Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Still pulling fence

I pulled most of the fence posts by hand.  I dig a divot on one side and pour in about a gallon of water.  Then I wiggle the post to provide a channel next to the post for the water to work its way down.

A five gallon bucket holds enough for....class.....class..., the answer is "five" posts.  Often the water has soaked in completely on the first post by the time I am done with the fifth post.  I latch ahold of the post down low with my left wrist on my left knee.  I use the strength of my lower legs.

Lifting with my back is bad.

Some posts are stubborn


A few are in rocky soil.

Most of the stubborn ones were used by cattle as scratching posts.  They bend it.  The push it down.  The bend it.  The push it down.  Rarely do they bend it in a consistent direction.  In essence, the screw the post down into the ground.

My friends David and Elizabeth have a fancy tool that I borrow to pull those posts.

The lever gives a mechanical advantage of about 8:1.  The geometry is set up so the user can work it like a pump handle, up-and-down, up-and-down and the gripper walks down the nubs on the post.
The tool is not perfect.  Some of the posts are driven so deeply into the ground that the tool will not grab them.

The answer is to make the tool shorter.  No.  I did not cut it.  I don't think David would appreciate that modification.

I dug a hole.


3 comments:

  1. I used to use an old bumper jack and a piece of chain to pull fence posts. Easy-peasy,

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  2. was just wondering if the tough to pull posts came in groups? Something about putting fence posts in during a waxing moon if they were permanent, and putting them in during a waning moon if one intended to remove them in the near future.

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  3. I use an old bumper jack with a foot of chain too. That set up will also pull out rebar stakes is left in the ground after political signage is removed. I guess the politicians take down the signs to avoid problems, but leave behind the anonymous rebar. Happy rebar harvesting ;-)

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