Larry,
Happy to help.
There are to differnet improvements I would make.
1) the side to side slip of the power head on the lower pin of the H bracket.
2) The foreward and rearward swing of the H bracket itself on the 2 pins.
- As you said, the ~2" side to side play in the bottom of the bracket could be removed with a shim or spacer. I have not noticed that this extra space causes a problem so far but this could be an improvement. The post holes in the ground are probably a just a little bigger than the auger because of this extra space.
- The way the top of the "H" attaches to the dipper stick allows it to swing foreward and backward. If you put too much weight on the digger, the H pivots on the 2 large pins foreward or rearward. You can still put the whole weight of the tractor on the auger when it is like this, but it would be better if 1 of the 2 large pins in the H were fixed so their was only 1 movable joint. I thought about extending the top of the H up to the bucket curl link shown resting with empty holes on top of the dipperstick. This would leave only one joint that pivots. The quick disconnects on the bucket curl cylinder would lock the cylinder in place so the H would be fixed also. As long as there is a single pivot, the auger will still hange straight down. My other idea is to weld some plates on the top half of the H to fit around and box end of the dipper stick itself to make the H extend straight off the end of the dipper stick. This would also eliminate the top pivot problem. It's hard to tell in the pictures but the H is made of 1" steel. The large pins are 1-1/4" steel pins. I will need some serious metal working tools to modify this setup or (shame) pay someone...
I am not a safety expert but starting a hole straight down a short distance and then lowering the auger head to create a angle into the side of a hill seems dangerous to me. If the auger angle was fixed off the dipper stick and not hanging in the direction of gravity, it seems like this might be ok if you go slow. I have never attempted this. I tend to use the backhoe itself to dig into hill sides.
There is nothing magic in the hose routing. The hoses are simply way too long and are attached to the power head without disconnects. I use a bungie (sp?) cord to tie them to the dipper stick to keep them out of the way. Someday I plan to add hydraulic hose disconnects at the power head and use some shorter hoses to the curl cylinder hoses.
I have probably said this a few too many times, but here it goes again. The reason I use this setup is to reach into weird or hard to reach locations. I drill 95+% of post holes with the power head attached to the side of the loader frame, not the backhoe. The loader frame mount is MUCH quicker than relocating the tractor every 1-2 holes and setting up the backhoe. Nothing short of digging by hand beats this setup for reaching over, around, between, or through existing obsticals that limit the tractor access. I have even drilled holes with the backhoe arm through a barn stall window to put in some drainage. I am completely lazy when it comes to digging post holes. I don't dig holes by hand period. I still have nightmares about putting in a couple of hundred post holes by hand when I was growing up.
Hope this helps.
-Roger
