Pullin Old Fence Posts

[mechanic]

I've posted an answer several times but don't know where it went.
Anyway I took a couple of 2 inch square tubing and determined the length I wanted. Then I welded a set of ears 1/8 inch thick plate to both sides of one piece. Drilled a hole through both ears and then determined the leverage I wanted and drilled through the second piece and ran a bolt through them both. At the end of the piece to be used for pulling I drilled a hole through it then ran a bolt through it. Welded it in and cut the head off. Heated both ends and bent them up. Welded a base on the standing piece and got some chain went to pulling. Works great and takes on fuel to operate.

 

[patrick_g]

John there is a tradeoff between the length of the pipe (strength) and its ability to "get crosswise" on the bumps to grip the pipe. If you have a piece of telescoping pipe to weld over the first piece to make it stronger that would strengthen it or you can cut through a piece so you can open it up and put it like a tire around the original piece.

In my early experiments I had a couple failures. One was a (I thought) good looking weld with little penetration/strength which came apart on one of the first few posts and the other distorted a lot when stressed on a really hard to budge post.

Pretty simple huh? So simple it is sort of hard to describe it, everyone expects more complication. I did a little fine tuning to close up the hole a bit so it grabbed the bumps really well (version with the piece of plate) but without making it so tight I couldn't drop it onto a post with the FEL without getting down off the tractor. Also if you make it too tight it is harder to get it to release without direct manual intervention.

I have a design for a post setting depth gauge/anti-bending tool for driving T-posts with the FEL (bucket or pallet forks.)

When I drive a T-post with the FEL and the ground isn't soft I sometimes bend the post or have the tractor front end up in the air which can make the post slip out from under the FEL (sometimes bending the post.) Driving the posts to a uniform depth is a bit of hit or miss but with the holder/depth gauge you don't bend a post and you don't overdrive a post. You can place extra weight on the FEL and raise and lower it when using the gauge/bend preventer and sort of hammer on the t-post.

The gauge/bend preventer is made from a couple pipe scraps (2 sizes to telescope with T-post to fit inside of the smaller one) some misc pieces of scrap pipe and a hose clamp. I will probably replace the hose clamp with a nut welded over a hole in the larger pipe with a bolt sticking in to it to contact the inner pipe and hold it to the length you want.

This too is pretty danged simple but my description may not seem so clear. If anyone asks, I'll post a sketch.

Pat

 

[accordionman]

HELLO TO ALL,
i just throw a half hitch around the base of the
post, with my chain, and pull it with the fel bucket.
accordionman

 

[texasjohn]

What comes up must go down... so, here is a photo of my three T post drivers. A pipe with closed end, length selected to match desired driven depth, lower FEL on it and press down. The sheath stops a bend very quickly and transmitts force to the point. If it's tough going, you can pound a little with the FEL... but the limit is the same as with a hand driver...sometimes it just won't go further, so I leave it right there

 

[patrick_g]

What comes up must go down... so, here is a photo of my three T post drivers. A pipe with closed end, length selected to match desired driven depth, lower FEL on it and press down. The sheath stops a bend very quickly and transmitts force to the point. If it's tough going, you can pound a little with the FEL... but the limit is the same as with a hand driver...sometimes it just won't go further, so I leave it right there
View attachment 96452

No surprise, it is an obvious design. Same as me but I put a little sideways pipe at the bottom to prevent the post from being overdriven, say if the tractor;s front wheels are in the air and the post starts going in again. I also went with the bent metal insert inside the pipe to hold the post so it doesn't try to fall out prematurely when I am doing all this solo. I don't always use the same length of posts so opted for the telescoping adjustable length.

Have you tried putting weight on the FEL to improve the hammering action it you raise and lower the FEL? Makes it less likely that you will raise the front wheels off the ground.

Oh, by the way... NICE LOOKING TRACTOR!!!!

Would you mind posting pix of the custom front bumper?

Pat

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Texasjohn -- I notice you have a counterweight on your tractor in the picture. I would think it would work better without one, as the loader would be able to exert more downforce without lifting the front wheels. Or am I missing something?

 

[LBrown59]

Most people have mentioned using the loader to pull posts, which is what I also do. If you don't have a loader, the 3 pt will also work well and usually has much more lifting power for the really stubborn posts. Ideally, use a drawbar between the lift arms but you can also just wrap the chain around one lift arm and the post. It may require removing and reattaching the chain once the post is lifted part way to completely remove ithe post from the ground. Use a good chain because the lift power of the 3 pt can be much stronger than the loader. Many CUTs will lift 3-5K with the 3 pt. Our larger farm tractors will lift 15K+. Not many loaders will lift that much.
If any one is familiar with older hedge posts,

I've always used the BX 23 loader or BH.
Now that I've added a BX1500 to the fleet I will have to try the 3 point.
The BX1500 3 point hitch is almost always available on it as I seldom have any thing attached to it.

 

[texasjohn]

Pat, well.... I have learned to watch the front wheels and NOT get them off the ground... if it stops pressing in, then I give it a couple of taps to see if it will continue in with impluse shock... if it's a small rock, then it gets smushed or pushed aside and downward motion continues.

Yes, if doing a whole bunch of posts, I have two kinds of weight in the bucket. First, I have some elevator weights and I chain several of them into the bucket... total of about 400 lbs. Also, typically I have 10-15 T-POSTS and maybe some other tools in the FEL bucket. I do this using the buddy system... buddy holds the post and sheath where it needs to be while I SLOWLY lower the level bottom of the bucket onto the sheath. I just kiss it and buddy backs way away than I press down for about 5 inches with FEL. Geometry of this means that top of post is pulled out of alignment so I lift FEL and let post top spring back to vertical... repeat until BOTTOM of sheath is at ground level. I match my sheath with the T post being driven to get the proper depth.

Custom front bumper Well, I was picking up 2800 lb culverts and they would hit the front bumper and mess up the paint... a previous year my custom round bailer had busted a strap on his round bale roller and left it in the pasture. It is a thick rubber belt just a few inches wider than the bumper, so I cut to length and cut a couple of holes so it would fit over/down on the tabs/points on the top of the bumper. So fundamentally it is just a piece of rubber belting draped over the bumper and prevented from sliding off by the holes in the top.. also, bolted the two sides together so it would lay kinda flat.

These pictures are the only ones I have of the setup... rubber bumper has been ripped up by the pounding it took moving my culverts and is no longer on the tractor. There is a bar welded to the bottom of the bumper with small pipes welded on it... purpose is to recieve the elevator weights (about 80-120 lbs each) You can see that in the picture as well. Total length of extra weights, etc in front of factory bumper is limited... if too long, FEL will hit the add-ons when using FEL to raise front of tractor off the ground.





quicksandfarmer, what you see is my carry-all on the back of the tractor... never leave home without it! The black thingy is a big black plastic tool chest... usually people put them in the back of their pickups... I carry hoards of tools.. keeps them dry... and they are at hand when needed. Also, see above for discussions about weight in bucket and on front. Good eyes, good questions!!

 

[patrick_g]

Pat, well.... I have learned to watch

Custom front bumper Well, I was picking up 2800 lb culverts and they would hit the front bumper and mess up the paint... a previous year my custom round bailer had busted a strap on his round bale roller and left it in the pasture. It is a thick rubber belt just a few inches wider than the bumper, so I cut to length and cut a couple of holes so it would fit over/down on the tabs/points on the top of the bumper. So fundamentally it is just a piece of rubber belting draped over the bumper and prevented from sliding off by the holes in the top.. also, bolted the two sides together so it would lay kinda flat.

These pictures are the only ones I have of the setup... rubber bumper has been ripped up by the pounding it took moving my culverts and is no longer on the tractor. There is a bar welded to the bottom of the bumper with small pipes welded on it... purpose is to recieve the elevator weights (about 80-120 lbs each) You can see that in the picture as well. Total length of extra weights, etc in front of factory bumper is limited... if too long, FEL will hit the add-ons when using FEL to raise front of tractor off the ground.

Thanks for the info. I recognized the plastic box in back, good idea. I wasn't sure about the draped material up front but assumed it was a protective blanket of some sort. My question regarding the custom bumper was aimed at the HD horizontal metal piece. I have the little bumper thing that your rubber is draped over but not anything like the horizontal piece. Might be a good addition.

As to your post driving process, I do just about the exact same thing when I have help. When I didn't I would start the post manually and then use the tractor. The adjustable length post sheath with friction type post holder is the idea I had for when working alone and NOT wishing to manually start the posts.

Pat

 

[digicamnut]

Finally got to pull some posts today and a few small trees. I welded a couple of hooks on my bucket and wrapped a chain around the post (clove hitch) most came right out.
I like my new tractor.

Thanks for all the tips.