1/19/2018 6:01 AM
I hope the one I am using now will make it through 2018. I also have a back-up now from parts from the first two. Until we find another option, we will stick with the HiO. Our sub-soil is that bad. Our only other option is going back to the 2 piece shell with mallet (which cuts a rather ugly hole, and wears our quicker). I know the price doesn't work well for budgets, but given the quality of the cut from the HiO vs. the 2pc shell this is where we are at.
If our soil was better I would just use a regular cup cutter. I think I mentioned it in a previous post, but in my 28 years of cutting cups at 6 courses, the sub-soil here is as bad as I have seen. One year I saved the bottom half of the soil from a cup and set it out by our wash pad. It went through a year of rain, heat, ice, snow, freezing, thawing and basically looked the same. I also think the poor soil contributed to the breaking parts of the first two HiO's. It is a fairly violent process, and to drive the cup cutter through the last 3 inches of soil takes some work.
We continue to drill and fill as much as we can, and are changing the profile but for now we will continue to use the HiO.
Billy