Setting T Posts for Electric Horse Fence

[MotorSeven]

Y'all are right, a t-post cap, & safety glasses are not a bad idea, but what i can add to that list is a helmet. When i was driving the 6' copper ground rod for the elec fence, i got a little overzealous, missed the rod, and the driver pipe bounced off the rod and smacked me in the side of the head.........
ouch

RD

 

[tornadowatchranch]

first set your corner posts. then use a string and marking paint to make a line at each post location perpendicular to the proposed fence line. Set a post by each line. Then it takes three people to do it right. One to drive the tractor. One to hold the post and the broomstick (pre-cut cut to the desired post length above ground). The third to crouch and sight the previously driven post, the post being driven and the far corner post in a straight line. The tractor driver drops the fel until the post height is the same as the broomstick. Once the lines are marked and the posts set around two friends and I drove 200 posts in 90 minutes straight as an arrow. This was for 3 strand electric tape for horses with 10 foot spacing. Here in Kansas it is near impossible to pull a string tight enough to overcome the wind.

 

[wjoerob]

I set posts by hand on 3 acres for sheep and llamas, also put electric wire around top with a solar charger. Worked for all but one pushy llama, she had a bare spot on her neck from pushing over the wire to get to grass on the other side. Fence ended up all leaning outward at an angle.

Hardest part for me was STRETCHING the fence. A friend had a contraption made of 2 4x4's with 7 holes drilled through, equally spaced, and 7 long bolts and washers. You took this apart, put one of the 4x4's on each side of the fence, bolted it together, then pulled on a chain attached at top and bottom. How do you guys stretch the fence?

 

[Soundguy]

TSC has a premade version of the ( 2 4x4's ) you speak of.

To stretch you can use a comealong.. or a farm jack.. that's what i use for woven fence.. a farm jack.

For single strand fence like barb wire.. i use a lever type stretcher.. though it takes a 'helper' to nail the staple in while you hold the fenceline tight..

Soundguy

 

[RancherSam]

I use 2 7/8 schedule 40 pipe for the corners, 3-4 ft in the ground, 5 ft out of the ground. The horizontal part of the H being 10ft long. Cost for new pipe is around $1.90/ft. I put tposts every 10 ft, put em in by hand ( tpost pounder, a heavy pipe, for fel), the tposts run a little under $3/ft. I use goucho wire, usually 5 strands, 12" apart. Another option is 4x4 or 2x4 non climb horse fence and a starnd of barbed on the top.

 

[QRTRHRS]

Here is an idea I have been mulling over about setting T-posts. Take a jackhammer point and weld a round piece of hardened steel to it with a piece of pipe a few inches long which would be slipped over the T-post.

I have an HF electric jack hammer. I figure I could strap my generator onto my flatbed pickup along with a supply of T-posts. Have someone drive the truck following a line stretched out taunt with the spacing marked out. Mount one of those corner post levels on the hammer to roughly keep things square and go to it.

I have seen this concept used to drive ground rods albeit with a smaller hammer.

Comments?

 

[Soundguy]

You'd have to stand on the back of the truck.. or trailer deck.. or have a step stool with you... but guess it could work.

Soundguy

 

[weldingisfun]

Here is an idea I have been mulling over about setting T-posts. Take a jackhammer point and weld a round piece of hardened steel to it with a piece of pipe a few inches long which would be slipped over the T-post.

I have an HF electric jack hammer. I figure I could strap my generator onto my flatbed pickup along with a supply of T-posts. Have someone drive the truck following a line stretched out taunt with the spacing marked out. Mount one of those corner post levels on the hammer to roughly keep things square and go to it.

I have seen this concept used to drive ground rods albeit with a smaller hammer.

Comments?

Been there, done that, doesn't work. I had the exact same thing you are describing welded up by a pro. It lasted less than two minutes. Took it back to him and he welded the dickens out of it, that time it lasted maybe five minutes. I welded it up a third time inside and outside the cup using 6011 rod with 100 amps and again it broke. I was also using a HF electrioc hammer.
You best bet is to either by the cup, $60 to $70, or rent one. I did that for $12 for the weekend.
One last thing. Trying to lift, hold and balance that 80 electric hammer on top of a wobbling t-post will beat the you-know-what out of you real fast.
QRTRHRS, your best bet is to rent a pneumatic rotary hammer drill with a 24 inch bit, drill a hole, then drive the t-post into the hole the old fashioned way.

 

[citytransplant]

A hand post driver slipped over the top prior to pushing down with FEL is a great idea, MikePA. I will go that route next time.

Texasjohn, not sure of why you use the cover/sheath. Does it add an additional measure of rigidity during the bucket push down stage?

After gittin' zapped a couple of times, my horses won't touch the poly rope, but my mouthy appaloosa sure likes to pop the yellow caps off when she's bored. My wife is very fussy about her horses and is always checking the posts to be sure they are covered.

In addition to using the bucket to drive posts, I have become fairly adept at using the bucket lip to pop/pry/pull post out by exerting just enough forward pressure on one of the post lugs closest to the ground while simultaneously curling the bucket lip slowly upward.

A picture taken today of horses in snow attached along with another taken this summer showing simple braided wire fencing used in our dry lot.

 

[Spiveyman]

Texasjohn gave me this idea a while back. I don't usually have help when I'm working on the farm, so this was a one man job. Probably not as perfect as you'd like, but I'm keeping Texas Longhorns in, not horses in this part. I just had to get it done.



I sighted the depth by the driver and the hood as shown in that last shot. I would start them by hand, and I used 8' T-posts, so that was a bit of a stretch for a regular height feller. Once I got them started I used a real light push by the FEL letting off the pressure every few inches or so to keep the post true, and they drove pretty good, well, pretty good like I said for a one man show doing this in the dark to keep the horns where they were supposed to be. There was already a fence, but it wasn't tall enough and no electricity.