Showerthought: I tried a new post hole digger and it almost cost me a whole day

I was doing a job in Cedar Rapids last week and grabbed this new 'Turbo Dig' auger attachment for my skid steer. The ad said it could handle 30 holes an hour in rocky soil. After the first 5 holes, the motor started smoking and the whole gearbox seized up. I had to rent a standard auger to finish the job, which put me 6 hours behind schedule. The lesson is that sometimes the fancy new gear just can't handle real world conditions like the old reliable stuff. Has anyone else had a new tool fail spectacularly on a simple job?

2 comments

2 Comments

webb.val23h ago

Blame the tool all you want but that sounds like a classic case of pushing it too hard from the start. You gotta break in new gear slowly instead of going full throttle right away. My money's on operator error, not the equipment.

theawest22h ago

Totally! I did the exact same thing with my new drill last year. Burned the motor out in a week because I got too excited, whoops.