PTO Auger vs post pounder

[rockingclawhammer]

I am considering the pounder HD-8 or the ETA 7500. My soil ranges for deep sand to very hard clay. If going with the pounder, I would use 2-3/8" or 2-7/8" pipe. For the Auger I use RR ties or big cedar posts. It will be mainly a 1 man operation. Which would you choose and why? I have many years experience with the PTO augers and none with the pounders.

 

[Birdhunter1]

Where I am in Southern Illinois it is clay soil and some rock. I've used both and you will not drill a hole and set a post near as solid as what you can pound one in with an HD8. With the 2 3/8" or 2 7/8" pipe it will go in with ease and I'm not even sure rock would get in the way. The railroad ties will pound in but I prefer to wait until the ground is really soft in the spring or after alot of heavy rains, you really can't be too muddy for the post driver to not work well. That being said when the ground is hard and dry my post driver struggled with a 4x4 wood square post, with softer ground I drove a 6"x8" post in the ground as well as two 6x6 posts and had the entire corner structure built in maybe 30 minutes.

 

[oosik]

Well - - seeing as my experience is with T-133 fence posts and rail road ties. I'd say you would have to be more of a man today than I was 36 years ago. Thats when I installed the five strand barbed wire fence around my 80 acres here. I used full sized RR ties at some of the strategic points and interspersed along the runs. It was MORE than a PITA getting those RR ties into the holes I dug - but now 36 years later they are still just as solid as the day I installed them.

There are many places along my property line where absolutely NO TYPE of vehicle could access. Ravines and steep hill sides. All my T-133 were pounded in with a manual pounder. Took me a year and a half to get the fence installed. Working by myself, in the evenings after work and on the weekends. With normal maintenance - still stands - rock solid today.

 

[shooterdon]

Post hole augers scare the heck out of me. I would go with the pounder.

 

[oosik]

I've seen a couple VERY serious accidents with very large industrial augers. Where the auger bound up and the big 'ol U-joint broke and went flying. Not a friendly situation. One where a half of the U-joint blew right thru a brand new Cadillac parked about 100 feet away. There was a unique moment of silence on that work site.............

 

[DieselBound]

If you're sure that there are no big rocks and or roots (or other such submerged materials) and there's room to operate then a post-pounder would be the way I'd go. I just fenced in the homestead area, about 2,100 feet of fencing, but ran an auger (skid steer) and hand tamped/set the posts. One would be hard-pressed to haver gotten a better set with pounded posts: I used altering layers of material and the stuff set up like concrete. Had two holes that I really struggled with, one required picking another spot (hit some deep buried cedar trunk [where there were no such trees!]) and the other was a bunch of big rocks in driveway fill (ended up with a huge hole); the later would have proven impossible for a pounder- this was an end post on my main driveway gate in which case it was NOT going to be relocated! The ground I was going in to varied quite dramatically: some fill area with huge rocks; fill area that was mostly sandy; one area where, in the middle of summer I hit water at about 1 1/2' (my layering of materials allowed me to provide for better anchoring, something that just pounding in a post wouldn't have done).

I figured my per hole cost to be about $3, for the rental of the skid steer: about 110 holes in 2 days.
I believe that the rental cost skid steer rental came out to be about $3/hole. That's for about 110 holes at 4' deep.

 

[Birdhunter1]

Fore reference on the driven posts, I put a 6x6 in the ground a shade over 3' deep and I couldn't lift it out with my 55 hp Ford utility tractor on the loader. It will lift just about anything but wouldn't budge that post.

 

[DieselBound]

6x6 presents a LOT of surface area. If it's clayish soil there is a LOT of drag.

Issue/concern is also lateral give (especially for line posts).

 

[MossRoad]

Edited the title and changed cs to vs.

 

[Rustyiron]

I had a pounder, but never driven pipe, depending on your soils I would think that the pounder is the way to go over an auger. What do your neighbors use? A driven post is as tight as it gets.

 

[rockingclawhammer]

Thanks for the input everyone. All my neighbors use augers and RR ties/Cedar or Mesquite posts in combo with T-posts. I have never seen a HD-8 in person but it was recommended by a friend and fence builder on a cattle forum. He is in central Texas which has plenty of rocks and swears by them over the augers. My boys have recently moved out on there own so I cant rely on that free labor anymore and need to stream line to a 1 man show. Sounds like the post driver is the way to go.

 

[DJ54]

I have an HD-8, with full hydraulics, and love it..!! If you get one, make sure you get the one with the hydraulic tilt. You'll tilt it more than a person would realize, mostly fore and aft, especially when you drop the 3 pt. You'll need to tilt the top towards the tractor a bit, every time you drop the 3 pt. I drove close to 400 posts by myself, through an open winter here. Cold, but not enough to freeze more than just a crust. Clay soil was good and damp, but not muddy. It drove the 5" round line posts pretty easy. The 6" corners took a bit longer, but still drove them pretty easy considering.

It is a lot easier to have a helper, if for nothing else to line up posts, and position the tractor. If I drove 25 posts a day, I considered it a good day through the winter, with short daylight hours. But, I was pretty particular having posts in line. Very few times, I was right on the money getting in position. Even with a string strung, always seemed to have to move just a tad. So roughly 70 times a day on & off the tractor is rough on an old guy.

I kept a small torpedo level in my pocket to keep the posts plumb. If it would drift one way or the other, you can use the hydraulic tilt, to bring it back, hitting it a few licks, to straighten it up.

Pipe should drive pretty easy, but myself, I'd probably have to think of putting a wooden headblock in there of some sort, to possibly prevent chunks of pipe breaking off, and flying.

 

[Birdhunter1]

I have an HD-8, with full hydraulics, and love it..!! If you get one, make sure you get the one with the hydraulic tilt. You'll tilt it more than a person would realize, mostly fore and aft, especially when you drop the 3 pt. You'll need to tilt the top towards the tractor a bit, every time you drop the 3 pt. I drove close to 400 posts by myself, through an open winter here. Cold, but not enough to freeze more than just a crust. Clay soil was good and damp, but not muddy. It drove the 5" round line posts pretty easy. The 6" corners took a bit longer, but still drove them pretty easy considering.

It is a lot easier to have a helper, if for nothing else to line up posts, and position the tractor. If I drove 25 posts a day, I considered it a good day through the winter, with short daylight hours. But, I was pretty particular having posts in line. Very few times, I was right on the money getting in position. Even with a string strung, always seemed to have to move just a tad. So roughly 70 times a day on & off the tractor is rough on an old guy.

I kept a small torpedo level in my pocket to keep the posts plumb. If it would drift one way or the other, you can use the hydraulic tilt, to bring it back, hitting it a few licks, to straighten it up.

Pipe should drive pretty easy, but myself, I'd probably have to think of putting a wooden headblock in there of some sort, to possibly prevent chunks of pipe breaking off, and flying.

When driving a T post or a metal pipe in one of these drivers take short strokes to tap it in. It won't take much so you won't have to raise the ram all the way up to drop it hard like you would on a 6' round post.
I will agree on having a helper, I had a job this spring I did that was 146 post from 4"-6" 3' deep into clay. The ground was the perfect moisture for good post driving, one day I had my dad on the tractor and a few other times I had my nephew on it. A few sections I was the lone operator and it gets old getting on and off the tractor to line up the driver and set posts, move to the next one and so on. It also helps to sharpen the post into a wedge if its over 4" but it isn't always needed, on hillsides especially it helps as they like to try to walk themselves on the hill when being driven.

 

[Timm250]

I have an HD-10. I have hit a couple places where there was about a foot of dirt & then real fine sand.

The post wouldn't drive through the sand which surprised me.

The sand packed as hard as concrete & the driver actually split the post and never drove through the sand.

After 2 split posts I got the auger out & dug a hole.

 

[cdaigle430]

For the amount of fencing I do I will stick with the less expensive auger....$3,000 without the base or hydraulic tilt....wow.

 

[Fallon]

Post pounders dont exist here in Colorado. Apparently trying to use them on bigger wooden posts with our hard clay just ends up in piles of splinters. I've had pounded T-posts in & it sucks. Imagine a 6" post wouldnt survive around here. I drilled all my holes & tamped the dirt back in around the posts by hand.