Front-End Loader Hydraulic post borer on FEL, angle question.

Chris Wilson · Nov 20, 2007

I want to put a PTO pump driven hydraulic auger on the FEL on my little MF35 tractor for drilling deep post holes. I am thinking how to link the auger, which comes with a single pin running in 2 eyes, to the FEL. My worry is the arms of the FEL work in an arc. An auger on say a Bobcat or mini JCB have 2 hinge points, so as the drill digs deeper you can move the arm to keep the pivot point directly over the hole you are drilling. With the FEL the pivot point will move as the drill goes down. I could just reverse or forward the tractor, but is there any sort of compound arm arrangement I could make that would make this unnecessary? MF once offered fork lift arms that stayed parallel with the ground via an ingenious extra set of arms, it's along those lines my thoughts run. Or is it overkill and not worth the hassle? Thanks.

AndyMA · Nov 20, 2007

If you let us know how deep you want to go and the length from the pivot point on the loader it's easy to caclulate how much the center point will migrate.

Andy

PA hayseed · Nov 20, 2007

By the time you rig that contraption up, you might as well get one of these
BELLTEC Industries :: TM48 Post Hole Digger

They aren't cheap, but they are similar to what we had on a modified ditch witch for hydraulic drilling, rock coring, and split spoon sampling. I called them, and the company sales guy was very informative. They have several different versions, based largely on your tractor weight an hyd flow, and can size you up for what you need. One version is heavier duty than the others, call them to find out the specifics.

I'm not trying to push business their way, I have nothing in it.

bota7800 · Nov 21, 2007

I have a hydraulic PHD on my FEL. The manual actually has you start with a slight angle to compensate for the way the auger itself curves slightly in the dig (at the start). I have not noticed a problem whether I put the angle in or not.

It becomes natural to make slight adjustments with the tractor to keep the auger oriented as you want. I found the variation in ground to affect the dig more than any FEL arc.

Smart decision to use a PTO pump. As I have complained about before, the low flow hyd PHD that my tractor can handle has limited performance.