Fiberglass Fence Posts

[cghoerichs]

We had a tough winter in NW Iowa this year. Lots of snow and ice. For the first time I've had T-posts and fiberglass line posts pulled about 12" into the ground. The steel T-posts aren't a problem to pull out but I've never had to do anything with my fiberglass fence before. The fiberglass posts are 1" posts. Anybody come up with a good way to pull up fiberglass posts without damaging them? I was thinking of trying webbing or a strap of some sort.

 

[hayray]

Fence post jack works on them. I bought mine at TSC.

 

[cghoerichs]

I've got one but am afraid that it would crack the post. Guess I can give it a try on one of them to see what happens.

 

[pdfangus]

i don't think you will hurt them with a post jack. they won't take a lot of bending but upward pull should not hurt em a lot.

but beware of the splinters. I quit using fiberglass posts years ago cause of the splinters in my hand every time I walked by one.

they are durable. I still have quite a few.

I use power flex posts a good bit now. like em a lot.

 

[dun]

but beware of the splinters. I quit using fiberglass posts years ago cause of the splinters in my hand every time I walked by one.

That's the reason for sunguard fiberglass posts. After 10 years ours are still just like they were new.

 

[pdfangus]

Thanks,

see even an old fart like me can learn something new every day if I try.

Suguard fiberglass posts. Had not even heard of em.

But I do like the powerflex.

 

[Jogeephus]

If you got a front end loader you might want to weld a small piece of pipe or a large washer to a piece of chain. You can slip this over the top of the post and lift up with the front end loader and the pipe/washer will form a camming action on the post and it should pop right up. You might want to place it at the top of the post first just to see how it goes at first.

 

[cghoerichs]

The post jack wouldn't get a good bite on the Sunguard posts. Too slick and when it did it slid up and stripped the outside of the post off. I put the jack on a stainless steel clip and that worked, but it wasn't great, and I've got quite a few to do. It started to pour down rain so I didn't have a lot of time to try but maybe my skidloader with a chain, and a pipe/washer as noted above with the addition of inner tube to keep from grinding up the outside of the post.

 

[cghoerichs]

I called Geotek today. They said to use a prusik knot. I used a piece of 1/2" soft braided nylon type rope to tie the prusik knot with and pulled it up with the hay spears on my skidloader. Worked like a charm!

 

[dun]

I had no idea that it had an actual name. I've used it for years and just thought it was handy for some uses.

 

[cghoerichs]

I've used it in the fire service but never considered using it for farming...

 

[Jogeephus]

Thats what I use to climb out of wells with.

 

[pdfangus]

Thats what I use to climb out of wells with.

this begs the question of why in the world are you climbing down into wells?

 

[dun]

Thats what I use to climb out of wells with.

this begs the question of why in the world are you climbing down into wells?

Looking for the leprechauns pot of gold?

 

[Jogeephus]

Never found their gold in the bottom of a well but have found many of their liquor bottles. I have three hand dug wells. They are about 3 1/2 foot wide with various depths but most of them aren't but 30 foot deep. During the 07-08 drought some of these wells almost dried up or the sides caved in some thus blocking the underground creeks so I had to go to the bottom and dig them deeper. Used the prussick knot to climb up the rope to get out.

 

[pdfangus]

Never found their gold in the bottom of a well but have found many of their liquor bottles. I have three hand dug wells. They are about 3 1/2 foot wide with various depths but most of them aren't but 30 foot deep. During the 07-08 drought some of these wells almost dried up or the sides caved in some thus blocking the underground creeks so I had to go to the bottom and dig them deeper. Used the prussick knot to climb up the rope to get out.

Your are obviously not a fat old man like I am.
Not sure a team of horses could haul my carcass out
and not real sure anyone would even try to
so I stay away from open holes and steep banks.

 

[Jogeephus]

:lol2: :lol2: Actually I'm just lazy. On the surface, getting in the hole sounds like a bad deal but the really bad deal is the poor fella who has to pull the buckets of dirt out of the hole. Now that is a workout. Of course its kinda intimidating when you consider the fella might drop the bucket on your head at any time but some of us have really hard heads. :lol2:

 

[1982vett]

Never found their gold in the bottom of a well but have found many of their liquor bottles. I have three hand dug wells. They are about 3 1/2 foot wide with various depths but most of them aren't but 30 foot deep. During the 07-08 drought some of these wells almost dried up or the sides caved in some thus blocking the underground creeks so I had to go to the bottom and dig them deeper. Used the prussick knot to climb up the rope to get out.

That's what you have to do when your "cattle profit money box" is no longer hidden underwater.

 

[Jogeephus]

Yep, apparantly water has a direct influence on the money box.

 

[cghoerichs]

so I had to go to the bottom and dig them deeper. Used the prussick knot to climb up the rope to get out.

Okay, I know, you did climb out, but you know that at that depth it's easy to quickly expend all of the air that's down there? It's the start of the classic joke told when training firefighters about farm accidents. Farmer goes down in the well. Said farmer runs out of air and dies. Eldest son finds that dad is down in the well and in his haste to get dad climbs down into the well and also dies. The middle son seeing dad and brother does the same. Finally the youngest son finds his father and brothers down in the well and thinking about his future on his new farm calls the fire department. It's an old one but it's still funny and true.