Tried renting a post hole digger from Home Depot in Nashville and it almost ruined my whole fence job

I figured I'd save some cash on a big job I had last month in Nashville, so I rented one of those one-man auger post hole diggers from Home Depot. Got it home, fired it up, and the thing just would not dig straight in that rocky clay soil we got here. I fought with it for like 2 hours on the first hole and it still came out crooked and shallow. Ended up having to call my buddy who owns a bobcat with a hydraulic auger to come bail me out. He had all 12 holes done in under an hour and the difference was night and day. The rental cost me $75 for the day plus the wasted time, and I learned that for anything deeper than 18 inches in this ground, you gotta bring the heavy stuff. Anyone else had luck with those smaller augers or am I just cursed with bad soil?

2 comments

2 Comments

derekgibson21d ago

Man are you telling me, I had the exact same nightmare with one of those things in Williamson County last spring. That rocky clay is no joke, it just bounced off the rocks and wouldn't bite at all no matter how much I leaned on it. I ended up with a hole that looked like a zigzag and a back that was sore for three days, never again.

pat_perry21d ago

Wait, you actually paid $75 for that thing? And it still left you with a crooked hole? Man that's brutal, I would've been so mad.