H-brace diagonal wire question

[Shimon]

I'm fixing some fencing and putting in some H-braces in the corners. They will be 8' 6" vertical PT round posts with 8' 4" horizontals. I've usually just double wrapped some 9ga wire and twisted the wire using a twitch stick (as shown in the first photo).

I bought some of those Rapid Wire Tighteners from Gallagher and want to use those. Anyone use these before?

Should I wrap the wire around the posts with only one strand going between them so that only one strand runs through the Wire Tightener? Or should I still loop the wire around both posts so that there are two or four strands of the 9ga wire between the two posts and run them all through the Wire Tightener?

Only thing that concerns me is having an opening near the ground near the corner post where an animal can get it's leg caught between two wires coming out from either side of the corner post. I was thinking of tying the wire around the corner post with a knot as shown in the second photo so there isn't any opening down there. Will a knot weaken the wire?

Hope this makes sense.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I don't know if a knot will weaken the wire but I can tell you what I did with the fencing I installed this summer.

Originally, I wired the braces with bare tensile wire that I had on hand in a figure eight configuration. In the past, I had pulled the wire tight and used crimps to secure it but this time I used Gripples.

I used Centaur White Lightning (similar to Hotcote) ie; plastic coated high tensile that is chargable. Once all my rows were complete, I had plenty of wire left so I went back and redid my braces with the coated wire.

On my single braces, I stripped back the coating to bare, wrapped it around the post at the base and crimped it. I also had extra plastic insulaters (little 4" tubes) so I slide one of those over the crimps to further protect randem foot traffic. I stripped back the other end, wrapped it around the post and reused a Gripple to secure it.

Single wire, visible, coated, plenty tight. Should be good to go.

I also have some double braces. I used coated to redo those but stayed with the figure eight configuration for even tension on the posts. The Gripples did not seem to tension the wire enough so I resorted to some extra wire strainers that I had on hand.

 

[luvit]

.
i'm bumping this.. i was thinking of doing the same..
a single wire tensioning h-brace with a metal clicking tensioner..

thanks.