removing t posts

I use chain and tractor bucket. It is always much easier when I saturate the ground around the post with water.

WOW!!
some of yall are working too hard at pulling posts. lol

just buy you a t-post puller. they come out in a matter of seconds.

__________________
"Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee."

Exactly! It's a piece of cake to pull them and it doesn't require any machinery that operates on gas or diesel!

Some of the older car jacks work really well.

Hey.

A puller is best. Rocking them back-and-forth often breaks off the spade on the end...negating your chance of saving them intact.

RF

__________________
It's not good enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required. - Winston Churchill

I've used the "wriggle method" on thousands of posts and never broken one, BUT....
My neighbor lost an eye pulling a T posts. He was wriggling it back and forth and went to pull it out when it broke just below ground. He fell over backwards and hit his head. When he got up, his vision was blurry in one eye. He can see "shapes", but nothing else.

One of these days I NEED to get a puller. The old back and knees can't take it anymore.

Scrounger,

What a strange accident.

Your holy grail is to find a puller...funny how you always seem to find everything except what you need;-)

RF

__________________
It's not good enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required. - Winston Churchill

I use the winch and our 4 wheeler, works like a charm. Lisa

Ya'll forgive me if this is a stupid question, but why not, rather than pull up 100's or 1000's of posts put them in the right place the first time and not mess with them anymore?

__________________
"Only the rocks [and really embarassing moments] live forever"

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands..." tick-tick-tick

LOL! That's what DH said! He said he can see the occasional moving of a post or two, but that's all.

__________________
Before you marry someone, ask yourself, "Will they be a good killing partner during the zombie apocalypse?"
-someecards.com

I use a lot of "temporary" fence, usually to confine the goats to a problem patch so they can clean it up.
When they get done, I pull the posts and move the "fence" to the next place.
That's one reason to pull posts I guess.

__________________
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mark Twain
______________________________________________

Enforced tolerance is oppression

ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

I feel the same way about the one a friend let me borrow indefinitely. I don't use it often, but it really is the best thing since sliced bread.

__________________
"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy

A great buy on a t-post puller...


http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=38444

A method almost as good as the t-post puller that nobody's mentioned ...

1) Get a sturdy piece of lumber, say, a 4X4, or a piece of scrap angle iron. Something without a lot of flex or give in it, and several feet long.

2) Chain the cross-piece two thirds of the way down its length securely and tightly at ground level to the t-post, so that the chain is "caught" on the bumps on the t-post and won't slip up or down, and the cross piece is horizontal to the ground. Make a cross. If the ground is really muddy, put a board under the short end. This isn't usually necessary.

Yep, you're making a fulcrum.

3) Grab the long end of your cross piece. And pull up. This will lever your t-post right out of the ground.

Voila, a homemade t-post puller.

-- Leva

Besides temporary fences, people like me scrounge a lot of fencing. Ya gotta pull them from the fence someone else is getting rid of. There are also the ones that have been in the fencerow for 40 years and the fencerow needs clearing out, or the cattle have done a number on the fence. It could even be that the guy who had the place before you never took care of ANYTHING and the fences are overgrown with trees so you need to replace the whole she-bang.....

I figured if they'd been in 40 years they weren't worth spit so just snatch em with a chain along with the old wire that ain't worth spit. I'll look into a fence puller if I ever need to move any for some reason. Do they work better than the lifts on the back of a tractor?

__________________
"Only the rocks [and really embarassing moments] live forever"

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands..." tick-tick-tick

Dunno. I've got dozens that have been in the ground since the 60's that the PAINT is still good on. It would be a HUGE waste to just send them to China when they have lots of life left in them.
At over $3.20 a post, I can't afford to buy new, especially when the used ones work just the same. The man who bought the farm next door decided to tear out fences this winter to enlarge the field. He gave me over 150 steel posts and another 150 Hedge (and other) wood posts. Some of the posts (both wood and steel), my Dad helped put in, in the 60's. I an VERY glad to get them! I even have some used barb wire that has been hanging for 30 years - still has the galvanized paint on it. It will last another 30. ALL of the woven wire I have has been used before. Even some of the T post CLIPS are used. I figure that if it isn't rusted to the point of brittle, then it still has life left. I was lucky on these posts, though. He and his boys pulled them all and piled them for me. Normally, I only find them at 10-12 at a time. I DO need to get a puller though, it makes pulling them WAY easier. I have used my Tractor Jack (Handyman) for stubborn ones. I do know that there is a HUGE difference in pulling them in April, as apposed to pulling them in July....

Well, a puller costs a lot less than a tractor! If I had a tractor and just a few posts to pull, I'd use the tractor. Before I got a puller, I pried them out with a do-it-yourself fulcrum as some posts have described. For moving or rebuilding an entire fence line, I'd take a puller over a tractor.

LOL because there is no RIGHT place!
Life changes.Plans change . Even the earth changes so fences need moved.
One of the beauties of the steel post is that it is so easy to move.
I know a sheep herder who pastures sheep on different fields,he has fence moving down to a art. He has a rig on his truck that will either suck up a T post or put it down and rolls up or unrolls woven wire at the same time.
Now if it wold only take care of the fence fastenings!

For justs few posts in soft ground the wiggle and pull method is fine ,if they need a bit more persuasion than you can muster drive the front edge of a shovel into the post about 6 inches below ground level and lever it up eventually either it will pull up or you will dig it out!

do you have a plow on your truck ?
the piston that lifts the plow with a short length of chain works well