Tee post pounder

[TomA in CA]

I try to reserve fence patching, post pounding for the rainy season when the ground is soft.

 

[will-max dairy]

I try to reserve fence patching, post pounding for the rainy season when the ground is soft.

That brings up a funny story, but actually useful.

Last spring, my wife and I built a new patch of four wire fence. It's on our land, not rented land. Generally, on our land, I use cedar posts. So, we bought a load of 7' cedar posts and started building the fence. By the last part of the build, we were getting into early June. The clay ground was getting dry, and the posts don't pound that well.

I brought a 5 gallon pail with us for the last day that we installed posts. There was a stream not that far away from where we were working. I would drill the holes for three posts with the spud bar, then get a pail of water from the stream. The water would fill three holes. I would leave that water to soak in while I went to go drill three more holes. After drilling those holes, I would set and pound the posts in the previous three holes. Yeah... I got splatted with a little bit of water sometimes, as the posts went in; but the water did provide a little bit of lubrication. It was a heck of a lot better than trying to drive posts in dry clay!

 

[Mobuck]

Hand driving cedar posts? Reminds me of the stories of 70+ years ago. BTW, they don't last very long in north MO.

 

[will-max dairy]

As others have said; much easier to push them in with a loader. But there are times when you need only one or two pounded in. In that case a post pounder is a better option. When I was a kid, the neighbor had one of those springy type post pounders. We had a 2" or 3" pipe with a 2" x 12" shaft welded to the top. It took us less than a fourth of the pounds to get the post in with our pounder. Granted the springy one was easier on the up stroke but ours was more meaningful on the down stroke.

I build a lot of fence on side hills, ravines, thickets... where I can't get the tractor and loader to.

Hand driving cedar posts? Reminds me of the stories of 70+ years ago. BTW, they don't last very long in north MO.

Dad lived to 93. When he was 80 or 85, he could still get the top of a cedar post to make a loud popping sound with a 12 pound maul. I'm 55, I hope I still have that many years in me with a maul. Our cedar posts come from Canada. Slow growth stuff. There are stretches of fence on the home farm, where I grew up, with posts that I drove in as a teenager still there.

My wife and I have been more like farming gypsies in the last 20 years, since we've had our own cows. We've rented buildings, land and pasture all over the place. I like metal T posts for fence on rented ground, or if I need to put up an electric fence in a hurry.

But now (as of summer 2023) that we have our own 40 acres, I like to see cedar posts on that land. I like using staples and ceramic insulators; which is possible with cedar. (edit... even with cedar posts, the nail-on or screw-on insulators are now high density plastic, as opposed to old school ceramic). Most of the posts will probably be there the last time that I see them from this side of the ground.

I'm glad that I used T posts on the rented ground adjacent to us.... that's being turned into solar panels... T posts are much easier to pull and re-use. I have a T-post lever jack and can get them out of the ground in a few seconds. Takes me longer to walk between them than to pull them.

To me, drawbacks of T-posts are:
-electric fence insulators are cheap and a PITA to put on
-electric fence insulators often slide up and down the post, once some cheap, tiny tab breaks off
-some people like the wire wrap method to put on barb wire... I prefer staples in cedar
-corner hardware, if you want to stay all metal is SPENDY!... unless you want to bring a welder to the field

But... yeah man... give me an open field with a wire stretched as a guide... a bunch of T-posts... and my homemade 32lb driver... and I'll set you a line of fence in a hurry

 

[will-max dairy]

I have a small pipe, that just fits over a too post, with a plate welded over the end. Slip that over the tee post to keep post from bending and drop front end loader bucket on it. May take several taps or if soft soil, just one push. Much faster and easier on my old body..

I can never get the darn things to go straight with a loader. I think there is definitely a knack to it that I haven't figured out.

 

[Mobuck]

I forgot to mention the air powered 'ManSaver' post driver used for those places too steep or overgrown for the skid steer. It's driven several miles of steel posts and 2 7/8" pipe in the past 12 years but it's getting tired and not used often anymore.
The biggest game changer has been a hydraulic tamper just like the power company uses. Most of the corner & brace posts we set have almost all the dirt tamped back.

 

[Non-farmer]

That brings up a funny story, but actually useful.

Last spring, my wife and I built a new patch of four wire fence. It's on our land, not rented land. Generally, on our land, I use cedar posts. So, we bought a load of 7' cedar posts and started building the fence. By the last part of the build, we were getting into early June. The clay ground was getting dry, and the posts don't pound that well.

I brought a 5 gallon pail with us for the last day that we installed posts. There was a stream not that far away from where we were working. I would drill the holes for three posts with the spud bar, then get a pail of water from the stream. The water would fill three holes. I would leave that water to soak in while I went to go drill three more holes. After drilling those holes, I would set and pound the posts in the previous three holes. Yeah... I got splatted with a little bit of water sometimes, as the posts went in; but the water did provide a little bit of lubrication. It was a heck of a lot better than trying to drive posts in dry clay!

I hear you. My place (the high ground, I don't do anything on the flood plain but mow trails) is almost all clay. Come August, I swear you could land a full-sized plane on it. It turns into concrete. All tasks which involve digging/driving stuff into it get done early in the season or else, like you, I pre-water the target area and let it soak in. If you try to put posts in the low ground, they will disappear. It floods every winter and freezes, and the weight of the ice will literally bury the posts as the water recedes from under it. The ice clings to the posts and brings them down with it. It takes a few years, but the posts WILL disappear into the muck. It's not clay down there, It's Carlisle muck.

 

[Non-farmer]

@jkane - ty for the tip about inserting links. it worked like a charm

 

[jkane]

@jkane - ty for the tip about inserting links. it worked like a charm

glad it helped!

 

[will-max dairy]

I forgot to mention the air powered 'ManSaver' post driver used for those places too steep or overgrown for the skid steer. It's driven several miles of steel posts and 2 7/8" pipe in the past 12 years but it's getting tired and not used often anymore.
The biggest game changer has been a hydraulic tamper just like the power company uses. Most of the corner & brace posts we set have almost all the dirt tamped back.

I've had a pipe dream of making a service cart to go behind our little Ford 2N. The base would be the frame of an old ground driven manure spreader we have laying around. But anyway, if I had the time and money to make it, in my daydream design, it has a PTO-powered compressor that could run BIG air tools... like sand blasters... or a serious air-powered post driver. Then, I could take this cart building fence, drag the air line and the pounder to the posts... and have at 'em. No worries about trying to get a tractor and loader or three point hitch post pounder to the fence.

 

[Mobuck]

I run my air driver of an Ingersol Rand 2 cylinder compressor with twin 5 gallon tanks. It rides on a 4'x6' trailer pulled behind an ATV or UTV. There's enough room for the compressor, 2 additional 30 gallon air tanks, the driver, and 300+ feet of air hose.

 

[m16ty]

The ones with the springs are a gimmick. They are advertised as easier to raise, which they are, but what they don’t tell you is they don’t actually drive the post well. Whatever you gain for help on the up stroke, you loose on the down stroke, simple physics.

 

[Ray,IN]

I bet that plug in the end really brings the momentum to the post.

Yep, in soft ground about 4 strokes is all it takes, but in Aug./Sep when the ground is dry and hard_whew, it tires me out quickly @ 82 yrs old.
I think I'm gonna try the FEL bucket trick.

 

[Deere Mark]

Have two post pounders. One is homemade about 45 years ago (3-inch pipe with a thick piece of steel welded on top). The other is from Tractor Supply with the two handles (no spring).