electric augers

[tdk]

I was wondering if anybody out there has had any experience with electric augers, good or bad. Last weekend I used my gas and drilled 6 holes for our shack. The other two guys fishing with me out fished me a good two to one. We weren't 8' apart. One of them was my dad and I tied his jigs on(he's 72, not really good eyes) out of my tackle box. I used the same jigs. I could smell gas on me all day and that's got to make a difference. so I i'm thinking that maybe a electric is the way to go. I have a four wheeler(atv) so I wouldn't need a big battery all the time. Need some info on how well they work and how many holes you could drill with say a battery the size of one in a atv. Thanks!

[Chad711]

I have an electric, just bought it from Fleet.. Slow, but works.. I also have a Quad, but I carry a seperate battery... You can pop about 50 holes easy...... Then recharge it.....

[Terry Hagstrom]

I have been running a Jiffy electric and it's nearly as fast as the 2 hp lighting gas model. The electric has the same 12:1 gear ratio as the gas models. If you really want to cut fast make sure you get the stealth bit. You don't even need to lean on it.

Terry Hagstrom
Terry's Guide Service
www.fishingmn.com/terry

[riverboy]

I have seen a guy with 12 volt cordless drills attached to the auger. I guess they work pretty good. He claims to be able to get at least 20 holes on a single battery, of ice about 10" thick. I would think that severe cold would affect the battery life. It was a neat idea anyways. I probably can dig up a pic if anyone is interrested

[Big Dave2]

Terry,
I would be interested in hearing more about the stealth blade. Is that the new jiffy blade?
I have an old electric that I would like to use more cuz my 3hp jiffy is just too darn heavy and loud. The blade system that was on my old electric was basically the same as a hand auger would use and I found that even with brand new sharp blades it would build up with ice half way through a hole and I would have to stop and clean it out. Cut myself pretty good one time on it.
Last year I bought a used 8" lower auger unit for a jiffy and tried that on the electric but it did not seem to cut very good.
Is this stealth blade you speak of something I could put on my auger and try it?
Thanx, Dave

[Steve Foss]

Your hands shouldn't have to smell like gas just because you're using a gas auger. Some guys use those disposable surgical gloves when gassing up/running their augers. I just use the same pair of leather chopper mittens with liners all the time when doing that. By a lot of accounts, that gas smell puts fish off, but my hands don't smell like gas when I use the mittens.

I would not consider an electric, simply because you either have to run if off your vehicle battery or a second battery you haul along, and I do so much fishing on foot that it's not practical.