Post Hole Diggers/Cost,Etc?

[Anonymous Poster]

Anybody price 3 Pt, post hole 6" or * 8" augers, what is the ball park cost for new. Anything thing to look for in used ?
Are they effective in hard clay, with 17 hp PTO ?

Thanks in advance for any info..
Kubby

 

[MikePA]

<font color=blue>Anybody price 3 Pt, post hole 6" or * 8" augers, what is the ball park cost for new. </font color=blue>
I paid $425 for a standard duty Leinbach with a 9" auger. For the heavy duty diggers you can pay $800 and above, auger is extra.

<font color=blue>Anything thing to look for in used ?</font color=blue>
I never looked for a used one.

<font color=blue>Are they effective in hard clay, with 17 hp PTO ?</font color=blue>
That depends more on the auger than the PTO hp. When you buy the digger, tell them what kind of soil you'll be digging in and they can recommend an auger.

Also, do a search for 'post hole digger', 'auger', etc. here on TBN and you will find a lot of information. I know, because I've asked many of these same questions.

 

[GlennT]

I'm going through the same process right now and I will probably buy from a local dealer. He offers a Leinbach digger for $425; a Continental Belton (company name now changed to A.G. Meier) for $450; or a Greenline for $485. You will also find that Northern Tool sells a digger $465 and Tractor Supply has one for $470. All of these prices include the digger and a 9" auger. I suspect that the diggers sold by Northern Tool and Tractor Supply are made by the same manufacturer, but I haven't had a chance to see them up close so I don't know that for sure. All of these diggers are standard duty models that supposedly are able to dig down to 42 inches. There are also a few companies that sell a somewhat smaller digger for category 0 tractors that have shorter augers and can only go down 32 inches or so. Of course, let's be realistic; on the same day that my JD Model 670 drives a digger down 42 inches through our caliche here in Texas, there will also be another sighting of a star in the east. By the way, some of the light duty diggers use ball bearings in the gearbox; the standard models and up use tapered roller bearings. Name brand diggers--Land Pride, Bush Hog, etc. start about $750 for the boom and gearbox plus another $125 or so for the auger. There--now you know everything I do about diggers. Good luck, happy digging and Merry Christmas!

 

[MikePA]

<font color=blue>Are they effective in hard clay, with 17 hp PTO ?</font color=blue>
I should have added that any standard auger you get with a $400 - $500 post hole digger will have a very hard time digging through packed clay. I've 'been there and done that' this past summer. Not fun since I had 185 holes to dig. I tried another auger I got from TSC. I tried pouring water in the 3" deep hole I managed to dig. Nothing worked.

I was just about to spend $200 on <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.danuser.com/products/augers/2_inch_round_augers.htm>this</A> serrated edge auger from Danuser when we got some rain. The same packed clay soil that the Leinbach auger would just sit and spin on, went in slick as can be after some rain softened the soil. To be fair to the auger, we had a drought in our area, so the soil conditions were not typical. Of course, with clay, too much rain and the soil was too soft to set the posts. /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

If you have packed clay soil, and it's not the result of unusual weather conditions as mine was, do yourself a favor and get a good auger designed to dig in your soil conditions. If you have a lot of holes to dig, get a heavy duty digger, i.e., not from TSC or the low end Leinbach models. They will be nothing but frustration and in the end, after buying additional augers, additional cutting edges, you will have spent the same amount of money anyway as if you had purchased the heavy duty model in the beginning.

 

[lblair]

Talk to Ken Sweet. Thats where i got mine. 9" auger it will drill 48" deep. 52" depending on how the tractor is positioned to the hole on a little incline. It will burrie the gear box in the hole if ya let it./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I forget what i paid i think it was 550. It works great and ken is great to work with. Sweet Tractors is very smart...oh and sweet to deal with. They ship right to your door. shrink wraped right on a skid...hey you even get a free skid/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif Look for ken on the attachment area of this site. Larry

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Larry,

Would you mind sharing what brand you bought from Sweet?

 

[pcmem]

I would venture a guess of Greenline, but Larry can confirm it for you.

Our luck with Sweet Tractor wasn't as good but that is another story.

Good luck,
Michael

 

[HammerFour]

I am using the TSC auger on my 17hp Kubota and haven't had any problems with it at all.

The soil here is mostly clay ( I do live in Clay county, Missouri after all ) and we haven't had much rain this year at all.

-Tim

 

[johnsonauto]

Befco post hole digger, std duty, which is heavier than most cheap brands heavy duty, your looking around $900. I have a customer running it one on a mitsubishi 16hp in clay/rocky soil and goes right through with no problems.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Michael,

Please tell your story. I need the pro's AND the con's here. Thanks! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[MikePA]

<font color=blue>I have a customer running it one on a mitsubishi 16hp in clay/rocky soil and goes right through with no problems</font color=blue>
No offense intended, but IMHO, it's not the digger or the tractor that makes this possible, it's the auger.

Perhaps a valid analogy is to compare the tractor, digger, auger combination to the electricity, drill and drill bit combination. In both cases, you need all three to drill a hole, but the most important piece in producing a hole is the drill bit/auger.

 

[lblair]

You are correct. It is the Greenline. I will say i tore the auger up quickly, but i was drilling some bad rocky areas. The gear box is strong. After i used some AA hard weld on the flights it has held up. I feel the only reason the auger failed on me was due to my abuse. I added some 1/2 steel flat stock to the cutting edge up the auger about 8 inches eliminated the replaceable flights and sharpened the AA hard weld on the end of the metal i added. Ide show it to you in a picture, but the digger is in its predrilled storage hole out next to my barn. I think i would have tore up any auger drilling thru the stuff i did. I will say i was terrible to it for a bit. I hate drilling in my own yard due to the rocks. Lets hear your luck with sweet tractors. Was it a service issue?
Larry

 

[gordon]

Well in a used post hole digger look at the slop in the gear box. Look close at the pto shaft to make sure it's not bent. Look at the u-joints to make sure they are still good. If it has an auger make sure it's not bent as well. What type of auger is it? Can you replace the teeth and center screw? If so is it a cheep quality or a decent auger. They do come in alot of different flavors.

I've got a Danuser F-8 digger with danuser auger bits and I'm very happy with it. Do a search for Danuser and u will see some of the past questions. I bought mine used. Remember you get what you pay for when it comes to tools.

Gordon

 

[johnsonauto]

I'll give you that to a point mike but its still also the whole package too you can take the best drill bit and have the cheapest drill, the drill may break or wear out before the bit depends if your going to drill one hole or 100 holes. So i'll go it is also total package, good quality auger, gear box and asy.

 

[cowboydoc]

Worksaver makes a nice posthole digger for a good price. They have teeth that you can buy to put on the auger to make it dig more aggressively. I've used the heck out of mine before I got the post pounder and never had any problems with it.