3 pt. auger/post hole digger

[Oaktree]

I'm planning to put up a small pole barn come spring, looking for recommendations for a 3 pt. auger/post-hole digger. Other than this project, probably not something I'd use a lot so I'm looking for a lower-grade unit but still one that'll do the job. I've seen a couple sub $1k ones, including TSC (in stock at their semi-local store), but reviews are VERY mixed on them. Despite this being northern New England, soil where I want to put it doesn't seem very rocky (mostly silt/sand), maybe 25' from some trees so there may be roots.

No one around here seems to rent them, so that's out.

 

[RjCorazza]

In my area there are a lot of 3 point augers for sale used, and I would think that is what you are looking for.
I had a TSC style pto auger that worked well in putting in my first split rail fence 25 years ago, then it just sat until I sold it for a song to my neighbor. I have since acquired a hydraulic ssqa auger that it redid my fence with. It's a great implement, but expensive for the limited use I will get out of it.
What diameter holes will you be drilling for the pole barn? I had mine built last fall, and the builder drilled 24" holes. I'm certain my 32 pto HP machine would drill 12" holes, but I have no idea what it takes to drill 24" holes (if that's what pole barns require).

 

[BlueKnife]

I'm planning to put up a small pole barn come spring, looking for recommendations for a 3 pt. auger/post-hole digger. Other than this project, probably not something I'd use a lot so I'm looking for a lower-grade unit but still one that'll do the job. I've seen a couple sub $1k ones, including TSC (in stock at their semi-local store), but reviews are VERY mixed on them. Despite this being northern New England, soil where I want to put it doesn't seem very rocky (mostly silt/sand), maybe 25' from some trees so there may be roots.

No one around here seems to rent them, so that's out.

Rent a skid steer with an auger instead, or, if your tractor has a loader and remotes, just rent the auger. They are far superior.

 

[oldnslo]

Will a 3 point post hole auger allow you to drill deep enough to get below frost table? Northern New England I suspect that would be minimum of 4 ft possibly more.

 

[5030]

Gee, I have one I don't use anymore that is hanging in my barn I'd sell for a couple hundred bucks and it has an auger extension to drill below 4 feet. More like 5.5 feet depth. It's in good shape, gearbox is tight and don't leak either. Fits Cat 1 or Cat 2 3 point.

 

[Oaktree]

Gee, I have one I don't use anymore that is hanging in my barn I'd sell for a couple hundred bucks and it has an auger extension to drill below 4 feet. More like 5.5 feet depth. It's in good shape, gearbox is tight and don't leak either. Fits Cat 1 or Cat 2 3 point.

If you didn't live 1000 mi away I might have taken you up on that.

Rent a skid steer with an auger instead, or, if your tractor has a loader and remotes, just rent the auger. They are far superior.

I suppose that could be an option assuming anyone around here has one for rent. But then I'd need to actually be ready to do everything in one day, not my usual haphazard way...

 

[BlueKnife]

I suppose that could be an option assuming anyone around here has one for rent. But then I'd need to actually be ready to do everything in one day, not my usual haphazard way...

True..... Drilling enough holes for a "small pole barn" in fairly rock free soil takes less than an hour with a hydraulic auger.

 

[Carl_NH]

Not sure where you are in Coos Cty but Caron Equipment has PHD on the Toro Dingo or on a skid steer - I'd opt for the skid steer setup for rough ground. Pricing | Caron Rental Center

I did 60 plus holes 32-36" deep for fencing 2 years ago with a compact Bobcat MT100 stand on tracked unit 8" auger. Had to use BH to extricate some 1-2' rocks, but other than that was a great machine - you need down pressure in rough ground. Our ground is glacial till and ledge primarily.

At the same time used the machine with18" auger to dig holes for 40 trees - the larger auger cleared 4-6" rocks due to more space between the auger vanes.

I would think you need 12" as a minimum for the pole barn and 4' deep.

 

[jfsawatzky]

If you are able to wait, keep an eye on online auctions. I found an hydraulic 3pt with 12 and 24 in augers ( I think) that I bought for about 1000 cdn plus premium and tax but it was 5 hours from me… managed to work that trip into some other items i bought or wanted to do at the same time and area. Pto driven ones are more common and should be less expensive.

 

[M59]

I'm planning to put up a small pole barn come spring, looking for recommendations for a 3 pt. auger/post-hole digger. Other than this project, probably not something I'd use a lot

You don't indicate the number of footing, their dia and depth. This is important in choosing an auger and how it is to powered.

Regardless of the above, I suggest you rent a skid steer and the appropriate sized auger and extension suitable for the concrete footings onto which you place the barn posts.

I too went the "cheap" route and rented a one man gas powered auger mounted on wheels with two handles to apply down pressure. Worked great for first 12-18 inches until I hit fist sized rocks when drilling 12 inch dia holes for fence line in CT river bottom. After 3 hours, a lot of swearing and sweating, and a dozen holes of the 150 needed, I rented a skid steer and did remaining holes in less than 4 hours. Skid steer puts down a huge amount of pressure and the holes are straight and true even when I hit 8-10 inch dia rocks and some arm dia roots.

soil where I want to put it doesn't seem very rocky (mostly silt/sand), maybe 25' from some trees so there may be roots.

Rocks always seem to be where you want to put that hole. Your 3000 pound tractor and 24 PTO horsepower is pretty limited both in weight and power for boring holes that are probably going to be 12 inch min dia and a min of 36 inch deep.

 

[grsthegreat]

Pole barns in my neck of the woods require a 24”- 30” diameter hole 3 feet deep. Some go 4’ deep. They all use skidsteer with augar. I know my 3 point wouldnt do what the skidsteers can do. I. Told this is due to side shear from snow shedding. In one particular bad snow year, alot of older pole barns collapsed and new regulations came in.

 

[BlueKnife]

Pole barns in my neck of the woods require a 24”- 30” diameter hole 3 feet deep. Some go 4’ deep. They all use skidsteer with augar. I know my 3 point wouldnt do what the skidsteers can do. I. Told this is due to side shear from snow shedding. In one particular bad snow year, alot of older pole barns collapsed and new regulations came in.

Most of the collapse issues in our area are due to poor roof design, rather than posts. When it is posts, it's often because they rot off at the base. The days of putting wood in the ground for buildings should be past us in my opinion. The old, toxic treatment methods are no longer permitted and the wood just doesn't hold up. Wood doesn't belong below grade for a building.

 

[EddieWalker]

I consider my 3 point auger to be one of the most useful attachments that I have. I couldn't imagine having a farm and not having an auger.

When I bought mine, I knew nothing about them. My dealer sold it to me for a good price when I bought my 37 hp tractor from him. I think it was $400 back in 2003.

Over the years, and hundreds of fence posts, wood posts and trees planted, I've learned that the most important thing with a 3 point auger is the cutting teeth of the auger.

I'm on my third auger. The original one had a plate that you could grind to sharpen, but it never did very well in dry clay. I upgraded that to a Speeco auger that had replaceable teeth that was a lot better, but very hard to find the replicable teeth.

One day, when I was desperate to find replaceable teeth that would fit the Speeco auger, I decided to buy a Countryline auger from Tractor Supply. That's when I learned that there is a difference in cutting teeth. The Countryline auger drilled a lot better than the Speeco.

It drilled so well that I now had a new problem of burying the auger in the ground and not being able to get it out. The two solutions to this was a large pipe wrench to unscrew the auger from the ground or using my backhoe to pull it out and create a much bigger hole. Eventually I built a wood bridge to go across the hole that would let the auger bury itself that worked well, but it also increased what I had to do to drill a hole.

Two years ago I got a bigger John Deere 5065 tractor. 65 hp over 37 hp solved the burying issue with the auger. It turns out that with more horse power, you can control how fast it digs and pull it back up when it starts to bury itself.

In August and September, my ground becomes like concrete. I still find spots where I just cant drill into the clay with the auger, so I use my SDS Max Rotary Hammer with a Spade Bit to break through the ground and dig down about six inches. Then I fill the hole with water and let it soak into the ground. I add water to the hole during the week, and by the next weekend, I can drill it easily.

My auger is 12 inches, and I think that's the perfect size for everything that I do. I bought a 6 inch auger for some metal pipe that I was going to use, but I couldn't control how quickly it dug down and decided to give up on using it. It's been sitting there ever since. I took the teeth off of it and used them on my 12 inch auger, so it wasn't a total waste, but overall, it was a mistake to buy the smaller auger.

When not in use, I hang it from a wooden frame. This makes it easy to connect it. But it also keeps it off of the ground, which I think is important.

 

[Farmer495]

Will a 3 point post hole auger allow you to drill deep enough to get below frost table? Northern New England I suspect that would be minimum of 4 ft possibly more.

They will with an extension. The regular augers only go down about 42", even though they call them "48 inch" I can get almost 5 feet with this.

 

[Farmer495]

I'm planning to put up a small pole barn come spring, looking for recommendations for a 3 pt. auger/post-hole digger. Other than this project, probably not something I'd use a lot so I'm looking for a lower-grade unit but still one that'll do the job. I've seen a couple sub $1k ones, including TSC (in stock at their semi-local store), but reviews are VERY mixed on them. Despite this being northern New England, soil where I want to put it doesn't seem very rocky (mostly silt/sand), maybe 25' from some trees so there may be roots.

No one around here seems to rent them, so that's out.

If you are only doing a few holes you might get away with a cheap one. I have a Woods PD95.50 and it wasn't cheap, but the gear box and augers seem the same as the cheaper ones.

The "factory" auger is identical to the cheap ones Princess Auto carries.

 

[Oaktree]

Not sure where you are in Coos Cty but Caron Equipment has PHD on the Toro Dingo or on a skid steer - I'd opt for the skid steer setup for rough ground. Pricing | Caron Rental Center

I'm familiar with Caron's, they're about 45 min from me. Prices seem better (and more selection) than what HD has for rent, and being locally owned may have fewer "security" hoops to jump thru.

Lots of food for thought here, I may have to re-think how I was planning to do this.

 

[Carl_NH]

I'm familiar with Caron's, they're about 45 min from me. Prices seem better (and more selection) than what HD has for rent, and being locally owned may have fewer "security" hoops to jump thru.

Yes - I considered the tracked HD Dingo rental machine too - it came with 8 and 12" augers - $700 a week, The Bobcat MT100 tracked stand on was $1100 for the week and I swapped out augers 8" to 18" for no additional cost.

If you only have 14-20 holes to dig that's easily done in 4 hours day at most, and a rental of 350 $400 maybe. As others have suggested, make sure you go big enough for your build, and account for some "movement" in the drill, so an 18" hole with a 16" sono tube would work well.

 

[M59]

3 pt. augers only turn in one direction so they can get bound up while in the hole whereas hydraulically driven augers on skid steer or tractor, via SSQA, can be reversed when bound up and can be backed out. Lots of comments in different threads about having to dig a bound up 3 pt auger out when bound or having detach the auger and manually use a pipe wrench to back it out.

 

[Spike56]

I'm planning to put up a small pole barn come spring, looking for recommendations for a 3 pt. auger/post-hole digger. Other than this project, probably not something I'd use a lot so I'm looking for a lower-grade unit but still one that'll do the job. I've seen a couple sub $1k ones, including TSC (in stock at their semi-local store), but reviews are VERY mixed on them. Despite this being northern New England, soil where I want to put it doesn't seem very rocky (mostly silt/sand), maybe 25' from some trees so there may be roots.

No one around here seems to rent them, so that's out.

I was in a similar boat, even though I am doing "some" cattle fencing. Was able to find a used on for $500 with (4) different size augers. Even that was more than I wanted to spend - cheaper than new. Maybe check around for used farm equipment, craigslist (never used it). It is likely to sit forever once you are done.... my 2 cents.

 

[newbury]

I'm planning to put up a small pole barn come spring, looking for recommendations for a 3 pt. auger/post-hole digger. Other than this project, probably not something I'd use a lot so I'm looking for a lower-grade unit but still one that'll do the job. I've seen a couple sub $1k ones, including TSC (in stock at their semi-local store), but reviews are VERY mixed on them. Despite this being northern New England, soil where I want to put it doesn't seem very rocky (mostly silt/sand), maybe 25' from some trees so there may be roots.

That seems like a job for the credit card. PHD's don't require a PhD to use, but you probably will have some learning curve. ASSUMING you don't run into any problems (rock or roots).
If you are good at selling used equipment buying and using one will be an education.
If not they don't require much maintenance but do take up space.

Have you tried to get quotes or checked with local sources (builders, ag department?) to scope out the price?
As you write, renting is not the best for those of us that tend to take a long time to finish a project. And if you graduate to renting a skidsteer WITH an auger that gets into $$$.