Hog wire attachment

[Anonymous Poster]

Has anyone ever seen a tractor attachment used for helping put up a fence using Hog Wire? I watched a neighbor struggling with putting up a fence and have a couple of designs in my head, but do not want to re-invent the wheel, if there is already one out there? I did a search on the forums and came up with nada!

 

[tdenny]

jph,

You've gotten my curiosity. What have you cooked up. I have been stringing up non-climb horse fence (5 foot by 100 foot). I have wrestled with many of these rolls. They are extremely heavy and cumbersome. If I was as large as Gary from Indiana /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif this probably wouldn't be an issue but since I am nowhere near his size your post has me drooling.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I have a couple of designs in mind. I have to figure out if it needs to be done from behind the tractor or be able to swing from side to side clearing the tires. It has to be capped on top and bottom with compression rods to keep the wire straight and tight. I will be trying a few things this week and will post the results.

 

[Woody1]

just a thought for you to help in your design. When we lived on the farm, we made a homemade "thingy" to do fencing. simple.....use a rod to go down the middle, turn a used disk blade upside down(bevel up to the roll end). This went on the hitch. The neat part that dad designed went on the 3ph, and another disk blade on top of the roll, then lower the 3ph with this thing made of angle irons that hooked to the arms, and the center arm, and lowered into the roll of material on the hitch via a hydrolic cylinder. This worked with everything from tall horse fencing to a roll of barbed wire. When we sold the farm at an auction, this thingy brought in the most of any attachment that we had. Even more than the sidewinder(sidewinder was like a giant rotor tiller with planter boxes on it too. 1 pass through the field did it all. Didnt much like cleaning the twine out of it after planting season tho after we feed our cattle in the fioeld all winter long!)

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

TD:
I have also strung some non-climb horse fence. It is miserable stuff to work with.
I welded up a square-tube T with a swivel hook at the end. I shove it through the center of the roll of wire and then pick it up with a bit of chain to the boom on the front of my Power Trac 1845. A 3 point boom would work as well. I then run down the row of poles, with the wire unwinding. If it is a long enough run, I may stop and lash the top of the wire to a post now and then to keep it from falling down. Once it's strung, I hook a stretcher, pull it tight against the posts and staple. The horse wire is so stiff that I can actually spin all four wheels of the PT without getting the fence completely flat tight. It's close enough, however.
The T device took a half hour to make from scrap, and has saved hours of wrestling with the wire, not to mention application of the specialized fencing language that used to accompany any non-climb wire job.

 

[jbs]

Interesting....I have to replace a bunch of fencing. I think I will start with a carry all and add a cross member, then make a spool with plywood circles, a threaded rod to match the length of the fence roll and 4 in P.V.C. to go over the rod. It might be too flip-floppy so maybe a temporary clamp-on brace to run from the rops to the top of the spool.Dont know if you could control the tension w/o binding the wire, might have to just lock the spool when you get past the last post and pull with the tractor???????????????

 

[Woody1]

dont use pvc.....use a pipe over pipe. pvc will break

 

[jph_in_Bama]

I may be over engineering, but my thought was for a attachment (going to use a hitch type for starters) that has 4 ft arms (top and bottom) that will swing to either side of the tractor to get as close as possible to the fence line. The bottom and top arm will have a "turntable" attached for easy spooling. Coming off of the arms will be a "channel" to tread the wire through at least 2 rolling tension rods (adjust the tension as disired) I "think" that will hopefully eliminate the wire coming off the spool with slack in either the top or the bottom. This is going to be interesting because most of it will have to be pinned together for ease of moving from one side of the tractor to the other, as well as making storage easier. there will be a steel rod that the arms will swing on, and the top arm will lift up and down to "cap" the fence roll from the top. Don't know how well it will work yet, but having a great time with the new welder!

 

[tdenny]

Charlie_Iliff,

Thanks for the input. I am very familiar with that fencing language you mention. I have used my tractor to stretch against and it has worked pretty well. The only problem I have is that many of the areas I am fencing I can't even get my tractor to or on. I think I'll use your method in the other areas that I can get to. Nice solution.