Building fence

[jcummins]

I've been noticing, some build fence with a line, sometime fairly long of t-posts then a solid H brace. Others have a wood post, 4-5 t-posts then another wood post. Both use solid corner H braces.

What's the advantage of one method over the other?

When I get some money, I have a half mile of fence along a gravel road I need to replace. Until then it's a patch and patch again, but at some point, I need to start that project.

 

[hillrancher]

I use the H structure to stretch too so I will have short stretch an make the fence stronger. The wood or steel every so far apart make the fence stand up better. All steel the cattle will make it lean reaching through or under the fence if it is all T post.

 

[Brute 23]

For interior fences some time you can get away with all t-posts. On a fence along the road I would not go less than 4 t-post and a wood post, 3-1 would be my personal preferance. Like said above, the more t-posts the better chance of it leaning.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

You for sure need wood or pipe on high places and in low places.

 

[jcummins]

I'll add, this is fairly level. The fence has a fairly long straight section in the middle, but small changes of direction in several spots both ends. Some definetely need H braces on those direction changes.

 

[ToddFarmsInc]

I've seen in my area, with my ground conditions, if the cows are on one side of the fence more than the other... they will push a "T" post only fence right over. If there is a wood post every 6th post, the fence will remain upright. A "T" post just doesn't have the surface area under ground to resist being pushed over sideways.

My grandpa was too cheep to purchase metal posts for the most part, and his old fences were all hedge post fences. The posts outlasted the barbed wire, and even when the wire was too rusted to hold any longer, the fences were still in great shape vertically. My dad put in solid "T" post fences 30 years ago, and some of them are practically laying on the ground now. :kid:

 

[J. T.]

Run a hot wire on the inside of a fence with steel posts and you can eliminate the need for wood posts between the braces.

 

[Starting late]

You all probably know this one, but I learned it from an old neighbor. We use hedge post at corners and use 3 posts in an L shape with good heavy pipe between them, then cross tie with #9 wire and turn buckles (we use the ratcheting fence stretchers so we can adjust them easily later if we need to). At any direction change we do the same thing only the L changes shape to match the direction change. About every 150ft we put 2 hedge posts braced to each other same way, pipe #9. Then we stretch a top barbed wire of the best quality and biggest gauge we can buy. Once that top wire is stretched we then use it for a straight line to set our posts (wood or steel) then attach our woven wire or more barbed wire to the posts. This makes for a very straight and strong fence. Also, we do all the hedge posts about 2 weeks or more before building any more fence and tamp them down several times over the 2 weeks or set them in concrete.

 

[backhoeboogie]

I never use the 6 foot T-Posts. As someone said earlier, they don't drive deep enough. 7 footers work best for me but sometimes I have to use 6'-6".

I never use wood since getting burned out in '90. I just looked up Trinity and see you are in a wetter environment. You can probably get away with wood post braces every 100 to 150'.

 

[HOSS]

I usually put H braces every 200 feet or so with a wood post every 100 feet. These are all telephone pole butts buried 3 foot deep and cemented in. I space my 6.5 foot T-Posts about every 10 feet apart so I have a wood post about every 9 T-posts. Most of my place has been fenced in in just the last few years with Moto brand 47" field fencing with some stretches of 5 strand barb across the back where I had to cross some creeks. It has held up very well so far so I hope it lasts for years. Right now I am putting up about 3,000 feet of which I have completed about 700 over the past couple of weekends.