Using Hole Digger In Hard Red Clay

[jmc]

My hard red clay wouldn't even let the pilot point penetrate. Its tip was just a smooth bullet point with no cutting edges to center. Next time, I'll try grooving the tip with an angle grinder or try to find a more aggressive tip that fits the auger pipe ID.

 

[stuckmotor]

My hard red clay wouldn't even let the pilot point penetrate. Its tip was just a smooth bullet point with no cutting edges to center. Next time, I'll try grooving the tip with an angle grinder or try to find a more aggressive tip that fits the auger pipe ID.

Tractor supply used to sell a screw tip.separate from the auger. If you take that route, you should probably figure how to attach it to your auger before taking one home. This wasn't apparent to me.

 

[Farmer495]

Ensure your auger is sharp, good edges make difference.

You can hang some weight on the auger frame,

I've drilled 4 foot deep in dry clay by running auger on one tractor at idle and using front end loader on another to apply down pressure.

I really want a hyd drive auger that fits my loader. Make life real easy then.

 

[Semper Paratus]

In North MS clay we had an 8' oak real live 2"x4" that would fit in between the gear box and yoke. 6'4" 250# of me became the down force on the PHD. As a rule it worked pretty well. A few needed some added water though.

 

[jyoutz]

In North MS clay we had an 8' oak real live 2"x4" that would fit in between the gear box and yoke. 6'4" 250# of me became the down force on the PHD. As a rule it worked pretty well. A few needed some added water though.

My neighbor does the same thing with a 6’ digging bar to apply down force. And we start hokes one day and fill with water. The next day it’s easy to finish the holes.

 

[BoylermanCT]

Your auger should be able to dig up small rocks, but roots are a different mess. If they are thick, you will need to dig them out. You can do it by hand with a shovel, post hole digger, tree saw and sawzall, but a backhoe can make easier work of it. Last summer we build a 30x30 lean to off our barn. We dug 8 holes 42" deep. We did the first 6 in an hour or so. The last two were where a huge oak tree had been, and the roots were a nightmare. Took us about an hour each using the backhoe and finally finishing with the auger.

 

[RjCorazza]

Lots of good information presented.
When I was drilling holes with my 3 point auger, after maybe 50 holes the auger stopped digging down. I replaced the tip and bits and all was well. I recently sharpened the tip and bits on my hydraulic auger, which definitely improves the digging ability.

As others have recommended, I would run the tractor a little above idle, drop the auger, and frequently raise it to clear the dirt. It's possible to drill a hole in one continuous movement, but there is a real possibility of screwing the auger into the ground... You will only do that once!

 

[TN8Man]

Lots of good information presented.
When I was drilling holes with my 3 point auger, after maybe 50 holes the auger stopped digging down. I replaced the tip and bits and all was well. I recently sharpened the tip and bits on my hydraulic auger, which definitely improves the digging ability.

As others have recommended, I would run the tractor a little above idle, drop the auger, and frequently raise it to clear the dirt. It's possible to drill a hole in one continuous movement, but there is a real possibility of screwing the auger into the ground... You will only do that once!

I agree, all good information here and I want to thank everyone for their advice!

 

[Acethe3rd]

First time using my tractor to dig fence post holes. I need to dig 2 feet down using 9" auger and the soil is red clay and possibly rocks tree roots.

Any advice on being successful and not damaging my equipment?

Thanks in advance.

Put the auger down slowly and make contact, lower it while PTO is on, pull it up, get clay out, next time go deeper and keep doing that. Dig and repeat.

 

[meackerman]

the ground around here gets really hard during the summer. My PHD will usually dig it but its slow going and if I'm not careful the hydraulic downforce on the PHD will pick up the back of the tractor...which is a bit unnerving.


pull the auger out frequently. The first time I used my PHD, I got it stuck down in the hole, and it took me a while to get it back out.