Posthole Digger Posthole Digger Preference

[schiker]

I have the Speeco brand unit. Yes ,it is cheaper priced, and probably cheaper built than most others. But it works well. The output shaft from the gearbox is 2 inch round. Speeco sells augers for it of course. 9 inch and 12 inch. But Northern Tool also sells augers for their own powerhead, that also happen to fit the Speeco gearhead. I found that the 14 inch auger that Northern sells weighs about twice what the 12 inch Speeco auger weighs, and is more aggresive, for little more money. 14 inch gives a nice margin with setting 6x6 posts. 12 inch is about bare minimum, and leaves almost no room for error correction. I run mine on a 21 Hp tractor, drill in clay with rock. I run the tractor at just above idle, it does not take much power at all. You want to remember to pull the auger out of the hole as soon as the flighting is full, don't expect it to keep pushing the dirt out. If you dont pull it each time it fills (when diggin in clay) sooner or later you will drive it in. Once driven in, it must be turned backwards to get it out of the hole. This is no fun. One guy on this TBN described how he added a pipe section welded onto the auger shaft near the top end, so he could insert a shovel handle to get leverage to turn the auger back out of the ground when needed. This sounds like a really good idea and I plan to do this before I need the unit again. This would be the great advantage of the hydraulic unit, you could reverse it. But too much money.

Thanks for posting. The Northern Tool and Equipment's around here don't keep much of the bigger Agri stuff in stock. Heck they can't keep much of the other stuff in stock either. I was near another Tractor Supply Store and they had thier 12" auger in stock. It was ~$136 complete with replaceable tips and point. It bolted right up. It only has 1 shear bolt though.

I have done about 20 holes with it so far and am pleased. It starts where I set it down and digs about the same speed as the OE Leinbach auger. I have dug into some heavy grass/weed clumps and it stays right on target. If the grass is long and thick it can tear out a wad and turns a birdnest onto the tip then doesn't want to dig past the flutes at first. I can pick unit up knock stuff off the tip and restart w/o any problems (or wait and it will rub through grass and start digging after a little while). I wish I had done this years ago. IMHO the Leinbach 12" auger tip stinks!

I have hit a few small roots and rocks without issues. Unless I break a tip in less than 100 holes I probably won't reply again. If you have a 12" Leinbach Auger once the tip dulls don't waste your money again get a whole different brand auger that will fit you won't be sorry.

 

[pgflrob]

I have a project and I need help. Here is the project. I need to punch about 500 holes in very sandy soil that has been deeply disked in the last year. The holes are to countersink 25 gallon pots for my tree farm. The no brainer way to go is to buy a big hydralic unit and a heavy duty skid steer machine, or a specialized hydra-hole digger like the one they rent at the local Home Depot. The holes need to be about 22 inches across and 18 inches deep. Because the soil is soft I will need to go a bit deeper due to cave ins.

So I was wondering if a 30 HP, or so, tractor with a PTO driven PHD with 24 inch auger bit would do the trick? What do you think? Digging the hole to about 30 inches or so would incent a few inches of cave in? I'm not worried about the hole being completely "square". It would be easy to backfill around the top of the pot with my loader. And I am not worried at all about a void below the bottom of the pot. The soil is very loose. There are a few bits of palmetto "trunk" in the soil but not too bad.