Getting T-posts to stand straight again – or give up?

[JoZ]

Last winter, several successive wind and rain storms took the “hot” out of the hot wire that goes around the tops of my fences. The fence is no-climb on wood posts that have T-posts between them.

In places the horses were able to (a) figure out that the top of the fence wasn’t hot anymore, and (b) reach delicious grass morsels by leaning out over the fence. As a result the T-posts are at something of an angle. I strung up the hot wire from wooden post to wooden post but I don’t like that particularly – I would rather have it anchored to T-posts as well. I’m afraid though that if I push the T-posts to a vertical position I will just be loosening them in the soil, particularly since the rains have already begun in Western Washington.

On the other hand, replacing T-posts that are anchored to the no-climb fencing doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun. Which would you recommend? If I stomped hard enough around the T-posts once I pushed them upright, do you suppose it would be stable enough? I wish we had eked out another couple of weeks of dryness; my summer to-do list isn’t quite done!

[Dani]

If they’re in a straight line then you can run a line of slick wire and attach all of the posts to that. You could also purposefully loosen each one and pour a bit of concrete around each one. I find the slick wire to be easier, but both methods should work.

[crosscreeksh]

When the ground is soft and damp…push the posts up straight and tamp the dirt around then with an iron rod…and turn the electric on!! On a long run of fence you may have to put a temporary brace against a couple of posts until the ground tightens back up.

[Heinz_57]

My experience, having had a line of no climb that leans at quite the angle… Is that you will just make them looser by trying to just push them upright again. Really need to pull them and reset, assuming the posts aren’t bent themselves. I just left mine, strung a nice hot wire across the top with cap insulators and my old grouch is pretty respectful of fences so won’t go anywhere near it. But for the younger and more mischievous set, I would definitely pull and reset everything so its closer to upright and less tempting to lean on or jump over.