Best hydraulic miniature pole driver [2023]

At Skid Steers Direct, you’ll find some of America’s most popular and trusted brands of skid steer drivers, including Blue Diamond and Haugen Post Drivers. These drivers are well-loved by contractors, farmers and rental companies for their high quality construction and ease of use.

Today we are going to take a look at several different hydraulic controllers. Haugen line of accessories includes “Dakota” miniature pole drivers as well as Blue Diamond’s vibrating hydraulic pole driver.

You may not have heard of the Dakota Driver, but it is an essential accessory for many fencing and rental businesses. Although there is little online marketing, it continues to sell in huge numbers every year.

The Dakota Driver is manufactured by Haugen Industries in North Dakota, and each driver is built on a miniature universal stand with a ¾” thick frame. A great feature of the Dakota driver is the domed head that helps keep the clubs centered without having to buy adapters of different sizes.

This is a high quality pole driver and includes a pole puller chain, depth and plumb gauges as well as all the hoses and fittings you will need.

The PD-1450 from Haugen Attachments is the smallest in their line of miniature pole drivers. But considering it can still drive 4.5″ sticks at 400-700 strokes per minute, this is still a very powerful pusher.

The PD-1450 comes standard with a manual tilt feature, an option not commonly seen on other brands of post controllers. The tilt option is manually controlled with a pin on the outside of the stick controller and requires an external helper. This is a great option to help keep fence posts straight when working in hilly areas.

The PD-1450 can be equipped with a height extension to give your skid steer some extra reach when working with longer fence posts or oil pipes.

The PD-1600 is the next size up in the Dakota Driver line. The PD-1600 drives wood or steel poles up to 7.125 inches in diameter, while delivering 500 to 900 strokes per minute. This attachment averages 877 pound-feet of impact force while weighing only 1150 pounds.

The PD-1600 also offers some optional features that can make this accessory very versatile. This includes the optional hydraulic tilt, planetary auger drives and height extensions. The PD-1600 can be purchased with a 3-point tractor mount or a blank excavator mount.

Additionally, the PD-1600 can be purchased with concrete chisel and dock point tools for breaking rock and concrete when you’re not pounding on the fence.

The most popular “Dakota controller” is the PD-1850. With the PD-1850, you can drive wood or steel poles up to 8.25 inches in diameter, and it can deliver 400 to 800 average strokes per minute. Naturally, the PD-1850 is a heavier fixture at 1325 pounds.

Similar to the PD-1600, the PD-1850 offers optional tilt functions, height extensions, auger drill, concrete chisel tools, as well as excavator mounts and 3-point mounts.

However, since the PD-1850 is a larger pusher, you can purchase a 12″ dome tool or an optional 12″ flat head tool. This is a great option for customers who occasionally need to hammer a larger fence post.

For customers who need to constantly drive larger posts, we suggest upgrading to the PD-2000.

If you’re looking for a hydraulic club driver that can hit 9″ clubs all day, the PD-2000 is right for you. This massive miniature club driver hits with 1400 pounds of force averaging 400-800 strokes per The PD-2000 tips the scales at 1700 lbs.

Naturally, the PD-2000 has all the options of the other Dakota Post controllers, with the optional tilt, height extension, auger bit, 3-point mount, excavator mount, tools concrete and the soft point. The 12-inch domed cup is a popular choice for this post driver because of its ability to easily drive large posts home.

Ready to use

All Dakota Mail Controllers are delivered to customers ready to plug into your mini charger and use immediately. Comes with 1/2″ flat face hydraulic couplers and a universal miniature quick release mount.

Once the mast controller is securely attached to the miniature and your hydraulic system is running, applying pressure to the domed cup activates the mast controller. When the stick driver is lifted and the pressure leaves the domed cup, the stick driver will stop hitting.

Hydraulic flow requirements

All Dakota post controller models are compatible with minicarts with standard flow hydraulics; there is no need for high flow hydraulics.

Tool changes

Changing the post driver tools is easily accomplished with just one large screw. Post mounting tools have a small slot machined into the side that lines up with a large screw to hold the tool in place.

Removing this screw will allow you to remove the current tool from the post driver and switch to another one.

rock peaks

For customers who primarily work on rocky ground, we recommend purchasing a rock tip with your Dakota Driver. Smaller rocks and roots often move out of the way quite easily as you drive the posts, but if you come across a large rock, it may need to be crushed in order to send the fence post at home.

The rock tip is designed to be used quickly and easily in the field, without the need to change tools. It is designed to fit over the end of the domed head tool and once pressure is applied to the spike, the hydraulic system is activated and they begin to hammer the rock below.

Nitrogen refills

As with most post drivers, the Dakota driver uses nitrogen to supply back pressure to the hydraulic system. Nitrogen must be topped up from time to time to maintain maximum punching power.

Most customers will find that this only needs to be done once a year, but heavier users may need to top up nitrogen more often.

Blue Diamond makes a hydraulic controller for skid steers that many customers also find to be of impressive quality. While its vibrating controller performs the same tasks as the Dakota controller, it does so as a much more compact accessory.

The Blue Diamond Vibrating Stick Driver weighs 265 pounds without the sliding steering rack and comes in at just under 400 pounds with the steering rack.

You can drive poles with the Blue Diamond Vibratory Driver with any skid steer that has 7.4 to 26 gallons per minute of hydraulic flow. Blue Diamond also claims that the hydraulic pressure range should be 2400 to 3000 PSI.

Blue diamond vibrating pole adapters

One significant difference you will notice between the Blue Diamond pole drivers and the Dakota driver is the use of fence post adapters.

As you’ll recall, the Dakota Driver uses domed cups to keep the fence posts centered while hitting the posts into the ground. The Blue Diamond Vibrating Post Driver uses different sized fence post adapters to achieve this.

Round fence post adapters come in 4″, 6″, 9″, 10″ and 12″ models. Once you have the correct diameter adapter, screw it into the front of the post driver and you’re good to go to work..

The design of this system works quite well, however, it requires you to purchase additional equipment when changing the diameters of the fence posts.

Does the Blue Diamond Post Driver have tilt?

Blue Diamond offers tilting of its post drivers as an additional feature. At the time of this writing, the tilt model costs an additional $2,000 and requires you to purchase an electrical harness that can vary in price depending on the miniature model. A Bobcat 7 pin harness could cost up to $900.

Mounting options for mini skid steers and excavators

Supports for mini miniature

The lightweight design of the Blue Diamond Vibrating Pole Driver allows you to purchase it with a Mini Universal or Mini Bobcat Stand for customers who want to hit the poles with their Mini Track Loader.

Of course, customers using a smaller machine should carefully consider not only the weight, but also the lift height of their mini track loader to ensure that they can climb to the top of the mast. close.

Assembly for mini excavator

Mini excavators are an excellent host machine for hydraulic pole drivers due to their excellent reach. Blue Diamond sells mini excavator mounts for many of the most common excavator models. However, your excavator will need a box drain.

Can the Blue Diamond post driver be used as a hydraulic hammer?

Unlike the Dakota driver, Blue Diamond’s vibrating pole driver does not have the option of adding a chisel or point tool to be used as a concrete breaker.

Both the Dakota Driver and the Blue Diamond Vibratory Post Driver offer customers great value for money. Both are built by American manufacturers and offer excellent customer service and an industry-leading warranty.

Some customers may prefer a lightweight post controller, specifically when used with mini skid steers and excavators if the boom is fully extended. Other customers will prefer a heavier post driver to hit the posts faster.

So what do we recommend? We suggest the Dakota Post driver for lower cost and heavier weight. Specifically, if you need to tilt from time to time, the PD-1450 is an excellent value. And we recommend the PD-1600 and PD-1850 if you occasionally want to use the post driver as a concrete breaker. The PD-2000 is the obvious choice if you plan to work with 12″ posts.

We suggest the Blue Diamond Vibrating Pole Controller for customers who need to save weight for fencing work with equipment other than a minicar or when they need to get into hard-to-reach places.

If you need help deciding which hydraulic controller is best for you, we’re always here to help! Don’t forget to check out our collection of miniature stick drivers!