Removing fence posts

[chi6488]

Getting my mx5100 hst in about a week. First order of business will be to widen the entrance gate to the property.

I dropped off the travel trailer saturday and barely made it through the gate b/c I did not have room to straighten out the trailer much after the left turn.

I was thinking either chain to fel or drawbar and chain with 3 point hitch. I hear the 3 point has more lifting power.

I need to do this soon to get my boat through the gate. The boat is wider than travel trailer and the boat trailer itself is longer than the travel trailer.

I think the gate post has cement and I doubt the other posts would have cement.

Anyone tried this with this size tractor?? I am new to all this farm stuff and this is my first time using a tractor.

 

[bucktaker]

Chain and 3 pt hitch should do it. bump the post and rock it to loosen if necessary.

 

[johnk]

I'd wiggle it back and forth using the FEL and then chain it to the 3PT hitch. Lift up and drive forward. If it won't lift push it around some more with the FEL and try again.. Good luck.

 

[Kyle241]

Congrats on the new MX5100, nice tractor. Not really sure the best way to remove posts as I use my BH to these types of jobs. I am sure someone will chime in with which method is best.

 

[TripleR]

I haven't done it lately, but use to always use the 3PH with a horizontal drawbar and chains. I would certainly do it with the one in concrete; FEL might be OK depending on soil type/moisture and the size if the post. I pulled a cross tie we used as a post not long ago with the 5030 and FEL, but if I was going to do more, I would have dropped the cutter and used the 3PH.

 

[gwdixon]

How about some more information. Is it a wooden gate post? chain link style pipe post? a simple T post? or something else?

Soak the ground for a couple of days to get the soil soft all the way to the bottom of the concrete. Soaking the non-concrete posts helps as well if they have been in the ground for years. If done right the posts can almost be taken out by hand.

The suggestions by the guys in the entries above are solid - especially one about rocking the post (with wet ground) using the FEL. Be careful if the post is wood. Snapping it off at ground level makes for a PIA.

Your tractor should handle the job easily.

 

[crackerjack222]

I have removed a number of fence posts using a chain over a truck wheel rim, using a tractor to pull the chain. Using the wheel rim as a fulcrum converts the forward motion of the tractor to a pull-up force. We tried the 3ph first with no luck. The chain over the rim method worked much better.

 

[chi6488]

It is 6" round wooden post. Property has 3 board wooden fence

 

[gwdixon]

It is 6" round wooden post. Property has 3 board wooden fence

Yeah, you're going to have to be careful with that. Even pressure treated wooden posts can be brittle when they age.

Try the soaking method and then use the corner of your bucket to try to move the concrete in the ground. Rock from one side then the other.

Dig in the bucket's corner a couple of inches to make sure you get a good hold on the concrete. If you get a good hold you might be able to use the curl to lift it out a bit at a time.

Whatever you do, try not to sheer off the wooden post. That is, line up the bucket so that if it slips off as you are pushing forward it won't catch the post.

 

[grsthegreat]

The only way ive been able to remove 6x6 concrete based post over the years is to use the corner of my FEL bucket and pop the entire thing out of the ground. I generally approach it from several sides and dig a bit and pry a bit on it, and only when the ground is damp (spring or heavy rainfall). Ive been able to always pull post and concrete this way. Just chaining alone generally snapped the post above the concrete.