Farm fencing - augers vs post pounders

[5030]

That isn't even remotely funny.

 

[JCoastie]

def dark humor, I chuckled but felt bad about it lol

 

[olenjohn]

Consider auger with your 6” machine. Then use the FEL to drive / push the 8” post in the 6” pilot hole. Slight taper on post bottom and put a few hundred pounds in the bucket to increase download on the post. Or if you have a backhoe, even better to set the posts with. Load the. BH bucket with weight as well. Works like a bigger hammer when loaded.

 

[Southernspeed]

I've put in hundreds of posts using one of these. 4-5" posts take 10-15 seconds each, sometimes less if the ground is softer. 8" don't take much longer. Great piece of equipment.

 

[David in KY]

No hearing protection!!

I felt that i needed ear plugs just watching the video. LOL

Nonetheless, that's an awesome, purpose built machine.

 

[Southernspeed]

Yeah, you definitely need ear pro!

No hearing protection!!

I felt that i needed ear plugs just watching the video. LOL

Nonetheless, that's an awesome, purpose built machine.

 

[gsganzer]

I can't help you on the auger vs. pounder, but if you stick with the auger, this post hole digger is what the professional fencing contractors us to clear the augered holes. I have one and nothing else works as well.

Boston Post Digger

 

[goeduck]

One of my properties has great soil and almost no rocks. My hydraulic auger on the FEL works wonders and the soil comes right up with the auger as a "cylinder". Another property has sandy and often rocky soil. In the dry season, the sand simply slides off the auger and any rocks seem to wallow out the hole wider rather than come up with the auger. There aren't any rocks in this hole, but some rocks I hit are 2 to 3 feet in diameter at which point the auger jams. I backhoe those out.

 

[LouNY]

I've put in hundreds of posts using one of these. 4-5" posts take 10-15 seconds each, sometimes less if the ground is softer. 8" don't take much longer. Great piece of equipment.

Nice unit.

 

[goeduck]

We had some nice rains lately and I drilled about 15 holes yesterday. The holes that were very sandy and without rocks came out nice and clean on the auger. That little bit of moisture held the sandy soil together. One hole had big rocks, so that one was still a pain.

 

[JCoastie]

@goeduck what are the details of your setup? tractor GPM flow and auger requirements? Also, what diameter holes were you drilling? Curious for a future purchase myself on just a small compact tractor.

 

[goeduck]

@goeduck what are the details of your setup? tractor GPM flow and auger requirements? Also, what diameter holes were you drilling? Curious for a future purchase myself on just a small compact tractor.

Tractor has 14 GPM, auger is a Danuser 1025 rated at 10-25 GPM. I have 6", 9" and 15" auger bits. The auger is slow (about 1 revolution per second), but I don't find that to be an issue other than I can't "spin off" the soil very well. I vibrate off the soil by fwd/rev the hydraulics quickly and, if needed, "tap" the auger head with the curl of the FEL. The nice thing about a hydraulic auger compared to a 3-point is that you can reverse the auger and get out of a stuck bit situation.

 

[oosik]

Makes me glad that around here we use T-posts for our fences. T-145 steel posts and my homemade manual pounder. 650 steel posts and 28 rolls of barbed wire to surround my 80 acres.

Makes me REALLY glad that I did it 42 years ago. Today - it would be a project that I wouldn't even dream of taking on.............

 

[mikester]

Makes me glad that around here we use T-posts for our fences. T-145 steel posts and my homemade manual pounder. 650 steel posts and 28 rolls of barbed wire to surround my 80 acres.

Makes me REALLY glad that I did it 42 years ago. Today - it would be a project that I wouldn't even dream of taking on.............

Unfortunately time has caught up with my cedar fence posts and it's replacement time

 

[oosik]

I had to have a surveyor help when I put in my perimeter fencing. The original survey was a government meets/bounds homestead survey. He read the wording and helped find the corners. There were still some old fence posts that existed from the original fence - 1892. We determined that these posts were Black Locust. Apparently it was the toughest wood around these parts. I still know where there are small groves of locust. Obviously planted by old homesteaders.

All other types of trees, around here, would never last that long. We have no types of cedar around here. Only pine and a few members of the birch family.

The old barbed wire the homesteader used had flat barbs. VERY heavy wire with flattened wire barbs. It wraps up around a tiller very well.