What have you done to your Branson today?

[Slowpoke Slim]

Put the brush hog on and mowed both mine and my neighbor's pastures. Also mowed my road ditches.

 

[Branson Bob]

I took the 24" auger out for its first spin making 6 holes for carport footings. I snapped 2 shear pins while drilling 48" deep holes in very compacted but dry clay soil. Along the way I found out a few things:

It's really a two person job (that however wasn't an option)
This 24" auger makes about a 30" hole
With this auger the hole ends up about 12" behind where it started (where the point touched the ground)
When raising the auger to clean out the hole it worked better to disengage the PTO and gently re-seat the auger before re-engaging the PTO
It was easier operating the implement by dismounting the tractor in order to face the work and better feather the control lever (1/16th of an inch at a time)
It must become an automatic response to disengage the PTO when the shear pin breaks

 

[LouNY]

I can see where that would be much nicer with two people,
especially with one on the tractor to inch it back and forth to keep the auger square with the world.

 

[ning]

With this auger the hole ends up about 12" behind where it started (where the point touched the ground)

What do you mean by this?

 

[Aquamoose]

It was easier operating the implement by dismounting the tractor in order to face the work and better feather the control lever (1/16th of an inch at a time)

That’s how I operated mine. The safety police would cry foul but I did a risk assessment and it worked for me. Before operating, I applied the parking brake slightly so the tractor would hold position yet allow HST power to move it. This way I could press the petals to inch it fore/aft to keep the auger centered in the hole. Mind you, it was in low gear and I maintained fine control be “grasping” both forward & reverse petals and “twisting” my wrists to move it slightly in the direction I wanted it to go. (If you understand what I mean, thank you. If you don’t, oh well)

The 3PH drop speed is set by the knob beforehand so that’s controlled well.

I agree about stopping the PTO and raising it. I turn it on very briefly to let the dirt fly off before dropping it back down to dig more.

 

[Branson Bob]

What do you mean by this?

Unlike Aquamoose (and perhaps others), I didn't drive the tractor fore or aft to keep the hole centered. Therefore the swing arc (or radius if you prefer) necessitates that the auger bit move farther back from the tractor the more it's lowered. Contrast this with a Bobcat-mounted auger which goes straight up and down with no swing arc.

I suppose the next step for me is moving the tractor slightly forward as I lower the auger.

 

[K5lwq]

I would avoid moving the tractor with the auger in the ground. That could bend the shaft.

I start with the tip where I want the hole, then moved the tractor slightly forward before engaging the PTO. Then the auger straightens the hole as it goes down. It takes a few holes to find the sweet spot, but I don't need to move the tractor at all.

Nice set up though.

 

[Cougsfan]

I used my auger to put in umpteen lodgepole pine fence posts. I stopped the auger and put a level across several blades in both directions to make sure I was going straight down once I started the tip. I'd check this plumb-ness before I started going down and maybe a couple of times early on as the auger went deeper. After a dozen or so holes I got a feel for how much and when I had to move the tractor forward to keep the auger perpendicular to the world. Hitting a rock or tree root could screw you up, but fortunately I was working with clean, deep, loamy Palouse soil. I have drilled holes in hard clay ground before. It helps to water the heck out of the area a few days in advance of using the auger. One thing I learned the hard way is that a 9' auger isn't big enough for 6" round posts.

 

[ning]

I recently put in a bunch of round posts and found the 9" auger did fine for the about-5-inch-ish round posts.

I had a helper who held a level to the auger while I adjusted it from the seat after it started to bite; I realized that the square protective box around the top of the auger would probably be a good spot for some stick-on bubble levels - I'm looking for some that are big enough to see well from my tractor seat; of course I won't be able to see the ones on the side very well...

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Got the tractor loaded up on the trailer today. Heading up north of town to do a little mowing tomorrow. Big area, may take a couple of days to complete. Will post some pics as I go.