Posthole Digger How much post hole digger do i need, How much is too much for my tractor.

[SubSubsistanceFarm]

The tractor's hydraulics will have sufficient gpm. Post hole auguring is not a race .

Thankyou, I would love this to be the truth, and i have been told that, but also told the opposite. The dealer who i was going to spend a lot of money at told me it was not going to be enough... Then again i know they make more money off of rentals than ordering in stuff they can stock.
The tractor is rated 7.8 GPM, but i do not know where that rating lies in terms of RPM, it might be peak. I don't want to spend the money first to find out, but it would be nice to use the tractors pump.

No, its not a race but higher GPM at the same rpm at the bit should be better in rock and difficult soil. I say should because i do not know, it is an assumed generalization.

 

[the old grind]

Last PH digger I saw rented was many years ago and I didn't know the $/day. It was a tow-behind, self-powered (7 hp B&S IIRC). It worked like a dill press and resembled a 'DeepRock' drill with a big wheel on the side for down-feed. We dug several dozen holes to fence a 2 ac pasture, pulled/positioned with a Ford 1700.

Much of our area is loose sandy soil with gravel, and rocks of all sizes. The machine jumped up and down when hitting football-sized rocks with the 'soil' auger installed. Sometimes we just had to move a foot or so and start over. This was ok to string fencer wire, but if hole location demanded spacing for rails there would have been a lot more work to the job. Welcome, and good luck! t o g

 

[SubSubsistanceFarm]

Last PH digger I saw rented was many years ago and I didn't know the $/day. It was a tow-behind, self-powered (7 hp B&S IIRC). It worked like a dill press and resembled a 'DeepRock' drill with a big wheel on the side for down-feed. We dug several dozen holes to fence a 2 ac pasture, pulled/positioned with a Ford 1700.

Much of our area is loose sandy soil with gravel, and rocks of all sizes. The machine jumped up and down when hitting football-sized rocks with the 'soil' auger installed. Sometimes we just had to move a foot or so and start over. This was ok to string fencer wire, but if hole location demanded spacing for rails there would have been a lot more work to the job. Welcome, and good luck! t o g

Thankyou for the help, i really feel downpressure will help this go more smoothly. I wonder how much that thing weighed.
I'll mostly be running fixed knot wire fencing, so it is not a big deal if stuff is spaced funky.

 

[countrybumpkin]

Yes your right on a power pack, they are basically a self contained hydraulic supply unit, ran off the pto, to match the demands of the attachment needs. No reason you couldn’t put one together yourself, only issue is buying a auger to match the flow and pressure of a high output power pack won’t work well on you tractor hydraulics you have now. Another words you have to decide what you want now flow wise and go from there.

The EP6 at 12 gpm, shows about 1260 lbs ft of torque , were the higher flow EP20, at 28 gpm shows about 3081 lbs ft of torque both at the same 2600 psi, both at about 70 rpm, Just to give you a idea.

 

[EddieWalker]

Down pressure is over rated. A bit that actually does the digging is much more important then forcing a dull bit into the ground. Just like drilling a hole into wood or metal, you want to let the bit doe the work. While I'm a huge fan of a hydraulic auger, especially since it has reverse, I can't justify the price of one. Since you said that you are able to do them by hand, I would suggest looking into a decent quality 3 pt auger. Even more so because of your time restrictions and that this might take awhile to find enough time to get it all done. Odds are very good that you can get some, if not most of them done with a 3 point auger. What you cannot get done, you can always go back to doing it by hand, or a combination of the two.

Not all 3 point augers are the same. The gear boxes are pretty much the same, and so are the frames to mount them, but he cutting teeth on the auger itself is what is different from each other and what you need to pay attention to. I've become a huge fan of the Country Line augers at Tractor Supply. They have replaceable teeth that work great. You might even find that they dig too well when you lose control of it and it buries itself into the ground. That's where reverse would be so nice!!!

I use a 12 inch auger for my fence posts. I measure, then measure again, then mark each hole, and after digging a few holes, check everything again. What happens is when you are digging, you hit rocks and roots, and who knows what else is down there that forces the auger off to one side. Once dug, adjusting the hole by hand is fairly common. But you just stick with it until it's perfect, and then move on to the next one.

Good luck.

 

[SubSubsistanceFarm]

Yes your right on a power pack, they are basically a self contained hydraulic supply unit, ran off the pto, to match the demands of the attachment needs. No reason you couldn’t put one together yourself, only issue is buying a auger to match the flow and pressure of a high output power pack won’t work well on you tractor hydraulics you have now. Another words you have to decide what you want now flow wise and go from there.

The EP6 at 12 gpm, shows about 1260 lbs ft of torque , were the higher flow EP20, at 28 gpm shows about 3081 lbs ft of torque both at the same 2600 psi, both at about 70 rpm, Just to give you a idea.

thankyou. I like those higher numbers:licking: ...but i do not know if that is overkill.

 

[SubSubsistanceFarm]

Down pressure is over rated. A bit that actually does the digging is much more important then forcing a dull bit into the ground. Just like drilling a hole into wood or metal, you want to let the bit doe the work. While I'm a huge fan of a hydraulic auger, especially since it has reverse, I can't justify the price of one. Since you said that you are able to do them by hand, I would suggest looking into a decent quality 3 pt auger. Even more so because of your time restrictions and that this might take awhile to find enough time to get it all done. Odds are very good that you can get some, if not most of them done with a 3 point auger. What you cannot get done, you can always go back to doing it by hand, or a combination of the two.

Not all 3 point augers are the same. The gear boxes are pretty much the same, and so are the frames to mount them, but he cutting teeth on the auger itself is what is different from each other and what you need to pay attention to. I've become a huge fan of the Country Line augers at Tractor Supply. They have replaceable teeth that work great. You might even find that they dig too well when you lose control of it and it buries itself into the ground. That's where reverse would be so nice!!!

I use a 12 inch auger for my fence posts. I measure, then measure again, then mark each hole, and after digging a few holes, check everything again. What happens is when you are digging, you hit rocks and roots, and who knows what else is down there that forces the auger off to one side. Once dug, adjusting the hole by hand is fairly common. But you just stick with it until it's perfect, and then move on to the next one.

Good luck.

Thankyou for another perspective. I would love for the 3 point ones to work for me, i am just sceptical they will, I believe i could rent one of those too, to try, and then i would know. I think that is around 150 for the day... I have seen the ones at tractor supply, i feel like our soil would mangle them in short order, but maybe i am wrong.
I was rethinking this again and wondering if i could get something like the land pride pd 25 or 35 with a pressure kit, and buy a nice rock auger, but i am not convinced.

This performance is not very convincing, but it is hard to tell... Hydraulic downforce kit on my new Speeco Auger - YouTube

 

[EddieWalker]

Speeco is one of the brands that I tried and it was very disappointing. I honestly thought that all augers where junk and only bought the Country line one because the store I bought the Speeco auger from was out of replacement digging teeth and I was desperate to finish up a couple dozen holes to finish off my fence before my horses arrived. It was night and day better!!!! We went from digging down a foot or so with the Speeco, then using a small SDS Max hammer drill with a clay spade bit to break up the hard pan, then auger it down some more, then jack hammer out the some more hard pan, and auger again, over and over again to get down 3 feet. With the Country Line auger, it just dug right through everything, and for the fist time in my life, I learned what it's like to bury an auger and have to use a 48 inch pipe wrench with a 6 foot cheater bar over the handle to turn it back out. You have to be supper careful not to dig too fast!!!!!!! Down up, down up, over and over again to make sure you don't bury it. I went from wearing off the teeth of the Speeco bit after a dozen holes or so, and not digging very well, to digging too fast and never wearing out the teeth.

 

[majorwager]

Sub,
I built a hydraulic unit. Pretty simple and inexpensive. Will try to take a photo later. Was designed for my ford at the time, Approx 7 gpm. Used a white RS series hyd motor coupled directly to a Stihl drive mount. Very effective with 4 and 8" bits. Stihl auger drives were common in 90's, not so much now but still available. I mount it on the FEL with forks, down pressure issue solved. I added an additioal valve next to existing loader vale with power beyond. Critical component or 3 point linkagel won't function. I don't recall exact cost, but hyd motor was biggest item. Bought stihl drive head and both augers used from the rental yard where I was wasting money. They agreed I should own, not rent. If you read this and think my solution mirrors your own, send me a comment.

 

[buickanddeere]

Thankyou, I would love this to be the truth, and i have been told that, but also told the opposite. The dealer who i was going to spend a lot of money at told me it was not going to be enough... Then again i know they make more money off of rentals than ordering in stuff they can stock.
The tractor is rated 7.8 GPM, but i do not know where that rating lies in terms of RPM, it might be peak. I don't want to spend the money first to find out, but it would be nice to use the tractors pump.

No, its not a race but higher GPM at the same rpm at the bit should be better in rock and difficult soil. I say should because i do not know, it is an assumed generalization.

It isn't gpm that forces the augur through rocks and roots. It is psi that makes the torque to force the augur through obstructions. Does anyone operate a pto augur with the engine at full rated rpms to obtain 540 ? Nope they don't . The engine is operated at idle slow enough that it will stall the engine rather than break the shear pin. Operating at full rpms will bounce the augur all over the place and throw the dirt far away from the hole and make back filling more difficult.
If she ever decided to "corkscrew" in. It happens awful fast at low rpms let alone at high rpms. Turning the augur backwards with a bar or wrench to unscrew the augur usually incurs a few bad words as well.
How about you try a hydraulic driven post hole digger clamped to the loader bucket and driven from the tractor's hydraulics first. You can always blow the $$$ on an aux pump later.