Go Bottom3 pt posthole digger
 | tom harris
Join Date: Posts: 1 
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2001-04-02 26201
Can anyone tell me about 3 pt posthole diggers, like the min. HP required, how well they work, whether the 24" tree bits require a lot more HP and time? Also, what do you think of the King Kutter model and are there any moderately priced alternatives? Thanks.
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| JonB
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2001-04-03 26215
Tom, I use a post hole digger with my JD 4100, 20 HP, 16 PTO. It works great with moist soil, but doesn't work well with my dry (concrete) clay. It won't scratch hard pan. Simply put, the 4100 is too light to tear up really hard soil. It work great, as long as I use it at the right time. Best of luck. JonB ....
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 | harvey
Join Date: Sep 2000 Posts: 1550 Moravia, NY 
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2001-04-03 26216
Morning Tom Depending on how and what type of soil you are using it in hp really isn't a factor. IE: little two man rental things! The best factor is a good solid machine with good hyd's to pull it and control the speed of penetration. I'm not sure I would want to try a 24" auger with my 4400 but I use a 12" all the time. I am sure I could run an 18-24" no problem, but if I doped off for a second and the auger sucked down into some soft stuff the tractor would never pull it up. Out comes the big pipe wrench and back it out. For a tree hole I'd drill a couple of feet down with a 12" and dress up the hole by removing 6" around it with a shovel. The hard part is done by the tractor. As far as breaking thru hard soil you can add to your point and cutters for penatration. If you are going to do lots of drilling I'd get a med to good quality NAME brand. If you are in stony ground get lots of shear bolts, the soft ones not hardened. Some days me thinks it might be worth a hardened one but I have rebuilt it once (more education it the school of higher learning "Hard Knocks"). ....
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| Ted Kennedy
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2001-04-03 26220
Tom, I have two augers; one is a Woods pto driven unit, the other is a Worksaver 714 hydraulic unit. I went with the hydraulic unit for all of the reasons mentioned by Jon and Harvey, plus a few others. The hydraulic unit is mounted to the dipper stick of my backhoe and is driven by a 9gpm pto pump kit from Kelly. I did this because it is a pain to be on a job, encounter a large rock, and then have to break-down the pto driven unit and mount the hoe. Dig out the rock, then remove the hoe and re-mount the pto unit. Comparing the two as far as digging, the hydraulic unit beats the pto unit every time, in every soil condition, and it has a reverse feature should the auger get stuck. The hydraulic unit will easily drive a 14" auger, the pto unit won't. The hydro will drive up to 24" in hard rocky soil if I go in with the six inch auger first. I've no experience with King Kutter, but found Woods, Shaver, and Worksaver to be well made and dependable - just that the hydraulic models work better. Just for your satisfaction, a 24" dia. x 4' deep hole in my area goes for $50.00, less post, less concrete, including sono tube (for piers) and tax. ....
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| Damon Brantley
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2001-04-03 26260
When I was digging post holes with my auger last summer, the thing that made
the biggest difference was keeping the bits sharp. I had to go through very hard
dry clay. When the bits got dull I would hardly make any progress. However, when I took my angle grinder and resharpened the bits, I had no problems going through clay.
....
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| Chris
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2001-04-09 26521
Tom,
I bought a cheapy brand (Speedco, I think) for about $350 at the local farm store. Works great for my TC25D. I have a 12" auger for it and haven't had any problems putting in several fence posts etc. I even used it this winter to bust up some frozen Minnesota soil to bury the neighbor's dog. ....
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