3 pt. auger/post hole digger

[rScotty]

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

I think that's a real good idea. Post hole drills are fine for post holes, where a little wandering and slant won't hurt. I've got one lashed to a tree where it has lived now for at least 30 years...Since we built the last corral.
But if you are going to lay out a pole barn you may want something more accurate. Even a small 20x40 foot post barn is going to have upwards to 50 6" posts - and it's best to keep them online and plumb.

Just for comparison, what is the cost to have someone put in the holes? We found a well driller who would do our grid square and true for a reasonable price. With his truck-mounted rig it went real fast. Any depth, no problem.
rScotty

 

[Oaktree]

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 $$$.

Neighbor of mine does site work, don't know if he has an auger, but does have a skid steer. I'll check and see what he'd want to do this. Was sort of wanting to DIY, but it might be easier/cheaper to just let the pros do it.

 

[BlueKnife]

Neighbor of mine does site work, don't know if he has an auger, but does have a skid steer. I'll check and see what he'd want to do this. Was sort of wanting to DIY, but it might be easier/cheaper to just let the pros do it.

If your tractor has front remotes and quick attach, you can run the auger yourself. No need for a skid steer. @newbury, mentioned the learning curve taking time, and he's right, it does, but it's not that long if you're even semi competent at operating your tractor. Depending on what you meant by "small" pole barn, you're drilling probably less than 16 holes. A good operator, drilling in soil with minimal rocks, can do that in 45 minutes or less. Hit some rocks and maybe we double or triple that. Most rentals are 24 hours. So, including drive time, you could be roughly 20 times slower than a good operator and still get it done. Most folks who have owned and operated tractors for any length of time aren't going to be nearly that bad. If you do decide to do that, you just want to make sure that the remotes on your tractor are flat face, not ag couplers.

 

[Jstpssng]

Most rentals are 24 hours.

True. Yet the last time I looked into renting a piece of equipment there also was an 8 hour factor, so if you brought it home and worked it for 13 hours you would get charged accordingly.
This was at one rental place, YMMV...

 

[Farmer495]

Neighbor of mine does site work, don't know if he has an auger, but does have a skid steer. I'll check and see what he'd want to do this. Was sort of wanting to DIY, but it might be easier/cheaper to just let the pros do it.

If this is a one time job, far less headache having someone come with a skidsteer loader and hyd auger.

 

[newbury]

If this is a one time job, far less headache having someone come with a skidsteer loader and hyd auger.

Heck, if I'm paying for it I probably would not care what equipment they use, I'm only wanting holes of a certain size installed quickly.

 

[BlueKnife]

True. Yet the last time I looked into renting a piece of equipment there also was an 8 hour factor, so if you brought it home and worked it for 13 hours you would get charged accordingly.
This was at one rental place, YMMV...

Of course. If it takes 8 hours of actual machine time to drill enough holes for a "small" pole barn, something has gone catastrophically wrong. Anyway, I'm talking about the OP renting an auger and running it with his tractor. The 8 hour thing doesn't apply to attachments, as the rental place has no way of tracking that. There's no hour meter on a hydraulic auger.

 

[EddieWalker]

I posted already about having a 12 inch auger, and how often I use it. But when I have to put a post in a spot that I cannot get my tractor to, or if I have the auger off of the tractor, I'll just dig the post by hand if it's just one or two holes.

Connecting the auger to the tractor is a pain.

If I did not have an auger, and I wanted to build a pole barn. I would price what it would cost to have somebody drill the holes for me, but I doubt that I would rent something to do it. If the cost was more then I was willing to pay, I would dig it by hand. Once you get through the first 6 inches or so, the soil gets softer and the digging goes pretty quickly.

This thread is a week old. I could of dug all of the holes for the barn in a week by hand by just doing a couple every evening. Sometimes it's better to just get it done then to search for an easier way to do it.

Get a shovel and start digging. Once you've gone as deep as you can with the shovel, get the clam shell digger out. Mine has metal arms and it's a quite a bit heavier than the ones with wood handles. I have that too but never use it. The all-metal clamshell digs the best. I can usually dig one hole is half an hour or less. I've never had a hole take an hour to dig by hand.

 

[BlueKnife]

I posted already about having a 12 inch auger, and how often I use it. But when I have to put a post in a spot that I cannot get my tractor to, or if I have the auger off of the tractor, I'll just dig the post by hand if it's just one or two holes.

Connecting the auger to the tractor is a pain.

If I did not have an auger, and I wanted to build a pole barn. I would price what it would cost to have somebody drill the holes for me, but I doubt that I would rent something to do it. If the cost was more then I was willing to pay, I would dig it by hand. Once you get through the first 6 inches or so, the soil gets softer and the digging goes pretty quickly.

This thread is a week old. I could of dug all of the holes for the barn in a week by hand by just doing a couple every evening. Sometimes it's better to just get it done then to search for an easier way to do it.

Get a shovel and start digging. Once you've gone as deep as you can with the shovel, get the clam shell digger out. Mine has metal arms and it's a quite a bit heavier than the ones with wood handles. I have that too but never use it. The all-metal clamshell digs the best. I can usually dig one hole is half an hour or less. I've never had a hole take an hour to dig by hand.

Being willing to do manual labor in order to save money is admirable, to be sure, and something that most Americans should engage in more. Just for information's sake though, in my area a hydraulic skid steer auger rents for $165+tax/day. If the ground conditions are as the OP described, he can drill all of the holes in under an hour. That may or may not be worth it to him. If a person has more time than money, hand digging is the way to go.

 

[EddieWalker]

Does that rental include the skid steer and the trailer to haul the skid steer? Here, I have to rent both, the trailer and the skid steer. As a contractor, I do this a few times a year for different jobs. When that happens, my clients are paying for my time to rent the equipment, get it to their place, use it, and return it.

As a homeowner, I hate renting stuff for my own projects. I never have enough time, and the rental process is so time consuming that I rarely do it. I also hate the idea of that money disappearing when I could use it for buying materials.

 

[BlueKnife]

Does that rental include the skid steer and the trailer to haul the skid steer? Here, I have to rent both, the trailer and the skid steer. As a contractor, I do this a few times a year for different jobs. When that happens, my clients are paying for my time to rent the equipment, get it to their place, use it, and return it.

No. I was suggesting that the OP rent the auger and run it with his tractor. That requires that his tractor have a loader, remotes, and SSQA. If not, that obviously changes things. Quite a lot of compact tractors have those things these days though so....... I asked him about it earlier in this thread but he hasn't answered.

 

[grsthegreat]

i dont like the idea of running hydraulic auger from the loader for one reason. your pumping hot hydraulic fluids thru the tractor. skid steers use 2 pumps. one for machine and one for implements. On my hydraulic snowblower, the tank and pump are additional to the tractor, and the hydraulic fluid and tank get real hot during use. id hate for this to go thru the tractors system. secondary tanks used in summer should have cooling systems installed to help cool the fluids.

 

[M59]

i dont like the idea of running hydraulic auger from the loader for one reason. your pumping hot hydraulic fluids thru the tractor. skid steers use 2 pumps. one for machine and one for implements.

Your point about hot fluid is model specific. My Kubota M59 has 3 hydraulic pumps so the flow through the FEL accessory circuit is part of the same flow the FEL would normally see and no heating is discernible when using the SSQA attached hydraulic auger. The SSQA mounted auger has 3 big advantages over the 3 pt hitch mounted augers
1 Hydraulic auger can be reversed out of hole if bound up in hole.
2 The SSQA auger is easy to see while facing forward which makes drilling holes at any angle, in relationship to ground's surface, a breeze.
3 The down force that can be applied to the auger is orders of magnitude greater than what can be delivered with 3 pt hitch which means deeper holes, faster drilling, and ability to power thru rocky and hard soils.

There is big difference between continuously running a hydraulic snow blower and the momentary use of a hydraulic auger. The M59 will drill a 3 foot deep 12 inch dia hole in soil with fist sized rocks in under 60 seconds. Then I travel to next hole location, set up and repeat.

 

[BlueKnife]

i dont like the idea of running hydraulic auger from the loader for one reason. your pumping hot hydraulic fluids thru the tractor. skid steers use 2 pumps. one for machine and one for implements. On my hydraulic snowblower, the tank and pump are additional to the tractor, and the hydraulic fluid and tank get real hot during use. id hate for this to go thru the tractors system. secondary tanks used in summer should have cooling systems installed to help cool the fluids.

@M59 said it well. I'll just also point out that we're talking about enough holes for a "small" pole barn. I don't know exactly what that means, but I'm going to assume that it's perhaps 32x32 or so, at most. A 32x32 post frame with posts 8' OC has 16 posts, not including any extras for doors. We're talking about him using this machine for a few minutes at a time, for a total of perhaps an hour or two, at most. It's a whole different animal than running a snowblower.

 

[varmint]

As a new tractor owner, (used tractor, though) I opted to get the seller's PHD as well for the extra $300 he wanted. 9" auger, and just a bit of a learning curve. I drilled 50-60 post holes, rocks and roots were part of the learning. Depending on how I positioned the tractor, I could get maybe 40" of hole depth. A clamshell hand digger is handy for cleaning up the hole, pulling up rocks and such. When our Morton Pole Building was put up, Morton had a dedicated truck with a positional hydraulic auger, complete with an operator's seat, on the back of the truck. The holes went in exactly where they wanted them, perfectly plumb, and plenty deep. The "posts" were treated 2x6's nailed with SS nails into 6x6's- they explained that the 2x6's were treated throughout, where a real 6x6 wasn't in its center area.
The auger gets very occasional use anymore, but I consider it an "investment" that more useful overall than its value in the bank.

 

[Oaktree]

No. I was suggesting that the OP rent the auger and run it with his tractor. That requires that his tractor have a loader, remotes, and SSQA. If not, that obviously changes things. Quite a lot of compact tractors have those things these days though so....... I asked him about it earlier in this thread but he hasn't answered.

Guess I missed your question. Yes my loader is SSQA, not sure what you mean by remotes. There is a set of hydraulic couplers on the rear that I've never had occasion to use.

Nothing I'm going to be doing in the next few weeks...ground is very frozen and there's 10" of snow on it. Just trying to get opinions on best options for now.

 

[M59]

Guess I missed your question. Yes my loader is SSQA, not sure what you mean by remotes. There is a set of hydraulic couplers on the rear that I've never had occasion to use.

Nothing I'm going to be doing in the next few weeks...ground is very frozen and there's 10" of snow on it. Just trying to get opinions on best options for now.

To answer for Blueknife
Loader- you have that since you indicate you have SSQA.
SSQA- excellent. check that off list to run hydraulic auger off FEL
Remotes- You will need a set of hydraulic couplers at end of loader arm, typically flat faced coupler also known as skid steer couplers, to run the hydraulic auger.

The "remotes" on the loader arm have many uses. Control open/ close on a grapple, operate a hydraulic auger, swing a SSQA snow plow, a tree shear, anything that needs hydraulic flow when attached to the SSQA

 

[Oaktree]

Remotes- You will need a set of hydraulic couplers at end of loader arm, typically flat faced coupler also known as skid steer couplers, to run the hydraulic auger.

The "remotes" on the loader arm have many uses. Control open/ close on a grapple, operate a hydraulic auger, swing a SSQA snow plow, a tree shear, anything that needs hydraulic flow when attached to the SSQA

Nope, don't have that.

Isn't the hydraulic pressure on a skid steer way higher than on a tractor (or at least one the size of mine...30 hp)?

 

[M59]

Nope, don't have that.

Isn't the hydraulic pressure on a skid steer way higher than on a tractor (or at least one the size of mine...30 hp)?

I don't know much about Kioti so can't speak to what pressures the hydraulics are run at.

The M59 hydraulics run 2800-3000 psi ( if memory is correct ) and the KX 80 runs at 4000 and 4500 psi on different circuits. The higher pressures are why the KX 80 will out dig and out lift the M59 even though they are nearly the same hp.

The Mahindra Max 24 runs at 2500 psi ( if memory is correct ).

Skid steer pressures run form 3000 to 4000 depending on equipment size and make.

I run a SSQA hydraulic auger from McMillen model X1475. Here are the operating details at various pressures and hydraulic flows.

There are other hydraulic auger motor manufacturers discussed in TBN but this was one I chose.

 

[Carl_NH]

For tractor, skid steer, or excavator its the hydraulic flow. more than PSI to run an implement and second is the PSI range. Most tractors operate 2500-2800 PSI - Skid steers 3500, and excavators 3500-4500 - the higher pressure will lift/dig more, the higher flow will run implements like snow blowers, PHD, stump grinders on skid steers, and mulchers etc on excavators.