Posthole Digger Input on Auger selection

quadpa1911 · Mar 19, 2010

Good day from the West Coast, I'm getting ready to purchase a new post hole digger and augers. I'm looking at Land pride, Bush hog, and Woods, with 9 and 12" auger for sure, but I'm not sure if I should go with a 18 or 24" landscape auger. I have the Kioti DK45 thats rated 38 hp at the PTO. I'm leaning towards the 24" thinking better hole and soil prep for new fruit trees, blue berries and such. The Top Soil around here is about 18 to 24" of a loam/clay mix and then a hard sand pan (no soil expert) any input from experience would be appreciated.

Thanks,

paccorti · Mar 19, 2010

I have a Befco 9" auger. I run this auger on idle so horsepower is really not an issue. With this auger I've put in around 350 fence posts. I'm no geologist but when dry my ground can be incredible hard (almost like a real hard sand).

If I was doing this professionally I'd lean towards a hydraulic auger mounted from the loader quick attach. With that setup you can apply down pressure (with the loader) and it is easier to see what you are doing. Of course that's not a cheap setup... A pto mounted auger can work ok for jobs. One thing that made a big difference for me is the availability of an aggressive auger point (sometimes called a fish tail auger point). Without an aggressive auger point digging in hard ground can be very difficult and slow (so slow as to be impractical). I'd check and see which of these brands have aggressive auger points available and go from there. Most likely they'll all have it. The right auger point will make a night and day difference in the auger's digging capability.

Peter

JOHNTHOMAS · Mar 19, 2010

I bought a 12" auger to plant about 50 trees.

MtnViewRanch · Mar 19, 2010

I like the Land Pride PHDs, but then I have PD35 which is their biggest PTO post hole digger. The 24" tree auger works great for plants and trees.:thumbsup:
One of the things that I do is once the hole is dug I will leave the auger in the hole and put fertilizer and dirt back in and mix it up as if it was in a big mixing bowl.

As far as hard ground, get a down pressure kit for your PHD and dig till your heart's content. I had some problems drilling into some ground in the past, I don't have the time to fool with messing with those sort of problems. Bought a down pressure kit, have not had a drilling problem sense. :thumbsup: