Auger Sizes

[grsthegreat]

Agree 9&12 are both useful. If your digging in clay the teeth will last forever. I dig in rocks here in north idaho. Teeth take a real beating. I can dig a 12” x 3’ deep hole in a few minutes early spring right after thaw, but same hole will take 20+ minutes by July as ground gets ridiculously hard here. By late September.........I’ll wait till next year.

 

[3Lfarms]

I have both 9 and 12 inch augers. The 9 is perfect for 4x4s to give enough room for cement or compacting dirt. The 12 inch works for setting railroad ties for corner posts. I also use it to dig shallow holes for planting small trees in my hard clay.

 

[DavidL61]

I bought a 9" for 4x4 posts and a 12" for 6x6 and corner post.

 

[SpaceRage]

Heavy duty with 12" auger - Hayes Products - Tractor Attachments and Implements

Think I'm going for above unit, with additional 9 inch auger.

Is it worth buying the version with hydraulic assist? Its an extra $400? (as I already have the rear hydraulic remotes on tractor). I noticed the hydraulic assist model is also double the weight at 220kg (compared to 120 kg for above).

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

When we bought our phd last summer the only auger in stock, on sale was a 12 inch. So we took what we could get.

We have used the 12 inch to plant trees and berry bushes. Sweeties philosophy is to dig a $100 hole for a $10 bush. The hole filled with chicken barn, rabbit barn, donkey yard cleanings or all 3 and potting soil on the top. Watered to the top before planting. This works well as she is quite successful with plants and berry bushes.

I am watching the local auto farm store sales for a 9 inch auger. As said 9 inch for line posts, 12 inch for corner and bigger posts.
My 5 cents of opinion.

 

[grsthegreat]

i hae hydraulic assist on mine. it helps when i get into dryer soil with rocks. if you have easy digging soild its not necessary. Mine is a single acting hydraulic assist so i had to do some re plumbing on tractor to add sump dump. wasn't hard to do. its basically adding the return port thats used for back hoes. Im not sure what kind of system your looking at.

 

[SmallChange]

I only have a 9" for my auger. We have hard clay, anything bigger would just cause frustration. I have 19 pto hp, the 9" digs great! I could probably do just as fine woth a 12", but decided not to get one. We do a lot of tree planting and if I need a bigger diameter hole, I just dig clusters of 3,4,5 holes in the area (making like a circle of holes) then just shovel out the remaining dirt. Works well for the bigger trees. For 4-5" fence posts, the 9" works great.

This is pretty much it for me too. Sometimes I see other sizes on sale and think I should pick one up, but for a good 20 years now I've still not gotten around to it. I've even used it to make a line of holes to create a twenty foot trench.

 

[SpaceRage]

Seems like everybody has 9" and 12", think this is definitely the way to go........

Think I'll pick up a few spare tips and blades as well, always handy to have them around rather than wait for mail delivery!

 

[rd_macgregor]

I have an FEL-mounted hydraulic auger with 9" and 14" bits. The 9" is great for line posts and the 14" for hefty corner posts. The 14" also makes pretty good planting holes for shrubs/trees. In the spring the bit goes down really fast...not so much in the late summer or fall. I also found that the auger digs better when not operated in reverse (!)

 

[bdog]

I will disagree. 9" & 12" are so close to each other I wouldn't 't buy both unless you are planning on a ton of digging or just have excess money to spend. If you plan on using something larger than a 4x4 then get a 12" but if not get a 9". I have a 9" and 18". The 9" has worked for the hundreds of fence post holes I have dug and the only time I have used the 18" on fencing was for setting some 6.5" pipe for an entryway. Other times it just gets used for setting sono tube footings, I-beams, planting trees, etc.

Don't misunderstand me 9" and 12" have their place and if you were doing a ton of fencing with a lot of small and larger fence posts then buying both might make sense but from what I gathered from your post the wasn't the case.