Best way to vertically lift phone poles for fence

[AGRIMAN]

Holy cow folks... its only a 9' pole going into a hole in the ground. Just get two guys and tip it into the hole!

No offencse intended, but apparently you have never gabbed a hold of a solid 16", 9 foot utility post. Can two big determined young guys set one by hand? Yes, (done it myself), but you just don't grab it and throw in the hole. It also doesn't take long before you realize just how bad of an idea it is and you won't do many.

As I said, we have set them in the 20" range and two good men won't come close to lifting one end off the ground.

 

[BukitCase]

May be only 9' long, but it's 16" diameter - rough math puts it at around 375 pounds, depending on the wood and treatment -

If he only gets two guys to help, they better be a dang sight younger than I am ... Steve

 

[tomcat7359]

Holy cow folks... its only a 9' pole going into a hole in the ground. Just get two guys and tip it into the hole!

No offense Mossman, but why own a tractor if I am going to do it by hand? This give me an excuse to use my equipment.. he he. I use my Cat to lift a 5 gal can of diesel.. LOL

 

[TomSeller]

No offencse intended, but apparently you have never gabbed a hold of a solid 16", 9 foot utility post. Can two big determined young guys set one by hand? Yes, (done it myself), but you just don't grab it and throw in the hole. It also doesn't take long before you realize just how bad of an idea it is and you won't do many.

As I said, we have set them in the 20" range and two good men won't come close to lifting one end off the ground.

Duplicate

 

[AGRIMAN]

May be only 9' long, but it's 16" diameter - rough math puts it at around 375 pounds, depending on the wood and treatment -

If he only gets two guys to help, they better be a dang sight younger than I am ... Steve

To be honest with you, it was a few years back for me also. A few months back, I watched my two sons (mid 20's) show me they could set a ~14" post without the loader. They eventually got it done, but they don't want to do another one.

 

[TomSeller]

No offense Mossman, but why own a tractor if I am going to do it by hand? This give me an excuse to use my equipment.. he he. I use my Cat to lift a 5 gal can of diesel.. LOL

Plus you would have to watch for nasty splitters as the post drops down. A little different, but I set my 500 lb concrete posts with the loader. Usually working by myself but even if I had three of us, no sense blowing out your back when you have a machine that can do it. Also, you might want to raise it if the hole is too deep. You can use the pole on the loader to tamp the dirt back down if you had to fill some in the bottom of the hole.

 

[Haoleguy]

To position heavy 10ft black locust posts I took the forks off and used the plate to secure the chain that was wrapped around the chain. I did it this way as I had to get into a tight area of a post pounder when putting in vineyard end posts. Here's a link from my spouse's blog that shows the setup(open up the pic)..... EnoViti: Days of Pounding End Post .

 

[Mace Canute]

........no sense blowing out your back when you have a machine that can do it.........

:thumbsup:

 

[pat32rf]

Nine feet long means you wrap the sling just about 4'6" from one end. The taper should put the center of gravity just below the sling. Either use the bucket or fork plate for the lift which could be only 6 feet...Your wife can guide the pole into the hole once you get the right spot for the sling/choker.

 

[Mace Canute]

Nine feet long means you wrap the sling just about 4'6" from one end. The taper should put the center of gravity just below the sling. Either use the bucket or fork plate for the lift which could be only 6 feet...Your wife can guide the pole into the hole once you get the right spot for the sling/choker.

That's not what I found when setting power poles. Hooking a pole as you suggest would make the pole want to hang much closer to horizontal rather than vertical. Best is to hook as close to the snipe as possible while still being able to raise it high enough to get the butt into the hole.