Posthole Digger Leinbach Post Hole Digger

[jasonf]

Re: Leinbach Post Hole Digger (eating crow)

I would but my backhoe is still under a tarp with 1 foot of snow on it /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif, and I no longer do anything by hand..... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[GlennT]

I've had my Leinbach Model 7300 PHD with a 9 inch auger for several months and am very happy with it. I run my little JD Model 670 at 1500 RPM and am able to dig down through our caliche quite nicely. I have broken several shear pins because there are many rocks of various sizes--some big-- in the soil and I have to stop and break them up with a chisel bar and remove the pieces with a clamshell digger and a posthole spade. I do want to tell you about one incident. I was digging down through clay and it was a big damp. I try to be careful about raising the auger and clearing the hole often, but I got a bit careless as I was finishing the hole at about 40 inches down. The auger would not raise; in fact, it wanted to keep going down and when I stopped it, it wouldn't turn again. After trying a long bar, a farmer's jack, etc. I finally had to bite the bullet and dig another hole alongside the auger in order to free it. Boy, that's an afternoon I don't want to repeat soon. I can tell you that I sure am careful now when I get down that deep.

 

[Rick Jay]

I almost had the same happen to me. We have a clay based soil with lots of rocks. One time, when it was still damp, I noticed a similar problem raising the auger. I "think" what was happening is that when the auger was retracting from the hole, a suction was formed at the bottom of the hole pulling down on the auger. Sounds a bit strange, but I did hear a bit of a "sucking sound" when I slowly raised the auger up. It didn't want to raise quickly.

One technique I've heard if the bit gets stuck is to disconnect the bit from the head and use a very large pipe wrench to reverse the bit. If you're really careful, you might be able to do it with the pto off (disconnected is safer) and use the wrench to reverse the bit while someone else raises the 3 pt. hitch.

That is one major benefit of the hydraulic diggers - REVERSE !

~Rick