Let me go through my education on post hole diggers and where I"m at today. I started out with a cheap Leinbach Line post hole digger that my dealer sold to me at cost when I bought my 35 hp tractor. I think it was $295 for it with a 12 inch auger. At first, it worked good, but the clay quickly wore off the cutting edge. I found replacement cutting edges on ebay and went through those rather quickly. I tried adding a bar to the end of the auger and having a friend pull down on it for more pressure with some success, but it was a lot of work. I then tried welding on carbide cutting teeth to the auger with the hope they wouldn't wear out so quickly. That worked, but not great, and eventually wore out too.
Then we got an Atwoods store and they carried Speeco auger bits with replaceable cutting teeth and a spiral drill tip for $100 that was a perfect replacement fit for my auger. It was night and day better. No need for extra downward pressure, it just worked its way down all on it's own. Unfortunately, it the cutting teeth didn't last very long and I was constantly buying new ones.
Then one weekend when we where almost finished fencing in our horse pasture, and in a rush to get it done because we where getting the horses real soon, I needed more cutting teeth and couldn't find them anywhere. In desperation, I went to Tractor Supply and bought their Country Line auger, which also had the same sized shaft and hole alignment as the Speeco and Leinbach Line.
The Country Line went through the hard clay like butter. In fact, it drilled down so quickly that the new challenge was in not burring it. It might be too aggressive, but compared to augers that do not cut, or dig, it's a good thing.
In 15 years of learning all this, I've come away with realizing that it's all about the cutting teeth. The gear boxes are all the same, the flutes are all the same, the driveshafts are all the same, but the teeth are not. The Country Line auger teeth get the job done!!!!
