Posthole Digger Home made post hole digger

[EdKing]

Hello,
I am in need of a post hole digger and I'm short on $$$. I have a 2 man digger that the motor quit on, with a 6" and 9" bits. I am currently stripping down an old Dodge van for the motor to put in my truck. I was thinking, why not take the rear axle and make a post hole digger. I figure I can shorten the axles on either side of the punkin, turn it sideways, leave the brakes and drum on the topside and adjust the tensioner to act like a slip clutch. I could then grind the lower axle square to fit in the bits from the 2 man digger. Weld on some brackets to hook it on to the 3ph, and hook a PTO shaft to the punkin to drive it.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Ed King

 

[jimgerken]

I can't see why it wouldn't work. It is definitely heavy duty enuf. Two things I would check first. The oil will be sloshing to a new side of the punkin, will stuff get lubed and will the oil stay in there? And the other thing is the gear ratio. I don't know what speed reduction (if any) is done by the usual right-angle box on these diggers. With your punkin, you'll have something like 3.5 or 4 to one reduction. Without knowing what the commercial ones do, this seems about right to me. I sure would not want it running 1 to 1 (540 RPM auger!!!). Go for it and post photos, I need one too, and this sounds very do-able.

 

[looch]

<font color=blue>(540 RPM auger!!!)</font color=blue>

That would be neat wouldn't it. You would send that Long back to where it came from via the more direct route /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif.

(Sorry, no useful advice)

 

[EdKing]

The oil will be sloshing to a new side of the punkin, will stuff get lubed and will the oil stay in there?

I figure if I cut the axles right, I can use the seals to keep the oil in. I could also drill and tap a hole
in the top to fill and check oil level.

Ed King

 

[cedarranch]

Boy - I think I would just wait until I could pay the $400 for a post hole digger. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Ed,

I think a properly designed post hole digger is dangerous enough... but a homebrew unit sounds like an accident waiting to happen.../w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif
{besides the pto shaft and yoke would cost upwards of $200+}

I'd rent one for immediate use or save my $400. up for a "proven unit"... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

This situation was totally covered a few weeks ago on the Yahoo Club "homebuilt equipment for tractors".

 

[jimgerken]

how do i access this yahoo club about tractors?

 

[JeffRey30747]

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/homebuiltequipmentfortractors>http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/homebuiltequipmentfortractors</A>

 

[Anonymous Poster]

The initial posting is message #963

 

[jinman]

I agree with you, John. ...and how about repairing/replacing the motor on his two-man unit. Wouldn't that be less than $200? Gosh, for a six-pack, I'd probably loan him mine./w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[JRP]

I like the idea of finding an orbit type (high torque) slow speed hydraulic motor on ebay. It would ron off an auxillary hydraulic valve. Would be like the units that are put on Bobcat skid steer. If the bit got stuck, you could simply reverse direction. Also, no worry about tearing up the pto driveline, no clutch, no PTO shaft.

I have seen some hydraulic units that are bolted to the FEL bucket. Lots of stroke.

JRPoux

 

[kgw51gmc]

I invented this idea the other day and then joined this site because I found other people who already invented it. Truck rears are indestructible and plentiful, I have scrapped them before to get them out of my way. I figured, why not
- take a ford ranger rear or something I have, cut the axels off
- use a ranger drive-shaft slipped over a piece of pipe welded to a pto-coupler for a drive shaft
-weld brackets to the rear end or makea huge camp to bolt around it to not weekend the case to mount to 3 point hitch so that it can swivel around like a "real" post hole digger that has gears 1/2 as strong as a truck rear-end
--and make some sort of coupler to use Tractor Supply or similar bits.

---my question is_----- should you feed the PTO power to the regular input shaft of the truck rear?? -OR--should it feed through an axel and have the auger attached to the yoke on the input shaft?????? I think that woudl gear it down slower......... I think. kw_y2k@hotmail.com sub post auger.

Need to figure out the pto shaft so it can slip to lengtehn/shorten as you raise up and down. Has to be a way to NOT have to pay for a shaft! Too bad driveshafts aren't square in trucks.

 

[bullbreaker]

TBN member Mousefield -? I think is his handle has one made out of a car/etc R/end and that thing is a monster.
Might wanna do a search and check it out.

Boone

 

[bullbreaker]

TBN member Mousefield -? I think is his handle has one made out of a car/etc R/end and that thing is a monster.
Might wanna do a search and check it out.

Boone

Found it.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/207946-old-home-made-post-hole.html

Boone

 

[Baby Grand]

If you throw an old manual gearbox between the dif and the prop shaft you can have 4 or 5 gear ratios plus reverse, which might make getting the auger unstuck from rocks & roots a lot easier ...

 

[bcp]

---my question is_----- should you feed the PTO power to the regular input shaft of the truck rear?? -OR--should it feed through an axel and have the auger attached to the yoke on the input shaft?????? I think that woudl gear it down slower......... I think.

If the gear ratio is 3:1, then 200 RPM at the drive shaft would turn the axle at about 67 RPM. If you drive the axle at 200RPM, the drive shaft will turn about 600 RPM.

Lots of post hole diggers have been made with rear ends. I used to see far more homemade ones than factory built.

Bruce

 

[kgw51gmc]

Bruce-- you are right, I am glad you said that. Thanks a lot. And the idea of an old 3 speed or something from an old pick up woudl be a good idea just to get reverse. Thanks for the info guys.