Barbed wire fence help

thegrouse · Feb 21, 2012

I have done an exhaustive search through the website on this. It appears that there is many ways to do a fence. I had a few bids and I will not pay the going rate for labor to put in a fence so I guess I will give it a shot. I have to fence two sides of my place. My southern fence line is about 1400 feet long and has a gentle slope for about 2/3rds of the fence line. My western fence line is about 550 feet and it is flat. My road is about midway through the west fence line. I do not live here so it doesn't have to be beautiful or perfect but I only want to do it once. Here is my plan and please let me know if this is not going to work. I am in clay soil. On my 1400 foot fence line I was going to have a H brace at one end out of 2 7/8 inch pipe. Midway through this fence line I was going to add another H brace. This is the fence line with a gentle slope going uphill. At the west end of the 1400 foot run I was going to put a corner brace made of 2 7/8 inch pipe. All of these braces will be cemented into the ground 3 feet deep. This corner will be the south end of my 550 foot run. On the north end of the 550 foot run I was also going to put a H brace in concrete. On this 550 foot run I wanted to put a set back entrance so I can get a trailer in there. Is it necessary to put an H brace on both sides of the offset? I was going to offset about 30 foot back from the road and put another H brace to hang a gate on.

I was going to space 10 foot on T posts. Is it necessary to put any wood posts in there? I have seen it done both ways and I do not know if there is any difference. If I put a wood post in can I just tamp it in? How do I attach the barbed wire to the H braces? What hand tools do I need to buy? I saw a Golden Rod stretcher for stretching along with a fence tool. So do I just try to pull from H brace to H brace then fasten it? Then add the T posts? Also in the offset how do I pull the fence tight? The fence line is going to be cleared within the next week and I am going to try to dig my holes next week and set the pipe in concrete. Any help would be appreciated. I have made a rudimentary drawing and came up with about .78 cents a foot for materials

rekees4300 · Feb 21, 2012

Barbed Wire Fence: Building a Better Fence

Case485Guy · Feb 21, 2012

We are in a sandy loam top and about 2' down hardest clay I have seen on half of the property, other half all sand. Just did 2 - 1 mile of fence last 2 years and starting another. First one we did all T posts on clay side, RR ties for H brace and 10' RR ties for corners, in hurry and did not have time to cut posts. Second we did all mesquite cut posts we cut off the place and H-braces/Corners same as first. We have always put corner post 4-5' deep and tamped in. The H braces @ about 1300' or length of barbed wire role. Post spacing is around 12'- 15', more of the "that looks right, stepped off spacing around 5 steps".
Like this stretcher used with a come a long, tie one end of come along off to H-brace end, pull strand tight, tie off and nail staples in.

Tuf-Tug Wire Clamp for Power Pull - 3832406 | Tractor Supply Company
For repairs I like
SpeeCo Fence Wire Stretcher - 3600312 | Tractor Supply Company

Both are work good, just preferrence.

All T-posts in clay should be fine, in sand need to have some wood line posts. At point of slopes is good point for H braces like you said. long runs a fairly flat land we like I dscribed above. We have always tamped posts in, line posts 3' deep, corners 4-5' and H-braces 4-5 or as deep as a set hand post hole diggers are long
To attach the barb wire to H-brace, we pull line tight, double wrap around post, twist ecess back on to tight line, nail with staples on all sides of H brace post, release tension.
For the back set entrance we use a 3 post setup with bracing between the 3, in a 90 degree setup or whatever angle the entrance dictates for the angle. We have never used concrete, but I would think 3' with concrete should work. I was always taught go deep for corners and H-bracing or you have redo later.
For the pipe H braces, we only have a few in the olfd fence lines and once the strand was pulled tight, wrapped 2-3 times around pipe and twisted back onto tighten line to kill end and release tension.
I will get some pics this weekend of old and new fencing if you want. Might give you some more ideas to work with.

thegrouse · Feb 21, 2012

Is there any down side to running only T posts the entire 1400 feet with only one H brace?

Case485Guy · Feb 21, 2012

thegrouse said:
Is there any down side to running only T posts the entire 1400 feet with only one H brace?

More $$, plus side is they wont burn up like wood posts in a fire.
Oh yea, as you drive the posts in, not all will be completely straight or have the wire side lined up.Use a pipe wrench at bottom of post to twist the post to line up and straighten out.

SUMGUNZEL · Feb 21, 2012

Hello , I just happened to find this forum while looking for some info and saw your post about building wire fence. I hope I don't make you discouraged but I would use at least 4 in.O.D. pipe for your corners . They need to be at least 3ft in the ground ,preferably 4ft, with cement . Don't fill the cement to the top of the hole , leave it about 10 inches below grade. 3 to 4 sacks redi-mix per hole ,80lb. sacks. DON'T use the H configuration for the corner and brace, it will pull up most likely! Run a pipe, 2 3/8, horizontally near the top of your corner post over to the brace post and another diagonally from the corner post down to the bottom of the brace post. Distance between corner and brace posts need to be at least 9 ft. . A 12ft space is general rule of thumb around here for Tposts. On the 1400 ft run you really need at least 2 more sets of braces . They need to be same material and use 3 post instead of 2. It should kind of look like this l/l\l with a horizontal pipe across the top also. If you want to build it to last this is a proven way that I use.

foreman Etexas · Feb 21, 2012

I didnt see how you plain to attach the wire to the metal post?Also especially when using that small of pipe size,I suggest cutting out tabs(2&7/8 probaly would weld) or welding little tabs on pipe,help keep it from pulling up Spacing is different for everyone but I usually try and do 4steps(12ft) but I dont get exact may be off cple inches each way but it would be really hard to tell when your done. For example if it was 21 t-post between h-braces I would put a post in the middle,just gives it alittle more stability(to me). I really dont think ones way is better than the other,just aslong as it is done with quality.(concrete post in or pack really good if just using clay)(tight wires,good spacing)(real clips,no bailing wirer

) I myself like to use 6.5ft t-post,atleast 6in.x8ft post in h-braces, I use 48in.field fence with a barbed wirer top,middle,and bottum,makes it alittle harder for the un-wanted animals to get in......

thegrouse · Feb 21, 2012

I think I am just going to have to get out there and put some posts in the ground and pull some wire. I have read the basic safety stuff. I will try to find some metal wire clips to attach the wire to the pipe. It can't be any worse than some of the fences I see around here. I will post photos in the next couple of weeks no matter how bad it looks. Somebody else may learn from my mistakes.

foreman Etexas · Feb 21, 2012

thegrouse said:
I think I am just going to have to get out there and put some posts in the ground and pull some wire. I have read the basic safety stuff. I will try to find some metal wire clips to attach the wire to the pipe. It can't be any worse than some of the fences I see around here. I will post photos in the next couple of weeks no matter how bad it looks. Somebody else may learn from my mistakes.

Have fun driving them t-post:laughing: I have 2,000ft to start in march,so dont feel like to loneranger

If you click on photo you can see the fence I built around my place,picture was taking while i was working on it,so doesnt have center wirer yet or some clips.