Working near a fence

[joshuabardwell]

I was doing some box blading today, trying to clean up the area where the pigs were. They root right up to their fence, which is only about 12" off the main fence, so there is a tiny berm of dirt all along where their fence was. Trying to pick it up, I eased the tractor right in next to the fence and made a pass. The ground slopes, so the tractor was leaned toward the fence. This meant that as I picked up my box blade at the end of the pass, it hit the fence and lifted a fence post right out of the ground! I lowered it back down and was presented with a different problem: with the loader and the box blade on, and me edged right up against the fence, I had some tight maneuvering to do to get off the fence without hitting it with the loader or the blade's swing-out. I actually ran into the problem before once while mowing; the bush hog stuck out even farther than the blade. Anyway, I raised the loader all the way up and was able to back away from the fence. While it was up there, I used the loader to squish back down the post that I pulled. Good as new!

I have some broken-off fence posts that I need to pull out of the ground, as soon as the neighbor mills replacements for me. Looks like the three-point is going to have no problem accomplishing that task.

Today's lesson: you can get real close to a fence by sidling up to it, but once you're at the end of the run, it's going to be a lot harder to sidle away. Also: when working close to a fence with heavy machinery, a tiny little slip will mess it all up.

[creekbend]

Sorry about your misfortune. I try my best to allow more distance than I previously calculated when working around fences.

[k0ua]

I have a wooden Garage building that I have to work up against from time to time. I need to maintain a gravel bank that washes once in a while. It wasn't' bad when I had the L3400hst but the Kioti I have now is just a bit wider and I have to fit between a tree and the building for about 2 inches of clearance. I have done it many times and never have hit the building yet... Notice I said yet.. I really appreciate the Hydrostat transmission when see-sawing around. next to the building. It allows a level of precision much easier than a manual transmission would. I have pretty well gotten the bank so nicely level that there is no washing out any more, as I haven't had to do anything in almost 9 months.

James K0UA

[GGB]

Someone once told me 祢t ain't farming if you ain't snagging something!". Just last fall I managed to snag my neighbor's pasture fence with the front end loader while I was watching the brush mower while trying to negotiate a turn into the lane near his barn. The good news is that it was right where he wants to widen the corner to make it easier to maneuver. Now I'm waiting to find out when I get to help him make the corner wider!

My other story-back about 15 years ago, I was discing a field up at the farm with an outside corner t-post for an electric fence next to our neighbor's pasture. I was wanting to get close without hitting it. Well, I didn't hit the post, but got close enough to peal away enough dirt to allow the post to fall over! Then I made matters worse by trying to step on the blade of the post to reset it while wearing an old pair of tennis shoes. You've probably already guessed the next-when I put pressure on the blade of the post, I sliced right through the sole of my tennis shoe into my foot. That earned a trip to the emergency room for a tetanus shot!

[powerpace]

I have had many fences jump in front of me. Also irrigation pipe, tree and a guy named Jose that stepped in front of the irrigation-pipe trailer I was pulling. No injury to anyone but the fence always loses.

[SSdoxie]

I think most of us have gotten hung up like Joshua at one time or another. Food for thought the next time you have to get in close like that raise the blade and pull the pins on 3pt sway bars and push blade off center then lock pins back in to give a little extra extension out that side. If you do get hung up, loosend the sway bar and move the blade (what ever attachement used) away from the wall/fence. This will give a few more inches to play with to work your way out.

[jimainiac]

Trying to get too close to a fence line will win you the "no good deed goes unpunished" prize. I learned the hard way when I got a filled rear tire punctured by an old broken off "t" post. Expensive lesson.
When bush-hogging, I remove the quick attach bucket. It makes it easier in the corners and tight spots.

[joshuabardwell]

This isn't directly farm-related, but since we're talking about hanging up on things: at an event that I go to, people build art cars. One of them, pictured below, was a pirate ship. It would drive around the event, blasting music, with people dancing on the deck. All was well until one year the captain snagged the mast on a power line, breaking the power line and cutting power to a large portion of the event. The mast was subsequently removed.