T-post driver?

After a lifetime of hand digging postholes, and driving T posts, this past summer I paid a guy an outrageous price to build about 500 feet of fence. I cleared the fencerow, and pulled a lot of the old posts, got rid of the old wire, but I refused to tear my shoulder apart again putting posts in.

Once upon a time, we lived on 45 acres that had gray and yellow clay hardpan about a food under the topsoil. Had sandstone rocks mixed in it. One summer day, I spent the ENTIRE day diggin a hole for a corner post. At the end of that, I had curled the ends of the stab-'n-grab diggers many times, cracked the steel, welded it back together and ground it slick 3 times, and finished with them about an inch shorter than at the start.

Oh, yeah. AND I had a torn rotator cuff that still gives me fits. I DID get the post put in that day, torn shoulder and all. Next morning, and for the next 3 months, I couldn't pick up a cup of coffee with that hand.

To each his own here.

Anyone ever done this? Or is it pointless because a pnuematic driver essentially turn your t-post into a jackhammer?

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http://www.lindsayfarmonsilvercreek.blogspot.com/

This is what I did, paid $100 to get 125 posts driven. He was done in a couple of hours and all I had to do was layout and gauge the depth for him. That young man was pleased to make a c note for a few hours work, and i was pleased to not be sore for days....win/win.
dp

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Nope its really 4 feet Gary, very common here in the Ozarks and I have them on my back pasture. I think they are kind of unsightly personally but they are basically just a wire cage filled with loose rock to act as your corner post. Mine date back decades and are still doing the job.

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www.salmonslayer-simplelife.blogspot.com

Our area was so rocky originally that the farmer built stone walls for fencing. Quite a few of them are still around after 150 years or so. They ARE labor intensive, but you only have to do it ONCE. And the materials are free.

You wouldn't use the t-post while creating the hole. The bits for both
the demolition hammer and jack hammers are much harder steel then a
t-post. Shouldn't break the t-posts doing this and it should also make it
much easier on the back, shoulders and arms when finally putting the
t-posts in. That's my theory anyway.

You can buy a pnuematic t-post driver by the way. But then you are
back in the same boat of breaking or bending the t-posts. T-posts these
days are made with cheap and crappy steel.

Most of those had a lot of maintenance to them, you added to the wall as you 'harvested' the rocks from the fields. Its amazing how many rocks you can grow in a year.

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Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

We kind of think of the rocks as a crop.
New ones show up all the time.

Had a tree get hit by lighting not long ago.
Blew the tree out of the ground and it burned but it also blew up a
whole bunch of bowling ball sized rocks. More rocks.

we did a lot by hand and by tractor bucket. It was very very hard. It is best to do it when it is wet they drive better. I too figured there had to be a better way so I caled a fencing company to see if they could drive them easier as we have limestone rocks everywhere.

They brought out a bobcat w/ a vibrating driver and sunk the posts in no time. It was the best spent money. We could strech the wire and such but getting the posts in the ground was horrid. I will never have dh or family hand drive posts again. Driveing posts in between rock is way to hard on the back.

Each person has to decide what they are going to do by hand, and what they will use machinery to assist. Me, I use my cordless drill for everything, and don't miss hand drills and hand screwdrivers all that much for large amounts of repetitive work.

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We will meet in the golden city, called the New Jerusalem,
All our pain and all our tears will be no more.....

Yeah I'm looking for a place to rent one that will drive wooden posts as well as T-posts. Got over a half mile to do sometime soon.

You can have one built out of 2.5 inch pipe and a 3 point hitch. THe pipe slides up and down and has a cylinder to run it. It more or less pushes it down. I also have made a sleeve to hold a t post in an impact post driver.

And when they were young they walked to school barefoot uphill in the snow both ways

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If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, water your grass

LOL

Probably what made 'em tough enough to still be fencing in their 80s.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

ain't it the truth.. our rocks are only covered by a quarter inch of grass~!

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Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid.
John Wayne

That's what we have...the thing is awesome.

Wow, I guess I better quit moaning about the rocky soil here in NY. I sunk 15 heavy duty 6' T posts in an hour this morning, with one of the tube post pounders (and I'm kinda old, and a female). Ten more and I'm calling it done for the day.

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I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a man who had no feet.

Yeah but does anyone rent them.. I don't want to buy one.

Learn something new every day. (Today I learned to put my glasses on and read the posts instead of assuming it said what I thought it said! )

Thanks, salmonslayer.

How about an Earth Auger?

http://www.bigjacktools.com/index.ph...ex&cPath=83_85