[Oscar Leroy]

I have a PHD100 as well, I use it frequently with a 12 inch auger. I have used it with a 9 inch auger as well, but in my soil, the 12 inch one works so much better. It seemed like the 9 inch one was prone to breaking shear bolts in my hard soil.

How well it works really depends on your soil. We have lots of clay, and sometimes it doesn't want to dig down it just sits there spinning on top of the soil. I rarely have the problem of it digging faster than I can control. I am mostly in the "dig at idle" camp. I do vary the throttle settings as I dig, though , sometimes faster does seem to work better.

Just a couple of suggestions. Keep plenty of shear bolts on hand. Clear the hole out as you go by lifting the auger slightly every now and then. And keep the cutting edges and tip clear of roots, vegetation, etc.

When it works as it should, it's really nice to dig a 3 foot deep hole in less than a minute.

 

[Oscar Leroy]

Is the 3 point PHD for the category 1 3ph on the 1 series a specific unit due to the limited lift height?

Am I correct that just any 3ph post hole auger won't work on the 1 series due to the lift height?

What about the angle of the PTO driveshaft? It would seem to be rather extreme at the auger digging starting position or when lifted out of the ground due to the length of the 3ph arms, is this correct?

Also, for those who have purchased a PHD for the 1 series machines, what is the cost for the unit with the PTO shaft and roughly how much are the augers each?

Is there a "common sized auger" based upon this machines HP, lift height, etc?

The holes I need to dig are going to be 9" to 12" in diameter and 30" to 36" deep as I need to use the cardboard cement tube to form a pole base with a curb which sticks up at least 9" to keep the lawn mower and grass trimmer cowboys and cow girls from damaging the bases of these posts as they are quite $$$......($600+ per post with all the die cast base covers, architectural detail, brackets, finials, etc.)..

Thanks for the details, since this is on the topic of 3ph post hole diggers, I hope the OP doesn't mind me adding some of my questions to their thread................thanks to all who reply.

SB, while the PHD100 is specifically made for the 1 series' limited cat 1 3ph, there are plenty of people using regular cat 1 PHD's, for example the County Line brand PHD from Tractor Supply. The PHD100 is considerably more expensive than the ones from TSC, as are the augers. I bought mine the same time I got my 1025r and just rolled it into the 0% financing. I don't remember how much I paid, but the County Line ones at my TSC seems to be about $550 without auger. The auger price depends on size, but at my TSC, it looks like a 6" is $140ish while a 12" is $180ish.

The Frontier augers are shorter than than ones from TS by about 6 inches, I think, but from what I hear, I believe people are using the TS augers successfully. The ones specifically for the PHD100 are 36 inches long, the TSC ones were 42 inches if I"m not mistaken. They do seem to be interchangeable in shaft size and bolt pattern, but that's just hearsay. I have very uneven ground and frequently end up dragging my auger on the ground every now and then, even though it is shorter than the TSC ones. The auger sizes from Frontier for the PHD100 are 6", 9" and 12". I don't believe they make them any bigger for the PHD100s. I'm not sure what sizes are available from other vendors or what the maximum reasonable size would be. I suspect 12" is about as big as I would try, but...


:focus: :mocking:

 

[Oscar Leroy]

But remember, that shear pin is for the protecting against excessive force applied to the PTO drivetrain. That has no impact on the forces being applied to the lifting arms or top link. If the auger is happily screwing itself into the ground around a rock, there won't be any excessive forces applied to the PTO drivetrain until it actually bottoms out getting stuck. So the whole time it is screwing itself in, it's prying down on the arm, applying a lifting force to the top link. Something will break, and it probably won't be a shear bolt.

Like you, I have broken the top link pin (t shaped pin) putting on my PHD. I would hate to think what could happen if it gives out at the maximum flexure of the boom while the auger is still digging into the ground. It's right below the seat, can't imagine anything good coming from that situation.