This is one of those ideas that on paper is trash, and in reality is not any better. I knew that going into it, but desperation, lack of mental acuity, and curiosity about things that will potentially get you killed in interesting ways, lead to me proceeding with the design (that's stretching that word) and manufacturing of this thing that rhymes with smismortion.
I have an actual 3-point PTO post hole auger, but the B7100 just can't quite do it due to the limitations of the ability for the 3-point to lift at such a length. I also have a hand auger, which is a 63cc piece of Chicom garbage attached to a screwy death thing, and the problem with it is that it tries to violently remove your arms when you hit anything hard, and you often get it stuck so you can't pull it back out of the hole.
Solution, mount hand auger on tractor bucket. Simple? Yes, so simple that if it was really a good idea you'd just be able to buy this commercially, but for some reason it's not available. Hmm.
First, I needed some way to interface a mount. I also use my tractor to move my utility trailers around quite often, and I just have a hitch that I bolt to the bucket, it's not great as it's only a single bolt and all that. So I built a proper receiver that would bolt to the bucket. It's just a PA weld on receiver (which oddly comes painted), with some angle iron welded to the sides. The bucket already had the 4 hole pattern torch cut in it, so there was no modifications required to the tractor.
I also welded a grab hook onto it for safety chains. I meant to weld a loop on too, but in my excitement to build the auger attachment I forgot.
So on to the auger. Some sort of a gimbal is required so the auger will always hang straight up and down. For this I looked in the scrap pile, and I found an old driveshaft from a Jeep TJ. There's a reason I save everything, it's so I can do stupid things later.
In my excitement I stopped taking pictures, but this is just some scrap 2" HSS and Sch 40 pipe. I did have to weld some mounts onto the auger itself, which turned out to be a total PITA because the tubing for the auger is paper thin.
For a throttle I used an Amazon special bike brake lever, and a cable from some sort of ATV or SxS that I modded to fit the brake lever. It mounts to the loader using more scrap pipe, and a hose clamp. There's a few zipties to hold the cable along the loader frame. It just pulls the throttle lever on the auger, so you can still use the throttle lever as normal when starting the auger.
I have an actual 3-point PTO post hole auger, but the B7100 just can't quite do it due to the limitations of the ability for the 3-point to lift at such a length. I also have a hand auger, which is a 63cc piece of Chicom garbage attached to a screwy death thing, and the problem with it is that it tries to violently remove your arms when you hit anything hard, and you often get it stuck so you can't pull it back out of the hole.
Solution, mount hand auger on tractor bucket. Simple? Yes, so simple that if it was really a good idea you'd just be able to buy this commercially, but for some reason it's not available. Hmm.
First, I needed some way to interface a mount. I also use my tractor to move my utility trailers around quite often, and I just have a hitch that I bolt to the bucket, it's not great as it's only a single bolt and all that. So I built a proper receiver that would bolt to the bucket. It's just a PA weld on receiver (which oddly comes painted), with some angle iron welded to the sides. The bucket already had the 4 hole pattern torch cut in it, so there was no modifications required to the tractor.
I also welded a grab hook onto it for safety chains. I meant to weld a loop on too, but in my excitement to build the auger attachment I forgot.
So on to the auger. Some sort of a gimbal is required so the auger will always hang straight up and down. For this I looked in the scrap pile, and I found an old driveshaft from a Jeep TJ. There's a reason I save everything, it's so I can do stupid things later.
In my excitement I stopped taking pictures, but this is just some scrap 2" HSS and Sch 40 pipe. I did have to weld some mounts onto the auger itself, which turned out to be a total PITA because the tubing for the auger is paper thin.
For a throttle I used an Amazon special bike brake lever, and a cable from some sort of ATV or SxS that I modded to fit the brake lever. It mounts to the loader using more scrap pipe, and a hose clamp. There's a few zipties to hold the cable along the loader frame. It just pulls the throttle lever on the auger, so you can still use the throttle lever as normal when starting the auger.
