Ryobi is making a 40 volt cordess post hole auger

[Bill Dufour]

I saw a new in the box Ryobi 40 volt cordless auger at habitat today. I doubt you could get too many holes per charge. It might be easier on the back to use a regular post hole digger by hand then to lug that battery back and forth a few times.
Bill D

[Frank Pratt]

I saw a new in the box Ryobi 40 volt cordless auger at habitat today. I doubt you could get too many holes per charge. It might be easier on the back to use a regular post hole digger by hand then to lug that battery back and forth a few times.
Bill D

I suspect you are correct. Ryobi does a lot of things right, but heavy duty and long battery life are not among them. This is one that will be good for planting tulips and that's about it.

[Bill Dufour]

The battery is 2.8 pounds so I think for such a limited tool. manual is easier.
Bill D

[Tom M King]

I know exactly how deep that would get in the red clay subsoil here when the ground is dry.

[Ronald Blue]

I know exactly how deep that would get in the red clay subsoil here when the ground is dry.

That's why they make jack hammers....:D

[Malcolm McLeod]

I know exactly how deep that would get in the red clay subsoil here when the ground is dry.

I'll see your red clay subsoil, and raise you 1 waxy black prairie.

Our prairie has 2 material phases: dry it is Rc89, wet it is bottomless snot.

[Brian Elfert]

It might work in the sand with minimal rocks at my current property. At my previous property I had so many rocks and tree roots I went through three powered augers to make a series of holes. The two man handheld auger got stuck a couple of times. I then got a tow behind auger with a bit more power. That still got stuck. My brother and I spent hours digging to get augers out of the ground. Finally, I rented a Toro Dingo with auger attachment. That finally had enough power to drill the holes.

[Tom M King]

We can build fences in Wintertime. When the ground gets wet late in the Fall, it stays wet until hot weather gets here.

When I was building our horse fence along the edge of the woods, I kept a 4' pipewrench on the tractor to unscrew the auger when it had grabbed a tree root and screwed itself into the ground.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Maybe for ice fishing......maybe....

[Edward Weber]

Every time I see one of these tools, it looks like the dirt in the photo is out of a bag of potting soil.
I have a Ryobi 40v hedge trimmer and string trimmer, which work well but this thing has no place on my property.

[Alex Zeller]

Plenty of youtube videos showing how well it works. If it's nice soft dirt it looks like it works just fine. But there's also videos showing things like small rocks and dirt that requires the operator to keep reversing it out of the hole because it's dug deep enough so the operator can't pull it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr-pakOzpnw&ab_channel=DIYwithCam

[Tom M King]

I guess if one needs to wallow out holes in fill dirt.........

[Frank Pratt]

I've dug enough holes with handheld augers to know a thing or two about what's needed, and that Ryobi is so far from adequate. In this area, below the topsoil we have clay with rock scattered throughout. Not particularly terrible to dig in as long it it isn't bone dry. A 2-person X-handle auger will take about all that 2 people have to drill 8" holes. After a couple dozen holes, you're pretty beat up. I don't know if anyone even offers those for rent anymore. It seems like they are all the type with 2 wheels and a long handle that one person can operate. They are powerful and work very well.

My point is that if the 2 person auger has that much trouble, the Ryobi doesn't have a chance. The dirt in that video was pretty soft and the hole still turned out more like a miniature open pit mine than a fence post hole. And the guy is talking like it's all that the then some. Wonder if the video was sponsored. At any rate, I wouldn't consider him a reliable reviewer.

[Lee DeRaud]

I'm looking at these remarks and thinking that I'm old enough to remember when I said the same things about cordless drills.
Now I don't even remember the last corded drill I owned.

Just sayin'...although I suspect I'll be long dead before things like this (and battery chainsaws) are perfected.

[John K Jordan]

I sometimes use a 12” dia auger on the back of a tractor to drill holes 3’ deep for 6 to 8” dia fence posts, often in hard, rocky clay once past the topsoil. One afternoon I did about a dozen in less than 2 hrs.

I wonder how many 40v battery charges that would take. My first thought was a cordless auger might not be practical when fencing but might be better suited for a flagpole, bird feeder, or backyard gate. Maybe the person who buys one will provide a review.

BTW, IMO the best way by far to put in wooden fence posts, at least with our type of soil, is with a hydraulic post driver on the tractor 3pt hitch. The thing is amazing, very quick (but loud!) and the posts are there to stay, extremely sturdy with no tamping, concrete, etc needed. It does require a hydraulic pressure feed from the tractor, though. I sharpen one end if the soil is dry and hard. I drove nearly 50 6” posts in one day when fencing our front fields. I had a helper position the tractor and level the post driver while I operated the controls.

[Tom M King]

John, did you use square or round posts? Our horse fence has square posts for board fencing, and I was discouraged by a post pounder seller that said they didn't work good for square posts because sometimes one would twist as it went down. I need to replace a run of about 100 posts that are nearing end of life at 42 years old.

I've found it faster to use a two man auger than the tractor auger, but we have to catch it when the ground is right. Mark the hole locations, and the auger comes out of one hole and sits in place for the next. It's multiple times faster than positioning the tractor with auger, although not exactly easier, but a good workout.

[Edward Weber]

I sometimes use a 12” dia auger on the back of a tractor to drill holes 3’ deep for 6 to 8” dia fence posts, often in hard, rocky clay once past the topsoil.

I use a 12" auger for the posts we have, 5" hallow Vinyl, no pounding possible.
Our soil sounds like the opposite of yours. We have 2-4 feet of hard clay on top. Once you eventually grind through the top clay layer of soil the sugar starts to grab and if you're not ready you'll be doing a wheelie. Sometimes it takes a half an hour to get through the fine rock impregnated clay. Not to mention what it does to the teeth.
482548
I really can't see how something like to battery powered tool could cope with the soil conditions some of us have.

[Alan Rutherford]

When I built our chicken coop (nearly 200 square feet, standing headroom for me) a couple of years ago at the age of 80 I dug holes for about a dozen 4x4 posts with a post hole digger - the manual kind - and a heavy iron digging bar. It was not fun. If those had been available then, and especially if I'd already had the stash of 40v Ryovi batteries and chargers I have now, it would have been worth it.

I suspect it's like my Ryobi 40v chainsaw. It's not a great chainsaw but as long as I have a battery and it has oil in it, I pull the trigger and it's ready to go. The convenience and the fact that it's not one more gas engine to maintain make up for a lot. You don't always need the toughest tool on the block.

[Edward Weber]

I suspect it's like my Ryobi 40v chainsaw. It's not a great chainsaw but as long as I have a battery and it has oil in it, I pull the trigger and it's ready to go. The convenience and the fact that it's not one more gas engine to maintain make up for a lot. You don't always need the toughest tool on the block.

I absolutely agree about the ease and convenience aspect, I like my 40v trimmers. I think however this particular tool may have crossed that line.
When a tool of any kind is under powered for the job at hand, the convenience factor immediately disappears.

Motor Torque 1.9 ft. lbs. would not even scratch the surface where I live.
https://www.ryobitools.com/products/details/46396035431#specifications

I know it works for some, I'm just not one of them. Everything (new) out here in CA will be electric soon enough (AB 1346) so hopefully they up the power before I need to get one

[Ronald Blue]

I suspect it's like my Ryobi 40v chainsaw. It's not a great chainsaw but as long as I have a battery and it has oil in it, I pull the trigger and it's ready to go. The convenience and the fact that it's not one more gas engine to maintain make up for a lot. You don't always need the toughest tool on the block.[/QUOTE]

I have no idea whether this posthole digger is any good or not and it's doubtful I will ever own one to find out. I have a tractor mounted one and that is better anyway. I do have the 40 volt chain saw and it's pretty useful. As you say you throw a battery on it and go. I barely need a chain saw once a year anymore. Keeping a gas running wouldn't be worth it. It's also quiet. No hearing protection needed. You basically have the whir of the chain and a little motor noise. A Stihl might and probably is better but it's more money too.

[Adam Herman]

we have a 2 or 3 in auger we put on a drill for the garden and planting bulbs and a 9 and 12 in for the pto driven on the 50 hp tractor. it would seem the are going for the first market, not the second. our soil here is such that even the tractor has trouble with a 9 in hole and me hanging off the back for down pressure.

[Alan Rutherford]

...Motor Torque 1.9 ft. lbs. would not even scratch the surface where I live.
https://www.ryobitools.com/products/details/46396035431#specifications....

1.9 ft. lbs. would be the equivalent of a 1.9 pound pull on a handle 1 foot long. Sounds pretty underwhelming. You might do better putting a T-handle on an auger bit. But your link also claims "30% more torque...compared to average gas augers." Something's not right there.

My 40v Ryobi chainsaw seems to be about 2/3 as gutsy as my gas-engined Stihl MS180C, which is a lightweight as chainsaws go. Since the auger uses the same battery the motor is perhaps not much different from the one in the chainsaw, although geared way down. Whether it's actually good for anything - I dunno. Maybe.

[Lee DeRaud]

1.9 ft. lbs. would be the equivalent of a 1.9 pound pull on a handle 1 foot long. Sounds pretty underwhelming. You might do better putting a T-handle on an auger bit. But your link also claims "30% more torque...compared to average gas augers." Something's not right there.

My 40v Ryobi chainsaw seems to be about 2/3 as gutsy as my gas-engined Stihl MS180C, which is a lightweight as chainsaws go. Since the auger uses the same battery the motor is perhaps not much different from the one in the chainsaw, although geared way down. Whether it's actually good for anything - I dunno. Maybe.
Key words are "motor torque". That's not the way I'd want to advertise it, but it's almost certainly geared down to some stupidly slow speed. And since it's electric, max torque is at 0 RPM. (As a reference, their 1/2" 18V impact wrench is rated at 450ftlb.)

My main concern would be how well those gears would hold up against the usual impacts of rocks/roots etc...thankfully not something I need to worry about.

[Alex Zeller]

I think it's biggest advantage is being able to go in reverse. But if you have to keep backing up you're not really drilling holes.

[John K Jordan]

…. our soil here is such that even the tractor has trouble with a 9 in hole and me hanging off the back for down pressure.

Yikes, I’ve read reports of people getting mangled when slipping off the auger while acting as weights. The lack of down pressure on 3-pt hitches is a significant limitation at times.

When I get rich I want to an auger attachment for the front of the skid steer. Hydraulically powered, i think some have reverse. Having complete control of down pressure would be a huge advantage in some situations. The visibility would be good too. I’ve seen auger attachments for excavators too. They might be perfect when putting in posts on steep slopes and other places inaccessible to the tractor.

JKJ