post holes

Help Support CattleToday:

blueridge

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 2, 2007
Messages
72
Reaction score
0
Location
sc
Has anyone on here used a hydraulic post hole driver before? I have slightly over 100 posts to put in for a new pasture and didn't know whether to drill the holes or drive them. Which is quicker?
 
"T" post can be pushed or driven into the ground (dirt) using a "T" post driver or the bucket of a front end loader. The holes for cedar posts should probably be drilled with a post hole digger or manually with a drop auger.

For everybody else this is not meant to be controversial - just my opinion.
 
We have a Shaver 10". Faster than drilling but will drive them crooked as a politician running for re-election. But I buy cull bundles, might be part of the problem. :lol: Father has an old Danuser, slower but more precise. Wheatheart makes some really nice ones, but they are pricey. A lot of it depends on your soil, too.

Whatever you do, watch your fingers. Neighbor borrowed Dad's about 20 years ago, whacked off three fingers with it.

cfpinz
 
I've driven a bunch with a Wheathart. Way easier and faster than drilling, but it takes a while to figure out how to drive them straight. There were three of us working: Me driving them, adult son loading them on a trailer and bringing them to me, teenage son helping us both, and they couldn't keep me supplied with posts all of the time once I got it figured out.
 
I had about 60 driven last spring (in 2-1/2 hours, total) and was happy as a pig in mud.. Now that we're in the "extreme drought" category, I'm questioning whether or not I should have drilled them all and set them in concrete...

Reason being, the posts are shrinking inward and the ground's shrinking outward.. Most of the posts -- no matter how well set when driven -- are loose now. Really loose.. I've had to rebuild two corners already and I've got two more that, if not for having been braced six ways to Sunday, would be coming out too.. Only thing holding them down right now is that there's more tension on the various brace wires than on the fence wires... I'm hoping everything gets wet and swells back tight this winter.. We'll see.

Probably not much help, huh?
 
Earl Thigpen":f3hulza2 said:
"T" post can be pushed or driven into the ground (dirt) using a "T" post driver or the bucket of a front end loader. The holes for cedar posts should probably be drilled with a post hole digger or manually with a drop auger.

For everybody else this is not meant to be controversial - just my opinion.

Earl I drive the T-Post with the front bucket also. I do cheat a little tho. I found that cutting a pipe to the finished length (4 foot 8 I think it is for 7 foot post) and sliding over the t-Post before I push it in does two things for me. No 1, if I hit a root or rock, the T-Post doesn't buckle and No 2, They are all pushed in precisely the same depth as the pipe. I slide the pipe off each post and go on the next one.
 
Mahoney Pursley Ranch":29qauwnx said:
I'd use pipe if I was you,can still be pounded in with the tractor bucket and won't catch fire. Makes good braces too if you can weld.

I built one heck fence out of a huge cedar posts cut off of my place. It all burned in '90's brush fire here. I promised myself to never use a wood post again and stuck to it.
 
It cracks me up people recommending pushing in posts with a tractor bucket without any knowledge/consideration of the soil conditions that is in the area the poster is from.
 
dun":14w7z94t said:
It cracks me up people recommending pushing in posts with a tractor bucket without any knowledge/consideration of the soil conditions that is in the area the poster is from.
If the soil conditions are so bad you can't pound them in with a tractor bucket you ain't gonna get them in no way.
 
backhoeboogie":2k4zz3ch said:
Earl Thigpen":2k4zz3ch said:
"T" post can be pushed or driven into the ground (dirt) using a "T" post driver or the bucket of a front end loader. The holes for cedar posts should probably be drilled with a post hole digger or manually with a drop auger.

For everybody else this is not meant to be controversial - just my opinion.

Earl I drive the T-Post with the front bucket also. I do cheat a little tho. I found that cutting a pipe to the finished length (4 foot 8 I think it is for 7 foot post) and sliding over the t-Post before I push it in does two things for me. No 1, if I hit a root or rock, the T-Post doesn't buckle and No 2, They are all pushed in precisely the same depth as the pipe. I slide the pipe off each post and go on the next one.
boogie - I do my t-posts the same way.
 
Mahoney Pursley Ranch":2hynsxsa said:
dun":2hynsxsa said:
It cracks me up people recommending pushing in posts with a tractor bucket without any knowledge/consideration of the soil conditions that is in the area the poster is from.
If the soil conditions are so bad you can't pound them in with a tractor bucket you ain't gonna get them in no way.

Wrong! There is obvisouly a lot of fence in this area, some are drvien t-posts, some driven pipe, some dug wood or pipe or t-posts.
 
Like Dun said, depends on the ground. I've got an area on my place the if you tried to drive post with hydraulics, all you'd end up with is a bunch of t posts that look like pretzels. I have to drive by hand, moving around to find a place between the rocks big enough for the post to go in. Usually though the good news is there's enough rock around it when you do find the spot it's not going anywhere.

And as far as digging anywhere you want, well in that area I guess I don't have enough ambition or dynamite. :D
 
:lol: Come to the ozarks and TRY to dig a few :lol:

A loader will bend T post when you hit a rock . Most places its better to drive them by hand. I use a hydraulic driver for corner post ,and a tree if a post won't drive.
 
Mahoney Pursley Ranch If the soil conditions are so bad you can't pound them in with a tractor bucket you ain't gonna get them in no way.[/quote said:
I could lift the front of my tractor off the ground by pushing down with the bucket on a 4" wooden post, but can easily drive them with a pounder.
 
I am going to go out and get some pics some time soon. There aint no "between the rocks" where my house is. Acres of solid limestone, in multiple layers. Some layers nearly 20 inches thick. It is fenced. It wasn't easy. The thing is, if you get a post down in it, it is like setting it in a 100 ton slab. You try to drive a T-post and it bounces the driver. I have seen T-Posts bounce out of the ground.

Down on the river property where my cows are, it is loamy sand. I have to put the T-Posts in atleast 2 and a half feet deep. Fence posts and braces are atleast 4 feet deep.

Two extremes.

There is no way a T post can support a 10 ton tractor, 8 ton backhoe, or 9 ton track loader. I have never lifted the front end of any of them while pushing in a T post in the loam. I wouldn't try it here at the house because I would simply toast it.
 
dun":20giue6o said:
It cracks me up people recommending pushing in posts with a tractor bucket without any knowledge/consideration of the soil conditions that is in the area the poster is from.

I could'nt agree more,had a couple deer hunters from east Tx,trying to build feeder pens around their deer feeders,one holding the "T" post and one in a kubota tractor banging on the
post with the bucket when I saw them.
I sent them packing,dont need the liability...........good luck

PS around here you need a good hydraulic auger with down pressure.And for the really tough ones......we rent a air drill/compressor.
 
I have the good fortune of having very few rocks on my place. I have not seen any much bigger than a softball and those are few. I have a JD450C track loader that I use to push the t-posts in. In open ground I can cover alot of distance with two people working. The only place I have bent t-posts is when going through the woods and I hit a root.
 
Drive those posts in you'll have lesser problems.It's faster & you won't need to much to cement. I do cement the post that you hang your gates on. I had my last fence put in. High tensile.The guy who put it up drilled the holes & cemented.He took my T-post barb wire down. He tore down a better fence than he put up. My cows never got out of my fence. I chase , call them ever since.I can't let my fencer off 2 minutes or they are out. I'm talking a 1600# COW walks through this high tensile like its not there. His distance between posts is to far for & these posts move. It's a 5 wire I've tried thighting the wire it didn't do anything. I keep my cows well fed water & bred. So I don't have to chase them.Driven posts stay thighter & you have lesser problems.
 

Latest posts

Top