PHD - How many holes per hour in NW clay soil?

PBinWA · Oct 11, 2005

Any rough estimates on the number of holes per hour you can dig with a KingKutter/Leinbach Post Hole Digger with a 12 inch auger.

I don't expect accurate numbers and understand how soil conditions will impact the speed. However, I have around 300 holes to dig and want to guesstimate how many weekends I need to write off.

Would one of those walk behind hydraulic post hole diggers that the rental places have be any faster than a 23 HP PTO tractor? Obviously they might be easier to navigate around with.

Any experiences would be appreciated.

beenthere · Oct 11, 2005

Are you just going to dig each hole and move on (no hole cleaning, no post setting, and have the hole locations staked out)?
Or setting the posts as you go along?

I would think, if not setting posts, that you could do 20 an hour, or two days, or a very looong day. Maybe it'd even go faster than that. When I did my post holes, I sometimes would run into clay which would bury (screw it in) the bit in the hole. That was frustrating, and caused me to slow down and tease the auger bit so it couldn't get that bite on the clay. Too much work getting it unscrewed.

PBinWA · Oct 11, 2005

I'm just thinking of digging the holes and moving on. I'll do the posts another day (The tractor will carry those).

What's the deal with the clay burying the bit? Do you have to manually back out the auger? How much did that slow you down?

My current post hole digger is pathetic. It's getting old, sore and fat and likes sitting on the tractor too much. I figure anything has to be an improvement. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

beenthere · Oct 12, 2005

In clay, the auger can get a bite and rather than lift the soil, the auger bit literally screws right into the clay, dragging the PHD with it. Because you don't have reverse, it needs to be manually screwed back out, or dug out. Just go slow when lowering the 3pt arms and tease it to be sure it doesn't 'get away'. I found it can happen surprisingly fast.

InlineDieselFan · Oct 12, 2005

We did 90 holes and planted the trees in under 2 days, BTW this was the first use of our tractor and the first time that either of us had used a post hole digger.

We would go down about a foot and then back up some just to be sure not to get the auger stuck.

Go get a big pipe wrench to fit the auger, some shear pins, and a cheater bar, just incase you get stuck or break a shear pin. My guess two people no cleaning of holes by hand, or setting post you should easily be able to do 100 holes in a long day.

steve

gabby · Oct 12, 2005

You need a good spotter/helper to guide the point to the exact location as you're lowering the bit, and to eyeball for plumbness as you dig. I recently had two men digging holes and they were digging almost a hole a minute but it was on level open land in good soil conditions and with a 50 hp tractor.

Why are you using such a big auger? I use a 9-inch auger for line posts.
gabby

PBinWA · Oct 12, 2005

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Why are you using such a big auger? I use a 9-inch auger for line posts.
gabby
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I figured I would make the holes bigger so I have more room to adjust things. I haven't bought the PHD yet. Probably, tomorrow. I'll think about the 9" auger between now and then.

I'm going to be doing this myself so it will probably take longer but thanks for the times. I know I have a few weekends to kill on this project.

I may back off on my "all wood post" idea and do some intermediary T-Posts.

The local Farm Store is having a big "Everything" sale tomorrow so I'm going to go in and try to get everything I need for this project while it's as cheap as possible.

Thanks again for the times everyone.