Good power auger?

Im looking for input on a good power auger. Right now Im leaning toward an icegator or nills power auger. They are about the same price and both have great reviews. Im just a little nervous about the electric route (ice gator) it says it will drill 60 holes through 20+ inches on one charge, but I like the confidence of a full gas tank, then you have to worry about starting issues etc. The new stikelite 4 stroke doesnt sound bad either or jiffy is coming out with a propane powered drill any word on that yet? Thanks.

I really like my Strikelite. I have the plastic bit one, and wish I could get the steel one. But as the auger itself, it’s wonderful. NO gas mixing. Easy start up and what i love most of all is I don’t have to measure out my holes for the house. I can setup the house and drill in it and not die. Usually this isn’t a problem, but last year in SE MN, where the lakes had a layer of slush before the hard ice, it was.
Only issue I found was drilling in slush. I don’t know much about small engines so i’m not too technical here. But it loses power and have a hard time rotating with weight on the bit.
From my experience it takes some drilling before it really runs smoothly…could be the driller too lol. Anyways, after about 100 holes, my strikelite and me “just clicked”.
I have a friend who used the Nils, and i gota say I wasn’t impressed. He kept having issues with his blades and what not.
As for the gator, it is nice and fast if you have a good bit attached. Really powerful electric auger. I still prefer the amount of holes I can get on my full take of gas on the strikelite. When i reached my 100 hole mark, i used only half a gallon.

This post will most likely be more like a chevy ford dodge debate. The best thing for you as an ice fisherman is to determine your style of ice fishing, then you can most likely find an auger that will best fit those needs.

Example, if you fish mainly in an area that has less than 18″ of ice then a strike lite or electric auger will fit your needs. If you make trips further north where ice gets much thicker I would recommend an auger with at least 2.5 or even 3 hp to make drilling much easier. I persoanlly would lean towards a drill that I can exchange the blades (strikemaster) vs replace the entire bit (nils). I have not heard anything about the propane jiffy????

Bottom line is any auger is better than drilling by hand, find one that fits your style and most important your pocket book. You should start to see a bunch of quality used augers starting to show up soon.

I love my lasermag, but last year after I bought an electric craftsman hammer drill setup, the lasermag didn’t even get gas put in it. I had 3 19.2 volt batteries and never once ran completely out of hole drilling and the ice was thick around here last year. Depends on your style of fishing.

Heres a link to the jiffy. I fish lake pepin, and the backwaters of the miss from wabasha to below alma. the ice gets well over 18″ along here. weight is something else to be considered as some locations are a hike to get to.
http://redrockstore.com/Catalog/index.php?crn=111&rn=3278&action=show_detail

If weight is an issue an your packing/hiking into fish backwaters then a strike lite with a metal drill is best. Reason is weight, very light, no mixing of gas, very quiet and very fuel efficient as well. I would imagine most of the time ice will vary on the river so you shouldn’t run into super thick ice for an extended per
That Jiffy looks interesting I wouldn’t want to be carrying around any extra 1lb tanks or lug the 20lber around from hole to hole. My opinion…

The Jiffy Pro4 is going to be one of the top augers this season. There is no more worry about the smell of gas on your hands or the smell of exhaust in your house anymore. The Pro4 is a quiet running 4 stroke engine that has alot of torque with it. I had a chance to run one last winter and was surprised how quiet the engine was. Starting also was simple. No more worry about your auger not starting. There has been alot of testing also on this unit and even in the cold temps, it ran great!!

About how many holes can be drilled with a 1 lb tank in 18-20+” of ice.?

Curiosity got the best of me here.
The energy density by volume of conventional gasoline is 34.8 MJ/L, which is equal to 133.8 MJ/gallon.
The energy density by mass of LPG is 46 MJ/kg, which is equal to 20.9 MJ/lb

I heard the new jiffy’s engine hp is 1.28
My solo is 2hp

20.9 MJ is equal to 7.8 hp*hr
133.8 MJ is equal to 9.9 hp*hr

Time is difficult to compare since the engine efficiencies are very different.

We can try to equate energies though.

It would take 6.4 lbs of propane to get the same energy in one gallon of gasoline.

If you made me guess based on the info above, the new jiffy should get about half the amount of holes drilled after considering engine efficiencies comparing 2 hp motors.

Pretty cool concept though.

Carburetion of propane is tricky though. Ask any Schwanz Man!

Damn Matt, That college education comes in handy sometimes – eh?

-J.

Quote:

---

About how many holes can be drilled with a 1 lb tank in 18-20+” of ice.?

---

A 1 lb tank of propane has been tested to equal about 2/3 of a tank of gas. There are too many variables to say that it will cut x amount of holes.

Quote:

---

I heard the new jiffy’s engine hp is 1.28

---

Not sure where you heard this but this is not true. The actual engine is a 52 cc engine which is bigger than what you were told. Actually closer to a 2.5 hp

Engine displacement never directly proportional to horsepower. It gets fairly close but very different, especially when comparing different fuel types.
A guy can never believe what he hears on the net. I just heard some rumblings that it was putting out 1.28 HP.
I’d love to hear the true engine specs.

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

About how many holes can be drilled with a 1 lb tank in 18-20+” of ice.?

---

A 1 lb tank of propane has been tested to equal about 2/3 of a tank of gas. There are too many variables to say that it will cut x amount of holes.

---

Was that from a jiffy size tank of gas?

Yes. The 1 lb propane cylinders will run about equal to the run time of 2/3 of what a tank of gas would run. Hope this helps.