I need some advice from the TBN/CBN Community. I am building a pole barn, and I had planned to have a post-raising "party" on Saturday. Of course, that means that I need to get the holes dug before that. Tonight I went out to see how the 15" auger would work, and I dug 2 corners. Each one only penetrated about 2.5 feet. I need to get down 4 feet, so that the poles are below the 42" frost line. The thing is, I filled a pretty sloped area with what we call 4" minus (essentially 4" crushed rock with everything smaller, including fines, in the mix). The test holes were the low side corners, so they had a lot of this stuff. There is definitely more than 2.5 feet of it. I figured the auger would just dig right through, but it stopped short, and I'm not sure why. Perhaps that far down its not getting any bite on the 4" rocks. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get the PHD to dig deeper, or am I out of luck and need a PHD with downforce (i.e hire a man with a bobcat)? Everything I've read about PHDs says not to get off the tractor to apply downforce - very dangerous. What to do? I know you guys will help me figure out a way to do it myself with the trusty 2710 'bota if its possible. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I also posted this on TBN, under projects.
Paul, you do want to be very careful about getting close to a PHD while it's running, but applying additional downforce was necessary in my area. I've seen some PHDs that had an extra pipe welded onto the boom with another rod or pole that could be inserted into it so it would stick out behind the PHD for leverage to apply downforce. A neighbor had a PHD to which he welded such a pipe then put a slightly smaller 4' pipe into it and hung two 75# sash weights on the end of that. Not the neatest looking arrangement in the world, but it made the PHD go all the way down and until we did that, we couldn't get it 6" deep in the hard dry clay we were working in.
Ditto Bird. You should have a pipe on the side that you can have someone use downforce. It's tough digging holes this time of year. Ground is dry and hard.
If that doesn't work I would rent a skidsteer with an auger attachment. You can go through about anything with one of these as you have the full loader downforce.
Well it takes guts, I'll give you that. Usually when I screw up I'm too embarassed to admit it. Like the time I posted about a mysterious short I had, causing a blinking light problem that wouldn't go away even with light switch off. I had to pull fuse. After posting here and much troubleshooting, I realized my 5-year old had flipped on my turn signal. My only excuse is that I never use signal (in tractor in pasture anyway) and never thought to check it. But this is off topic...
I figure if I don't admit it, I'll never get the advice from this group that will help me learn form my mistakes. At this point, I guess the PHD never did go the distance, and the backhoe had to step in and finish the job. I'v posted some photos on the TBN thread I started by this same name under projects.
I am going to continue to document the saga of my pole barn construction. Since I am a long time TBN'er, I thought I would do it over there. Kinda like going with the airline that you have most frequent flier miles on so that you reach the next level. Whats after platinum, muhammed?
Maybe it really belongs here under Barns/Buildings, but I'm not sure this site gets as much traffic as TBN. What do you all think? Lets vote, and we'll put it where the consensus indicates.
I agree that CBN doesn't get as much traffic. And it's too bad because there's a lot of good topics here. I find it a little annoying that some will post the same post to both forums. But I also know that when you need help you do what you have to... I've considered that maybe it would be better if both sites were combined into one big one. That would increase the traffic on forums over here, and eliminate the need for double posting (and double reading). If only the world was perfect...
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