Pounding T-Posts with FEL?

[King_s_Ransom]

We have a pretty big fencing project, cross-fencing with Horse Guard tape, and I am wondering if it makes sense to pound the t-posts with the FEL on the tractor?

DH and I are both older and though I have pounded my fair share of t-posts with a manual pounder, I am not thinking I am up to doing all of this by myself. My thought was that I could get the posts started with the manual pounder, and then DH could finish pounding with the FEL (with me on the ground to tell him when he’s lined properly and when post is sufficiently pounded in).

Does this make sense? Any better ideas?

Thanks!

[TrotTrotPumpkn]

I’ve done it with a bucket on a skid. So yes, it makes sense. You have to hold on to the post for a bit so it goes in straight, so there is some danger involved. Would be easier with a third person to tell you if it is straight.

They slid in like butter in the spring, no pounding involved.

[kdreger]

FEL= front end loader?
Years ago my ex and I put in 1.5 miles of posts in just a few hours. We used the bucket on a case backhoe. I am short so I held the post lined him up and just pressed it down, no pre pounding needed. I think out of all the post we “pretzeled” 2.

[Guilherme]

In soft ground it can work. In hard and/or rocky ground get ready to break a lot posts.

G.

[Jim_in_PA]

If you have reasonably soft ground then it might be an option, but “pounding” with a FEL isn’t necessarily an easy thing, depending on the response time of the hydraulic system of your particular tractor. It’s also somewhat dangerous to do that with someone holding the tee-post if you think about it. The sliding type manual tee-post pounders are relatively easy to use…and it may be better to use one of those and “rent a teenager” if you don’t feel up to it yourselves. If you have a huge number of posts, you may be able to rent a hydraulic pounder designed for the job if your tractor is setup for such things or rent a full machine with the capability otherwise.

[moving_to_dc]

[QUOTE=kdreger;8139836]
FEL= front end loader?
Years ago my ex and I put in 1.5 miles of posts in just a few hours. We used the bucket on a case backhoe. I am short so I held the post lined him up and just pressed it down, no pre pounding needed. I think out of all the post we “pretzeled” 2.[/QUOTE]

Same experience here… We use the FEL all the time. Never a problem. Not ever tried in what I would consider “rocky” soil, though.

[Tom_King]

If you can push them in, it’s possible. If you need to hit them with the loader, you’ll probably bend them, or at least some of them. If the ground is damp, I can push ground rods down about 6’ with my bucket (70hp JD).

[Mallard]

[QUOTE=Tom King;8139977]
If you can push them in, it’s possible. If you need to hit them with the loader, you’ll probably bend them, or at least some of them. If the ground is damp, I can push ground rods down about 6’ with my bucket (70hp JD).[/QUOTE]

Yes… no need to ‘pound’.
a slow and gentle ‘push’ down should get them in very quickly … unless you hit a rock.

[Jumper_girl221]

Agree with pushing, also filling the bucket partially with sand helps if you hit a harder patch. Just make sure its straight so you don’t end up bending the posts. I have banged them before with the bucket when pushing in harder ground and it’s not bad. What we do is the slow push, once the post is set I get out of there. Push as fat as possible and only bang if we need it in a few more inches

[King_s_Ransom]

Great information, thanks! We do not have rocky soil, it would be extremely unusual to hit a rock out here (not saying it couldn’t happen, but …)

I bet we will be able to push them in easily with the FEL if we get going sooner rather than later. Thanks again!

[Bluey]

I just put up a long line of t-posts with this:

http://www.danuser.com/attachments/post-drivers/t3-driver

It comes with a plate with two holes you bolt to the side of your bucket, hook the hydraulics and it pounds the posts in, in no time and without effort at all.
That one will drive up to a 3" post.
They make big ones, called “The Hammer”, some of those have grapples to grab the posts for you right off the ground, truly one man operation those.

Some rental places have those, check around your area.

Now, I cheated, walked along with a two step stool and the manual pounder to start them.
I am so short, I didn’t reach to take the manual pounder off, that is why the stool.
Once they were all in line and straight, I went along with the driver and was pounding about two post a minute, didn’t damage or bent any of them, got them all straight.
Two people, one holding the post onto the driver, I bet you can go much faster.

That driver is very safe, the post goes in there about 5" and it has a cylinder that moves up and down a few inches, about 6 times a second, tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.
it only works when a post is touching the cylinder in there and someone is holding the hydraulic lever open.
The stroke is so small it doesn’t break posts, very safe.
We will be using it to drive the 2 7/8" pipe post for the pens we are working on.

Wish you were closer, you could borrow it, if you wanted to try it.

We used to push them in with the FEL, with a long pipe, so they would not bend, but it was hard to get them straight, so we had to push them over by hand to straighten them after getting them in.

I just pounded three post a while ago where one neighbor had run into a fence with his tractor and, since we had plenty of rain lately, it was like butter going in there.
If you get to it right away, you don’t need other than the manual pounder, give that a try first.

[cottonwood]

We’ve built a lot of fence pushing the T-posts in with a loader bucket. You don’t pound, you push them smoothly into the ground. Definitely easier this time of year than after a dry August. If Kansas has gotten the recent thunderstorms that Missouri has, you should have no problem this month.

Hint: Cut a length of 2x4 or 2x6 the height you want the posts to stick out of the ground. Hold this next to the post as the bucket pushes it into the ground - when the bucket hits the top of the board, stop pushing. All your posts will be the same height.

Push with the post off to one side of the center of the bucket so that it’s easy for the loader operator to see the progress.

[King_s_Ransom]

Bluey – thanks for the advice about the t-post driver! I am looking at this one: http://www.bucketdriver.com.

Yes, we have had a lot of rain so need to get started soon!

[Bluey]

[QUOTE=King’s Ransom;8141273]
Bluey – thanks for the advice about the t-post driver! I am looking at this one: http://www.bucketdriver.com.

Yes, we have had a lot of rain so need to get started soon![/QUOTE]

Something like that is what we made decades ago, except we used a long strong pipe, so if we hit something the post would not bend.
That worked fine on softer ground, but not so much the past years, when the ground was like concrete in the drought.
Then we had to keep pounding on them with the bucket, pushing was not going anywhere.
We did make a little auger and tried drilling holes first, then sticking the posts in there and finishing pushing them in, but really, driving them in is better, one way or another.
That is why we went ahead and bought the hydraulic driver, but it really is too much money if you don’t have many fences to build over years.

For what you want, most anything you can make work and if it takes you a bit longer is no problem, not like you are building fences for a living and need to hurry to get to the next job.
Really, as soft as our ground is right now, posts practically drive themselves just from the weight of our manual post pounder, that we made years ago from an old piece of pipe.
Right now, I can put the end of the arm on the loader on top of a post and push it in, without anything else, the ground is so soft.
You could not do that here for years, it was so hard.

Give that a try, may just work for you.

[wildlifer]

[QUOTE=Mallard;8140260]
Yes… no need to ‘pound’.
a slow and gentle ‘push’ down should get them in very quickly … unless you hit a rock.[/QUOTE]

Yep, I wait until the ground is soft after some good rain. I set a small t-post driver on top of the post to make a flat surface (if I don’t have help, I just do a couple whacks with driver so it will stay up), then gently ease the flat bottom of FEL into contact with driver top.

Press FEL down gently & slowly & they slide in nicely.

I also measure the post bottom & put a piece of flagging tape at the depth I want it before driving. If the FEL (tractor is smallish) doesn’t get it all the way to the tape or I hit a rock, then the driver is already on top & I only have to manually pound a couple good hits.

[Kat_the_Horse]

We used the skidsteer bucket to push our metal posts in the ground. Put a pipe over the post leaving approximately 1/3rd free. This kept the posts from bending.