Non- 3 point post hole diggers

[BeeHugger]

I have searched and really can't find any info about antique post hole diggers/augers.
Everything appears to only be related to 3 point, did they exist for our old tractors?
If they exist, are they ever for sale?
I find it hard to believe that all those old fence posts were dug by hand but I can't find anything related to old machinery that was used on the farm to punch the holes.
I would love to find one for my Farmall!

 

[Matt from Oz]

Hi BeeHugger

Have seen proline post hole diggers which have a wheel that is wound to lower the drive mechanism and auger. Seen this mounted on the back of an oliver 880 and also believe they had front mount belt driven ones. I am in Australia and don't believe these would be an Aust only machine?
might be worth a search.

Cheers

Matt

 

[Tx Jim]

Continental-Belton made a frame mounted post hole digger that raised gearbox/auger with a cable with a clutch mounted on gearbox input shaft. That company changed their name to Belltec.

 

[markct]

There wasn't a lot of mechanization of
post hole drilling early on, getting a
flexible drive to it was pretty
complex and labor was pretty cheap.
Till the three point came along it
wasn't easy to setup. And actually
even the utility companies did holes
for posts by hand well into the 50s in
some places, even later in difficult
terrain. Gotta remember back then
labor was cheap and plentiful, and
equipment like gearboxes and
hydraulics were very costly.

 

[showcrop]

Google "McCormick one point hitch post hole digger"

 

[Leroy]

In USA never heard of them. There were some drawbar mounted acording to sales lit but have never seen one. Way to hard to mount and take off, could drill the holes by hand before you could get the digger mounted. Have seen a couple of front mount and they ran off of the belt pully like on a F12 Farmall and I don't think they were ever taken off of tractor once mounted, that tractor stayed decitated to the post hole job. By the ime the diggers started being avaible they were used mostly just for corner-end posts with steel in between.

 

[Hayfarmer]

I have an old digger that my uncle had. He and a neighbor used it on an old JD B I think. It mounted ridgid to tractor drawbar and I think axle housing. Auger was raised and lowered with a hand crank and cable. I think it worked but probably a 2 man operation. I am not sure of brand but I still have it

 

[Gary Mitchell]

An old friend of our's dad from Pleasanton, Ks. invented this many years ago. It was initially for Farmalls but was adaptable. gm
Grosshart Post Hole Digger

 

[PJH]

Many years ago a friend gave me a post hole digger that he said was used on a Farmall. It still had some red paint on it. It was quite a contraption with cables and pulleys which appeared to be a lifting mechanism of some sort. I did not see it mounted on the tractor, but it would not have been an easy on/off operation. I want to think that it was mounted on the front of the tractor, but maybe I imagined that. I salvaged the gearbox and auger and made a three point framework for it. The gearbox was square, with no cover plate on the back side. I guess it was meant to be hand swabbed with grease. I made a cover for it, but with no seals it still needed grease for lubrication. I used it for years then got a newer one and gave the "homemade" one to another friend.

 

[Bruce from Can.]

While I have seen one or two archaic post hole
diggers that could be mounted on old tractors like a
IH W4 , I know they were rare, and every farm was
well fenced. Labour was cheap, and digging a post
hole isn?t a very tough job once you know how. A
nice long bar is a true asset, and almost as
important as a shovel when digging post holes.

 

[jCarroll]

This was about 1954....... August, dry
Dad wanted about 20 rod of wire fence put in with wood posts.
On about the third hole, he said "How much was that post hole digger in Lima?"
That night I was mounting in on our Super C. Rigid onto tractor frame.
Two man job - one guy to run the tractor and PTO, the other to use the cable winch to raise and lower the auger.
We dug a lot of post holes - even did some custom work.

 

[300guy]

I have a 2 point post hole digger I bought on a sale a couple of years ago. It works great!! The down pressure on it isn't needed because it has a screw point and the cutters have been hard surfaced and are very sharp. I went to pull off some dirt and the edge cut my 3 fingers like a knife. This thing cut right through roots, including a couple of 3 inch ones.

 

[300guy]

Here are a couple of pictures

 

[JD Seller]

There where several companies that made frame mounted post hole diggers. I have not seen any for sale in decades.

Here is a JD mounted digger.

 

[Tx Jim]

(quoted from post at 00:42:38 08/31/19) There where several companies that made frame mounted post hole diggers. I have not seen any for sale in decades.Here is a JD mounted digger. >

JD Seller
PH digger in your photo sure resembles a Continental-Belton & C-B digger was painted a green color when new. Can you furnish a JD model # because I don't locate a JD parts catalog for PH digger that resembles that PH digger? JD model #3 is the earliest JD PH digger I remember & it was a 3 pt model & was built '70-'73.

 

[DoubleR]

In the fifties my dad had a guy build a big corn crib for us out of tall telephone poles. It was a corn crib on each side with a
roof over it and equipment storage between the two cribs. He had a Farmall M with a post hole digger bolted on the back, no 3 pt.
I don't remember the brand of the digger, just it being bolted to the back of the tractor. The current owner enclosed the outside
of it now and the building still looks pretty good.

 

[centash]

FIL has one like that, but I never saw it being used.

Ben

 

[Case Nutty 1660]

Unless Deere bought them from Continental that is 100% not a JD built unit even if it has JD stickers on it,, I have used them for over 50 years here, never seen a Deere stickered one but anything is possible

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

Ha! Lots of holes were dug by hand when humanity was a little less l-a-z-y.... LAZY! Lololol! Now, as to your question, I've seen several post hole
augers that mounted to the axles of a letter series Farmall & they were Danuser. There was one on Tractorhouse this past spring. There were a few
front mounted ones for the F-series & plain ol' Farmall that ran off of the belt. I have pictures, but can't access them. Seems photobucket turned
into a bunch of commie extortionists in the past few years & I have to pay to get into my own account. Auger them!!

Mike

 

[SDMike]

Here is my MIL's F20 with a front mounted PH digger.
Mike