole, no harm no foul!

And, this approach will save me the cost of the 3PH which I suspect will likely get used very very seldom, I may even rent one to try to do the holes further from the roots, if it starts to hit roots, go on to next and finish w/ the BH, if I succeed w/ a few of the holes 3PH all is good, that much less BH activity, so I /think/ I have a plan.

Again, thanks to everyone for their suggestions, I just know that the 'manual labor' method for me is NOT an option, but for the small amount of it like a pesky root in a BH dug hole, the SIL I hope can be coaxed/bribed into helping.

 

[Farmer495]

Sort of related topic:
When people screw in and hang up their auger, it seems the solution is to get a big pipe wrench (and cheater bars) to clamp onto the auger and unscrew. But has anyone unscrewed the auger by clamping onto the pto shaft and using the mechanical advantage of the PHD's gear box?

The mega cheat is a ground drive PTO tractor (like MF) where you jack one rear wheel up, put tractor in ground speed PTO, trans in reverse and let clutch out. Power reverse.....

 

[buickanddeere]

Maybe. I had to dig four holes 3 ft. deep in the woods last year for posts for a small shed I was building. Would have been difficult to get to with my tractor and I would have had to get the post hole digger at a rental yard and get it back. I found it easier to just dig them by hand. Worked fine except when I hit the coax/power/phone line I put in two feet down to a satellite dish 20 years ago.

And yes, I did have my 75th birthday a couple of months later. Just take it easy and it gets done.

What kind of soil ?

 

[TerryR]

What kind of soil ?

Fill for the first foot. After that native NC mountain soil, decomposed sandstone with lots of small to medium (10") rocks and lots of tree roots. Digging bar does pretty well with them until you have to pry a larger rock out of the side of the hole. Trouble when one spans the whole hole and you have to break it up in place.