Shoe-String Budgets and Drag-n-carry Gates

[greenwillowherefords]

Just got to wondering if anyone else on the boards are operating with gates with baling wire hinges and latches. Some of my "stock panels" and gates are made of wooden pallets that loads of material at work arrived on. I have one gate on the place that actually swings on hinges. My mother was pulling into the drive a couple or three years ago, just a few months after I had installed it, and spun out, cutting a donut right in the middle of it, knocking down both posts. I salvaged all the parts except the hinges. Somehow, it has never been the same. It swings OK one way, but the other it sags and drags the ground because the holes where the hinges go through the posts are wallowed out from the impact. Now when she visits us after dark, we always watch her come through the gate with apprehension!

I began using a bale ring for the first time this Saturday. It is an old one that my brother-in-law found on his place. It has a couple of missing pieces that have been broken off, and one broken piece still with it. I wired it together with baling wire, and drove a t-post on the weak side to brace it. (In years past, I have fed mostly square bales.) :lol:

 

[milkmaid]

Most of my permanent gates have hinges and are latched by chains...anything that might be moved at some later date gets secured by baling twine.

 

[Ryder]

Use some 'wire' gates. We call them 'Gaps'. Work just fiine especially if you don't have to open and close very often. The least expensive I know of. I am a great beliver in being economical. Some call it 'tight'.

 

[houstoncutter]

Glad to know that I am not the only one with a degree in rigging. My favorite gates are the woven wire mesh that you put in concrete. Tie up one side firmly, bury a piece of pvc pipe halfway across the span, drop in a tie post to add support and bungy cord the tie post. Works like a charm.Lol

 

[D.R. Cattle]

Amazing what kind of stuff I'm using to hold em since the hurricanes. Gazoodles of fence got trashed by falling trees, haven't gotten to all of it yet. Pallets are a dream!

 

[jt]

i heard it said along this line many times... it aint a farm unless its got a little duct tape and baling twine holding it together. :lol: ;-)

 

[Craig-TX]

We also call them ‘gaps’ and I used to hate them bad when I was a kid. We use them for any place we don’t cross regularly such as common fences with neighbors. Dad would be driving and of course I was gate boy. Barely had enough butt on me to pop the top loop off to open them, much less pull them tight enough to get it back on after he drove through. He loved them because they were c-h-e-a-p and like Ryder said he is tight. Tighter than the bark on a tree. So are his gaps, which is why they were tough on a kid – even with a cheater stick. These days I love ‘em and my own kids hate ‘em, all for the same reasons. Ha

Craig-TX

 

[txag]

We also call them ‘gaps’ and I used to hate them bad when I was a kid. We use them for any place we don’t cross regularly such as common fences with neighbors. Dad would be driving and of course I was gate boy. Barely had enough butt on me to pop the top loop off to open them, much less pull them tight enough to get it back on after he drove through. He loved them because they were c-h-e-a-p and like Ryder said he is tight. Tighter than the bark on a tree. So are his gaps, which is why they were tough on a kid – even with a cheater stick. These days I love ‘em and my own kids hate ‘em, all for the same reasons. Ha

Craig-TX

Craig, you pretty much summed up my feelings about "gaps" except that my daughter isn't old enough to open 'em & i haven't reached that love 'em stage yet. :)

 

[sidney411]

We have gaps too, mostly on places that we don't use much. I would have to agree with all said above about them! We have fences made from sides of buildings, old greenchop feeders, old calf hutches, ect. ect.

 

[Kelly]

My husband calls me a "true farmer" the way I save everything - pallets, wood scraps,doors ...& how I can make things work with what I have! Of course there are alot of dreams I think I should have or need too. Pricey equipment & panels & toys...Auto waterers & stuff to make life easier!

 

[cattle_gal]

Lets see there's the 40 year old baling wire and the poly twine mostly now in lovely orange on some gates.

Lots and lots of wire gates. Interesting on the name of the wire gate down there- gap.

Panel gates aren't worth anything in snow so they are left for the corals/working areas and areas that we don't use in the winter. I must say we have one or 2 fancy store bought green swing gates now. Some are pole that you have to lift up to move. Who needs the gym! And a few in the coral that are gaurd rail or 2 X 12 plank.

 

[dun]

The barb wire "gaps" I've alwasy referred to as spreader gates. The 16 foot long 52 inch high cattle panel is one great invention. Temp fence, gates where the posts are too rickety to hang a real gate. Portable gates for areas that you need a gate for ony a week or two every year. With a couple of RR ties wired to them work pretty well as a drag for loose material.

dun

 

[Jake]

about all we have is wire gates. A few with cattle panels and a few made OLD swinging gates that are sitting on the ground. the only thing with true swinging gates are the lots.

 

[G&L Cattle]

Those 52" wire panels are truly life savers! Keep em handy!

 

[TheBullLady]

When ya'll get old and tired like me, and don't have kids to open them, you'll get rid of the "wire gap" gates and get real swinging ones! It's like winning the lottery! :)

 

[greenwillowherefords]

Those 52" wire panels are truly life savers! Keep em handy!

I've got a couple serving duty as fence patches right now.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

The barb wire "gaps" I've alwasy referred to as spreader gates. dun

We moved to NY from Kansa and we learned how to make the "gap" gates there. BUT, we call the Oakie Gates (Oklahoma rigging!) Always heard them called that - GAP is a new term to me.

For internal pasture gates, we use "spring gates. But all our fencing is electric. Permanent fencing is hi-tensile, divided with polywire temp.

I always drool over the auto gates, you drive up to & push open with your tractor/truck - that would be heaven!

We have a swing gate attached to our work facilities in the barn, that's on a wheel. Could NEVER have one outside, between mud/frozen mud/ snow - a wheel would NEVER EVER move! Have a few swing gates, but there have been times we had to hand dig them out of the snow to open them. You always want them to open toward you, so you can get the tractor up to them & dig them out with the bucket!

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Have several pallets twined to 4"x4"s under a shed overhang used for makeshift "stalls/pens". Also have about 15 old used half bent-up swing gates wired to T posts for another holding pen/area/lot. The rest of the gates actually swing on their hinges, except one (on hinges) but hinge holes so worn out it rests on the ground. I have also been known (at former farm) to use baling twine to hold a splitting post together. Worked pretty well too.

 

[Campground Cattle]

When ya'll get old and tired like me, and don't have kids to open them, you'll get rid of the "wire gap" gates and get real swinging ones! It's like winning the lottery! :)

All of ours work to hung on good cross tie H braces or drill stem.

 

[txshowmom]

We too have lots of barbed wire gap gates. I love them as long as I am not the one having to open and close them. Most of the gates that we use daily are on hinges except for one BIG HEAVY gap and my husband won't replace that darn gate until it won't stand anymore. I'm tempted to "clip" it with the tractor myself.