Does anyone, particularly in the NE US, have Derby brand HDPE horse/livestock fencing? I’m interested in opinions. Also, if you have this, have you been successful attaching “aftermarket” hotwire or no-climb fencing to it? Thanks!
I don’t have the Derby brand but I do have the Wind River HDPE fence. Absolutely love it. Am in New England.
I remember looking at the Derby and IIRC the Derby has internal ribs whereas the Wind River is hollow.
I don’t have anything attached to it. It’s a nice combination of being a substantial fence but also being horse friendly with the breakaway pins that I’ve never felt the need for a backup. The only times I’ve had a rail pop out is when my big mare with a very itchy tail rubs so hard you can actually see the whole fence bow out a bit while she’s rubbing. But the worst that’s happened is that one end of the second rail from the top might come out. The top rail has a metal pin rather than a breakaway one so the top rail never pops out.
I did pay extra for 4 rail over 3 rail. The 3 rail IIRC was only 4 and a half feet tall and I wanted taller.
I have considered adding no climb when I briefly thought about having some free range chickens. To do that, I think you’d need to line the rails you want to attach the fence to with a 1x4 to give something for your fastener to bite into. This is what we did for all of the posts with gates (although there we used 4x4s).
As an install tip, I’d put 4x4s in all starting and ending points and in all corners. We did not do that and it’s 100% fine, but some of the end posts have started to lean. They are just in a gravel filled hole rather than being cemented or driven in (because they are hollow). This method of installing the posts was recommended by the company and it seemed to go much faster than cementing would have.
Thanks for this detailed reply! When you say “line the rails” do you mean slide a piece of wood inside the rail so it becomes a wood core surrounded by the HDPF rail shell? This is an interesting idea - would you do the same for the posts in the area of no-climb as well? I would envision no-climb being installed via attachment along the top rail of the three-rail, and down the posts of the applicable area.
Yes, like a wood core. Except that if you just need something for the staples/screws/nails to bite into, I think you could save some $$ by just using a 1x4. No need for a 2x4 that would fill in the rails more.
For the posts, if you are going to attach the no-climb to them directly, yes, I’d say you would need to do the same thing.
Because the HDPE is hollow, there’s just not enough material for a fastener to grab on to. A staple would just slide out, as would a nail. A screw possibly could work but I personally wouldn’t count on it.
1 Like
