Ive put in between 150-200 holes with mine and I have been very pleased. I think the biggest variable is the makeup of your ground. My ground is virtually rock-free and very sandy - near a river and probably old river bottom from before the days of the earthen dikes in the area. In other words, about as easy as it gets for a post-hole digger to perform in.
- I have never augered in and had to break out a pipe wrench and breaker bar to get unstuck. That likely has most to do with the ground quality, but also I am careful to dig a little then clear the hole.
- I have used almost exclusively a 9" auger. I bough a 12" which worked well on a couple of holes and I would expect it would work well considering my ground is very workable.
- It is a little clanky, but I think that is just typical of that type of PHD and not truly indicative of the County Line quality. A Land Pride may be built a bit tighter, but for the price, I don't think there's enough of a difference. That being said, I only have used the County Line PHD from TSC.
- I did consider buying a Land Pride PHD, but if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't hesitate to buy the County Line again.
Ground quality is everything. If your ground quality is dicey (e.g. lots of big rocks, clay, gumbo, buried cars, etc.), you might have a different experience than I have had. But, I think that would hold true for just about any PHD in this class. They will never perform the same as a front-mounted, hydraulic, reversible PHD. If you have these types of ground conditions, you will have to go slow and careful, BUT it will beat the hell out of digging them by hand.
My $.02
PS - running mine on a B2650.
Dean
