Tips/ Tricks to remove broken wood fence posts

[Scar0B2150]

Hey folks, I'm looking for any Tips/ Tricks to remove broken wood fence posts. We have several posts on our 5 acres that have seen better days. Most are broken at ground level. They are 2' in the ground and NOT set in concrete. The ground is topsoil, then clay/river rock, so I would prefer not to have to dig new holes. Driving in the pointed wood posts is not an option with the rocks. I have tractor access to some of the posts, but a lot are thru the trees, over embankments, ect.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

[oosik]

I think it's time to get out the 'ol manual clam-shell post hole digger. What you "prefer" may not be an option.

 

[Scar0B2150]

I think it's time to get out the 'ol manual clam-shell post hole digger. What you "prefer" may not be an option.

I cut brush and did that the first time. Around the entire perimeter of our 5 acres when we bought it many many years ago. It hadn't been surveyed in over 40 years, had almost no markers, and no posts set. It took me close to 6 months working off an on back then.
I'm not a young buck by any means and the kids are long out of the house.
So I'm trying to make it as easy as I can on myself and my wife.

 

[Hay Dude]

Hey folks, I'm looking for any Tips/ Tricks to remove broken wood fence posts. We have several posts on our 5 acres that have seen better days. Most are broken at ground level. They are 2' in the ground and NOT set in concrete. The ground is topsoil, then clay/river rock, so I would prefer not to have to dig new holes. Driving in the pointed wood posts is not an option with the rocks. I have tractor access to some of the posts, but a lot are thru the trees, over embankments, ect.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Since you have a tractor with loader, I would slip chain through the fence posts and pluck them out with loader. I just did that on a farm field for a customer, but I used my bale spear. Incredibly easy that way. For the ones inaccessible with tractor, a “hi-lift jack” works great. They sell them at Harbor Freight for ~$50.
Handy as a pocket on a shirt around the farm.

 

[Scar0B2150]

Thanks for the suggestions. Most of the posts I need to replace are broken off at ground level.

 

[Hay Dude]

Thanks for the suggestions. Most of the posts I need to replace are broken off at ground level.

Dig a shallow circular trench around the post with a mattock, deep enough to wrap a chain or cable around. Use a slip knot tied to loader and pull upward or use hi lift jack.
If there’s a gazillion of them and this is too much work, might be easier to relocate new posts to new holes and just buzz off the existing posts to ground level.

 

[Mendonsy]

Another possibility would be to run a long 3/8" lag screw into the top of the broken off post and connect a chain from your loader to the lag screw to pull out the post stub.

 

[oosik]

I "re-installed" the fence around my 80 acres when we moved on the property. 1320 x 2640. 745 T-145 posts - four strands of EverSharp barbed wire. That was 40 years ago. I quit having nightmares about this thirty years ago. 165 or so posts are in solid basaltic lava. The last of the "L - shaped fence line supports" were converted to T-145 posts four years ago. The neighbor has a commercial jack hammer and would come over every spring - for five years. Thirty or so post - every spring.

If I close my eyes and listen very carefully - I can still hear the "ringing" of my homemade manual pounder. Driving in the posts.

 

[Diggin It]

How many? What size/diameter? Are you removing/abandonng or replacing? Is there still fence wire involved? What the condition of the rest of the post?


If you want to keep the fence in place and the remainder of the post(s) above ground is still decent, can you drive T posts beside them and strap to it?

 

[ponytug]

I have a post driver on my Power-Trac 1445, so perhaps a different viewpoint. Around here it is clay soil, rocky, but fractured rock below that. The only fence posts that last here are old growth, and I mean old growth, redwood. Everything else rots out, steel t-posts included, but especially pressure treated "ground contact" 8x8s. I recycle every redwood post that I can.

If I can get the posts out with a chain, I do. If they are too far gone, I don't sweat it and drive another post in on top of them. Works great. The ones that are too far gone are usually rotted out or insect eaten below grade, so they aren't much barrier to a new post.

For your posts that are in inaccessible to your tractor, have you considered renting a two man auger?

If you can't get to it with your tractor, I would consider renting an ASV type track loader with an auger to get the job done. The ASVs have some of the best slope tolerances of skid steers.

All the best,

Peter