Hydraulic PHD advice

[woodlandfarms]

RD - This was a DIRT SIMPLE Build. You could do this, trust me. Even if you can't weld you probably have a neighbor who can. I took my motor down to the machine shop, showed them my plan. The guy walked over, grabbed 4 feet of C Channel, made 3 cuts, Grabbed a torch and cut the hole for the motor, grabbed a drill and drilled out the 7 holes I needed and handed it all back to me.

If you are bucket attaching this, it is even easier.

I guess a 9" would be great for posts. i bought the 12 as it was a good all around. The more I think about it a 9 and a 14 or a 9 and a 16 would be ideal.

I have planted over 200 trees with the PHD. I can cram a 5 gallon into a 12" hole, but the wife wishes it were bigger (the auger) for root growth as we are in clay for the most part. The big potted trees (24" or larger pots) are planted with a back hoe. I can go on sever slopes with my backhoe so it works out well.

 

[nwngunner]

I would go no less then a 12inch drill for your corner posts. I run 4inch posts for the main fence, then 8s for the corners.

 

[boggen]

prefer slow speed myself. 90% or more of hole gets cleaned out with hardly any sort of spinning of the PTO, ((low RPMS)) there is a little bit that falls back in. that a regular handled post hole digger can clean out quickly and easily granted manual labor. but come on. you just got hardest part done. all you have left to remove from hole is "fluff" errr dirt that is broken up into tiny pieces. that allows quick easily drop and pickup of regular manual post hole digger to clean out hole.

i have more problems with getting through "hard hard dirt" than having to worry about trying to get every little bit of dirt out of the hole. if it takes 1 to 5 manual post hole digger fulls of dirt so be it.

i would say bigger hole vs smaller hole for posts. i would go with bigger hole. granted more slowly pushing dirt in and then compacting dirt. but here on the farm. i could dig a hole put post down in hole. and every 3 to 4 inches of dirt compact it, with a hand tamper. and end up barely with enough dirt to come even with ground.

your hand tamper (heavy end) may predict size of hole you go with. most tampers i have had, are any were from 1.5" to 2" in size. and with posts and holes not always nice and level and straight. have a little bigger hole lets you slide and push bottom of post around a little bit more to get things "straight" **looking down fence line straight)) and then a little wiggle room to compact dirt hopefully on all sides of the posts. granted some holes will be little off and post will be right up against side of hole. and some times you went off a little to much and need to get the spade shovel out to do some extra manual work. but *shrugs*

 

[jenkinsph]

boggen,
Pretty much how I do it too, I do stop the auger mounted on my hoe and lift the bit out to the side to clear it. Not much dirt left to clean out of hole.

I also find that tamping and filling the larger hole is alot easier than digging and moving a smaller hole for alignment of the posts. I use a 6" bit for smaller steel posts and the 12 and 14" for the larger gate and corner posts.

I figure if you can dig the hole to depth easily then that is most of the work, cleaning and tamping in the new post is easy enough.

 

[rd_macgregor]

Thanks, all.
I think I'll go with 9" and 14" (if the 14 isn't TOO much more $$ than the 12).
Good comments on hole alignment and cleanout/tamping, too.
BOB

 

[woodlandfarms]

So how much is the 9" I only ask because you may want to get the 14 and then go back for the 9 if you really need it.

 

[rd_macgregor]

So how much is the 9" I only ask because you may want to get the 14 and then go back for the 9 if you really need it.

In the quote I have, the 9" was $345 and the 12" was $395; I intended buying both, so, unless the 14" is a LOT more expensive than the 12", I'll just get it (along with the 9") instead of the 9"+12".

BOB

 

[boggen]

boggen,
Pretty much how I do it too, I do stop the auger mounted on my hoe and lift the bit out to the side to clear it. Not much dirt left to clean out of hole.

I also find that tamping and filling the larger hole is alot easier than digging and moving a smaller hole for alignment of the posts. I use a 6" bit for smaller steel posts and the 12 and 14" for the larger gate and corner posts.

I figure if you can dig the hole to depth easily then that is most of the work, cleaning and tamping in the new post is easy enough.

dig the hole to depth. caught me, prefer to use longer posts if wooden fence posts. and just dig a little deeper. vs having post barely down into the ground. a few seconds to couple minutes to go down another few inches. so be it.

then once all posts are in, and fence is put on the posts. go back and cut the top of the posts off, if you want a nice top to the fence line. on farm fence on fields. i could care less, but if ya wanting something fancy. *shrugs*

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if your backhoe and tractor have enough weight. i just stab the metal T posts in the ground with hand. and then set bucket down on top of T post. and adjust the bucket to get T post nice and level. and just push T post right down into the ground. keeping T post straight as you do so. ((that is the hard part))

granted i have bent a few T posts doing it this way. mainly due to i was trying to get T post nice and level. and tried to bend the T post as i was putting weight on top of the T post. i would say 9 out of 10 T posts went in nice and clean. the 1, it may be a little bent. (curved) or it leaned out and away from fence line.

had chain already on bucket, so i could easily wrap T post i bent a couple times, and pull it out and redo. that is, if i did not bend it to badly.

if i had skills to weld. i would of made a little metal "funnel" and welded it to the bucket or bolted it to the bucket of backhoe. to have less bending problems. and easier way to set bucket down nice and quickly over top of metal T post.

 

[jenkinsph]

boggen,
I always dig the hole as deep as needed, haven't set a shallow post in years because it is pointless. With the backhoe auger I usually set the gate posts about 48" deep. Line posts are set at 24" in my area since the soil is rather sandy but I used to set line posts in the south with clay soil about 18".