front tractor mounted post pounder??

[maplehillfrm]

has anyone ever built a post pounder or driver that would attach to the front of a tractor, or for that matter a 3 point hitch?

I was thinking it could be run off the hydraulics with maybe a large piston,a nd a few hundred lbs of weight for the pounder,, I think I can figure out the lift of the piece, but am having trouble figuring a way to release the weight onto the post, it would have to totally release and free fall, I would think

another thought was having a chain on a set of pulleys and that would go aound the whole upright beam , maybe it could have a lip coming off the weight and a lip welded to the chain so they would catch on the bottom-- the weight would ride to the top, as the chain made its approach to the top and over it would just be pulled away from teh weights lip..

anyone ever build one of these before,, the concept shouldnt be too hard, just need to get it to release.. hydraulic piston only wouldnt work , would it, it would be a lot of down pressure on the cylinder on free fall,, if it would even freefall,,
any suggestions of sites would be appreciated,, I have about 75 poles to put in and do not want to dig them all with my post holee digger, then have to fill them in and tamp,, and I sure aint pounden em by hand,, I did that when I was younger,, never hadto go to the gym though,,

 

[Box]

You might check some local equipment companies to see if any of them have a small pile driver they are going to scrap. This is more or less what you need. I have seen them as small as a 10 ton forklift in the past. You could probable remove the uprights and rig up some way to mount them to a tractor provided they are not to heavy.

Might be easier to see if they would rent one for a long weekend.

Box

 

[MikesTractor]

Shaver Manufacturing makes some good drivers, but they are quite expensive. You can go to their web site at Shaver post driver, hole digger, stump grinder, log splitter and look at what they have.

If you could find a dealer with one of them that you could go look at it might help. I don't think it would be that hard to build one if you had something to go by.

I was around a couple of them in the late 80's when I was working for the Ford Tractor dealership, but I can't remember exactly how the hydraulics were piped up. I remember that the control valve was mounted to the side of the driver and it used a single acting cylinder. I do remember a large (1 1/4" or 1 1/2") return line. The large line was to reduce restrictions.

They also had 2 cranks on them to adjust the driver to get it straight up and down. One would tilt it from side to side and the other would tilt it forward and back.

Hope this helps.
Mike

 

[maplehillfrm]

yes thanks they all help, well renting is probably not an option as I have more than that to do on my property later,,, but depending on the cost and availability,, maybe it is an option, by the time I figure my time and material
but that wouldnt give me shop time,

I kinda missed at an auction in the late fall exactly what I think I may have been able to make work, it was a electric forklift, with like a 10 foot mast,, already had the chain and mast there,,, oh well maybe soemthing else will come up,

Its going t come together just thought a pic may help, I looked at shavers site, probably a reason they dont give too close up of a shot huh???
thansk guys,

 

[6sunset6]

I have been thinking about building one for a while. I have 10 pages of sketches. I have not looked at them in a while so I forget what I did, But anyway my application is for deer fence so I want a 7 ft high post 4 x 4after pounding. 3ft in the ground. I have all clay. So the main beam has to take a 10ft post plus the pounder 450-500# plus the pulley over the top and down the back. I started with a steel post 14 ft but then I said thats nuts I can laminate up 2 x6 (5) and 2 x8 (2) sides glued and clamped and get a 14 ft 7.7 x 8.8 beam I can bolt stuff to. Thats nuts too, but I have a lot of structural flat steel around and no long beams. . Need tracks for the weight. Then the cable goes over the top and down the back and becomes the long end of a 5-6 fold block and tackle . hyd cylinder pulls on one block asm. so if it pulls the block at 5x for 24" cyl you get 10ft travel offf the free end. It's a block and tackle in reverse. 2" diameter cyl at 2000psi has the muscle. Longer stroke less turns off the block. 2 way cyl provide fast collapse of the block asm and the weight pulls out the free end of the cable on the way down. I am not sure but a normal remote 4way might do it cause the cyl is driven back and forth. All right I have not built this just thought about it for a while. There are other issues, pole needa steel cap on it or it will splinter. Also need something to hold the post in as driving starts, also need a way for it to stand on its own weight down when not on the tractor 3 pt. need a way to level . Thats where I am at.
oh yeah weight is a steel box filled up with lead. I have some big bricks of lead around, don't remember where they even came from. look at Black Cat web site.

 

[GT2]

Just throwing this out there:
Depending on soil condition etc. It seems to me the free falling weight/ pile driver method would be fairly cumbersom and slow going.
I would envision using a jack hammer ( air or hyd) mounted on a pivot jig on the bucket loader. Get an old shaft and weld a heavy duty bushing/ centering device that fits the pipe or post, and go at it!

 

[PILOON]

Last summer I visited a local YANMAR dealer and he had a few hydraulic breakers for sale in the $8-900 range. I do believe they were Yanmar accessories that they use on the small excavators.

Would seem to me easy to modify from a point to a blunt hammer and add a tube or guide device to drive T bars or other metal posts.

Might be worth a look!

 

[skidsteer.ca]

The simplest pile driver I ever witnessed operating belonged to the father of a fellow I went to school with It was mounted on the rear frame of a old 3 ton truck. It had a mast up the back with a pulley on top which served as a guide for the 250 lb (or so) weight. A rope went from the weight up over the pulley on top of the mast and back down to another pulley on a really old water cooled stationary engine. You know the ones wilh the big flywheels on each side. It had no rad, only a water reservoir around the cylinder. It was obviously quite low rpm,
At any rare the rope wrapped around a pulley on this engine 1 1/2 turns, then went out to the operator.
When the operator pulled on the rope it created enough fricion on the engines pulley that it would haul the weight up to the top of the mast.
Then the operator would release most of the tension on the rope, it would loose it grip on the engine and the weight would free fall on to the post.
They had the truck parked out on 30" of ice one the lake, had cut holes in the ice for piles where they where building a dock. And this was the rig they drove them with. This was @ 1982
Ken

 

[Brad_Blazer]

It's been 30 years now but I've used a Shaver pounder mounted on the front of a tractor. The ram is lifted by a fairly small diameter very long hydraulic cylinder. There is a long spring on either side of the cylinder that stretches as the cylinder goes up. It goes up pretty quickly and the single acting cylinder simply offers no resistence as the ram falls using gravity aided by the springs.
I saw a Shaver in the Iwanna last year for $500.

If you had a long dual acting cylinder, it might work to just use an air reservoir plumbed straignt to the down stroke port (no valves). Keep it at 100 psi or so. The up stroke will force some air into the reservoir and the air can rapidly flow into the cylinder to help the down stroke.
I would patent this idea but !@#$%, I just let it out of the bag!

For my 7' posts I cut every 4th landscape timber into quarters and scabbed the 2' sections to the tops using a wrap of sheet metal. Nailed them together with a cheap framing nailer. Of course they couldn't be pounded so I used an auger and tamped them in.

Have fun,
Brad

 

[Brad_Blazer]

Here is a pic of my posts at a slight corner with a power pole corner post and extended landscape timbers down the line. I know the timbers are not the best posts ever but at $2 each on sale they are the least expensive.


I'm ready to put up the upper row of wire. 4' goat wire on the bottom, 39" field wire on top.