Auger: Buy or rent

[Treemonkey1000]

Scott you should have planted that IH hat at the bottom of the post instead of the top of it in your picture. Then be wearing the right kind of hat that say's Kubota on it.

 

[scott_vt]

Scott you should have planted that IH hat at the bottom of the post instead of the top of it in your picture. Then be wearing the right kind of hat that say's Kubota on it.

Good Evenin Jim,
Well its kind of ironic that the tractor with the PHD is a Massey Ferguson, and none of the Farmalls are no where to be seen !

 

[TC 30 Pilot]

I bought mine, the first fencing job I had paid for it and some...( 9inch heavy duty bit worth 550 CAD and the auger was 1000 CAD. Have used it on 3 fence jobs (start my 4th one next week) I only fence part time but its good extra cash.

 

[Tom_H]

if you have a nice loamy/sandy soil with minimal rocks, buy a PHD for your tractor and have at it. If your soil is heavy clay and rock....you might want to explore hiring someone with a bobcat mounted post hole digger.

About the cheapest PHD and auger you can get is a Green Mfg. Co. unit sold through Northern tool. They also carry King Kutter and Howse. Ocala should have sandy loam and this unit would do fine.

NT also sells hydraulic PHDs that can mount on the front of a FEL. Additional hydro plumbing is required, but you can then just use downpressure from the FEL atop the auger.

The bobcat mentioned often comes with down pressure and the auger with carbide tip. You can likely hire the machine and operator together, paid by the hour or by the number of holes. They dig very fast.

You can get a downpressure unit for the back of most utility tractors, which downpressures on the PHD.

Land Pride makes good down pressure kits to go with their PHDs. They sell these with Pengo augers. Pengo offers a variety of augers and tips for a variety of soils, even for drilling in rock.

 

[capi75rs]

Curious... If you justify buying a PHD and there are others that need fences or at least the holes dug, what would a guy charge per hole?

I charged my neighbor $2.00 a hole. He lived close and I didn't need to trailer anything. I think we did @ 100+ holes, (been about 13 years ago) He was very happy to have me show up with tractor and post hole digger, he had tried the ole hand style for about 2 holes and called it quits. He said paying me was the best money he spent on fencing

 

[rcrcomputing]

You are talking well over 300 holes. Buy one, and make sure you don't make the mistake of buying a six inch auger for 4x4s. It will make the job much harder than need be. Get a nine inch auger.

If your posts will be bigger than 4x4s, go up in size correspondingly.

My new speeco PHD is sitting outside on the ground in the box. I bought a 6" auger for digging 4x4 holes. Maybe I'm thankful it turned out cold because that gave me a chance to read TBN before I use it. Now my two questions are:

Why not a 6" to drill 4x4 holes.

And am I going to wish I'd have gotten a hydro one with reverse and how much that would cost.

 

[MarkV]

My new speeco PHD is sitting outside on the ground in the box. I bought a 6" auger for digging 4x4 holes. Maybe I'm thankful it turned out cold because that gave me a chance to read TBN before I use it. Now my two questions are:

Why not a 6" to drill 4x4 holes.

And am I going to wish I'd have gotten a hydro one with reverse and how much that would cost.

The problem is that you will rarely drill a truly vertical hole and a 6" auger leaves little room to move the post around to plumb. The other problem is that once you get a 4x4 in a 6" hole there is little room left to get something in to tamp the dirt solid.

Hydraulic is great if you have the hydraulic outlets on your tractor to run it. You will also spend somewhere in the range of 4x more than a PTO driven unit.

MarkV

 

[rcrcomputing]

The problem is that you will rarely drill a truly vertical hole and a 6" auger leaves little room to move the post around to plumb. The other problem is that once you get a 4x4 in a 6" hole there is little room left to get something in to tamp the dirt solid.

Hydraulic is great if you have the hydraulic outlets on your tractor to run it. You will also spend somewhere in the range of 4x more than a PTO driven unit.

MarkV

I understand. Will go trade the auger in. I can't imagine needing a 6" for anything. I guess..

Thanks

 

[deerefan]

i am in the market for one also to go behind a 5103 JD, about 42 pto h.p. They have one for around $450 at tractor supply, anyone have one from there and how's the quality?