Digging holes with a logging winch.

[Joe Hillmann]

I need to dig a bunch of 6 foot deep post holes.  I can dig down to 4 feet fairly easy with normal hand tools: shovel, digging bar and post hole digger.

The last two feet is very hard to get the dirt out.

So I came up with this.


 

I am using a shaft sticking out of my winch as a capstan to lift then drop the pipe into the hole.  The dirt gets stuck in the pipe.

After a few drops I pull it out of the hole and pound out the dirt stuck in the pipe.

It is slow going but it works.

It would go faster if I had a narrower and much heavier pipe.  And if we weren't in the middle of a drought with rock hard soil.

I tried adding water to a half finished hole to soak overnight.  On the first drop the pipe sunk in 10 inches and got stuck because of suction.  I broke my rope trying to pull it out.

[beenthere]

Quite the "invention" there. Hope you get a video of it working and getting the job done. 

Growing up using a manually operated post hole auger, and seeing a neighbor auger in a 40' well hole with one, it would be my recommendation.