Got an e-mail from a viewer who is having trouble with his post hole digger, or post auger as they're sometimes called. He's trying to dig corner post holes and the auger goes down about 2 feet and then spins and won't go any further. He lives in the Missouri Ozarks not far from me, so there are a lot of rocks there. But, he's had previous success with the PHD, and was wondering why it wouldn't be working now.

I know of only three possibilities. The first is easy. Most tractors have an adjustible "stop" on their three point lever. It's there so when you find the perfect height for running your brush hog, you set it, and then your lever won't go below that point. So you can lift your cutter when you want to turn or go down the road, when you drop it, it's going back to the same place it was. If I have mine all the way forward to the lowest point, I still must move it past the stop to get the three point to go to the lowest possible location. Either that, or an issue between where the position and draft control levers are set (not all tractors have draft control), could mean the tractor's three point won't go all the way down.

If the auger is not the culprit, the next thing to check is a dull auger tip. a post hole auger will have a replaceable (hopefully) tip on the end of it. When those get dull, it's really hard to get an auger to go into the ground. I don't think my viewer's issue is a dull point, because he wouldn't get the first two feet if that were the issue.

The most likely issue is a clay pan or "fragipan" below the surface of the soil. Those are a packed layer of almost pure clay, bonded together and they're fairly common in the Ozarks. Most of the time, water won't go through them. If that's the issue, I don't have a good solution. Trading for a three point post hole digger with hydraulic down pressure might help, or for a front mount, hydraulically-driven auger would benefit. Either option puts down pressure on the digger, versus just the weight pushing down on a standard model. He could probably upgrade augers and maybe find something that worked better, or he could just call a fence company and tell them to come and dig out his corner posts. That might be cheaper in the long run than investing in expensive equipment. Most any fence company knows a way to dig out a hole, even if it's solid rock.

Those are the only solutions I know, short of moving to an area with more topsoil. If you have additional solutions, please put them in the comments down below.

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