Jobs you used to do

[Charolais]

I like the ez-tpost drivers.. it's a piece of about 2.5" heavy wall pipe with a cap welded on the top and 2 handles welded to it.. slide it over post, and pound away with ease.. pounder is weighted and does alot of the work itself.. prevents glancing blows from a sledge from throwing metal bits and making metal spears..

soundguy

Just my opinion but those drivers like that should be outlawed. Way to many folks have ruined their shoulders with those things. Including me. Read on several cattle sites and many say the same thing. Maybe we drove to many over the years. I use the loader now and sold the hand driver for scrap steel on the last load I hauled off.

 

[PA hayseed]

I like the ez-tpost drivers.. it's a piece of about 2.5" heavy wall pipe with a cap welded on the top and 2 handles welded to it.. slide it over post, and pound away with ease.. pounder is weighted and does alot of the work itself.. prevents glancing blows from a sledge from throwing metal bits and making metal spears..

soundguy

I understand your "point" issue, but I have always hated those t post pounders. Fixes you in to one position to pound. I agree that it is easier than a sledge, but then again, I rather use my bucket now. The t post went in and down in about 3 seconds each. Slow steady down pressure.

 

[Soundguy]

Just my opinion but those drivers like that should be outlawed. Way to many folks have ruined their shoulders with those things. Including me. Read on several cattle sites and many say the same thing. Maybe we drove to many over the years. I use the loader now and sold the hand driver for scrap steel on the last load I hauled off.

I don't see a direct corelation in a post driver and bad shoulders. with the product safety laws out there.. if there was even a hint of a design defect that caused an ergonomic problem or physical problem.. they would be outlawed.. just look at the problems with zicam... 8 billion units sold over the years.. 130 complaints and it's off the market.

sounds like there might have been some shoulder problems already.. and then they became aggrivated??

soundguy

 

[Bird]

I don't see a direct corelation in a post driver and bad shoulders.

Chris, when you slam that thing down, that jarring impact affects your wrists and shoulders considerably. A direct correlation? I'm no doctor, so I can't say for sure, but I sure do believe there is one, and I know the last few times I used one of those things, it got pretty painful.

 

[patrick_g]

Anyone else got something they used to do by hand that the tractor does now? Other than the obvious shoveling/dumping/carrying.

I install and remove T-posts with FEL. I also have a "Post Popper" that does pretty good.

Previously I drove some T-posts, swinging a 14 lb sledge one handed. A couple days later I couldn't put my hand in my back pocket. Was diagnosed as frozen shoulder. Two weeks later after 2 each 45 min therapy sessions per week for 2 weeks and a bunch of prescribed exercises at home I was better than before the sledge hammer incident.

Be careful with the sledge.

I find that if the dirt is hard I raise the tractor up off its front wheels and may bend a T-post instead of driving it sufficiently.

I have two post drivers of the capped pipe with handles variety. one has a spring inside and takes a little getting used to but works super. The spring helps you lift the thing nearly effortlessly.

I made an attachment for an electric demo hammer (small electric jack hammer) for driving posts. it isn't fast but will git 'er done when other methods seem to be entirely stopped.

Pat

 

[Soundguy]

I much prefer the slider style pounders vs the sledge hammers... i can knock posts in all day witht he slider.. the hammer though.. swinging it kills my arm after a couple hours..

soundguy

 

[NSBound]

I used to use all the help I could get to move the floating dock into the pond every spring, now the FEL handles it all.

Boy does THAT ring a bell! My floating dock weighs maybe 1000 lbs and 2 years ago I used a tree limb and pried on it moving the dock 3" at a time until it was in the water. I thought I was going to have 3 heart attacks. Didn't want to bother the neighbours. Now with a tractor ...

 

[coobie]

The other day I got out my sledge hammer, mini sledge, and grabbed my t post for my temporary fencing. I put up temp fencing every year around my garden. It just dawned on me that I was working harder and not smarter. So I took my mini sledge and just tapped the tpost into the ground so they didn't fall over. Then I went and got my 45hp t post pounder and went to work. I did all 40 posts in less than a 1/4 of the time I used to do it in.

I went to the house and told my wife I am an idiot. Why didn't that dawn on me a couple of years ago. Heck, I was even using the FEL to pull the posts out at the end of fall last year, and never thought about using the fel to push them in. Guess I just got stuck doing things the same way.

Anyone else got something they used to do by hand that the tractor does now? Other than the obvious shoveling/dumping/carrying.

I used to bust my back before I got a front end loader,LOL.coobie

 

[MossRoad]

sounds kinda like a post pounder.. except it would be alot easier with tpost vs wood posts.

soundguy

When I worked at the airport we used to have to drive ground rods all over the place for grounding airplanes when fueling. We had air brakes on the fuel trucks, and that meant an air tank. We hooked up a length of air hose to the tank, then used an air chisel with a cupped bit to drive 10' ground rod down through the intersections of concrete joints. Those things would zip right down in just a minute or so. So, I wonder if that type of thing would work with T posts? Put that hand operated post pounder in a couple of eye loops on the side of the FEL bucket, weld an air chisel bit to the top of it, attach the air chisel, then drive up to the posts, put the pounder over the T post and bzzzzt vibrate it down.

Anyhow, don't want to hi-jack the thread.

 

[MarkV]

I can't find it now but there is a pneumatic t-post driver on the market. I remember someone here on the forum using a generator and air compressor on a carry all with a pneumatic driver to run t-posts. Sure sounded better than the manual way to me.

MarkV