3ph T-post thingamajig....

[StevenPaul]

Has anyone came up with any ideas for a 3ph T-post implement? Attached is an idea that I thought might be possible but if any of you technical/engineer types can fine tune it and let me or all of us know what is possible or not, I sure would appreciate it. I realize that the hard part would be keepin the T-post straight so I was thinkin some kind of hinge or something. I don't know, maybe somebody has already tried this and it just don't work but I thought I'd ask anyways. If it is possible, could this be something patentable?

thanks for the input,
Steve

 

[StevenPaul]

other angle view

 

[RobS]

Interesting idea but I see a couple of potential issues. As the owner of one of those manual post pounders, I can attest that it works best with some momentum behind it. I doubt you can get the tph to fall fast enough to provide the momentum. You could add weight which would certainly help. Downpressure on the tph also, but not many of our little machines have that.

Also, how will you "load" the post into the driver. Either the whole thing needs to come up much higher, or some sort of breakaway to allow it to tip or open up for loading.

I watched a highway crew put in sign posts once. All they used was the backhoe on their full sized TLB. Cupped the bucket over the top of the post and literally pushed it into the ground. I think the key will be finding the right amount of weight to allow it to be pushed in nice and easy /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[beenthere]

Much better to put weight in the bucket and use the FEL to push posts into the ground. A 'cup' to receive the top of the post is helpful, and have seen them welded on the bucket. With experience, the posts can be planted pretty straight.

As far as the 3ph, can you help us understand why you want to do it that way? and how you would expect it to work?

 

[StevenPaul]

I thought and have heard about the bucket method but I was just thinkin about carrying all the fencing "supplies" in the bucket and then using the 3ph pressure of putting them the ground. I wasn't sure if 3ph's had enough down pressure to do it or not. It's basically somewhat of a time saver idea that I just came up with. We have to fence in quite a few acres here shortly and I just got to thinking about an easier way.

And that's a good point about how to get the post in the "pounder" so I drew up another idea. But hey if it don't work, it don't work, I'll go to the bucket idea.

I do appreicate any and all feedback.

thanks again,
Steve

 

[beenthere]

Unfortunately, 3ph's don't have any 'down' pressure. Just the weight of the arms and any attachment.

(Unless that Oliver in your photo is a rare exception)

 

[rambler]

Steve, you have an after-market 3pt hitch on your Ollie. It probably has good down pressure then, and with some planning, you could make this work.

Only some few rare Belarus tractors, some converted IHC Fasthitch setups, and some aftermarket 3pt conversions have any 3pt downpressure. Your device would only be usable by maybe 3-4% of the tractors out there with 3pt hitches. Everyone else is going to use the loader bucket. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Factory 3pt hitches only lower with gravity - they don't have down pressure _at all_.

You will confuse a lot of people with the downpressure thing. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

--->Paul

 

[StevenPaul]

ummmm, forgive me for being dumb, but is an Oliver a brand name of tractor? Because I don't have an Oliver, it's John Deere 2010, 1960 something I think. And after reading the more educated replies I think my idea is going back to the drawing board. So next question, can I hook up some type of hydraulic gizmo to the 3ph to the "pounder"? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I just pound this website, now that's a T-post machine!

http://www.diggerdriver.com/multisett.html

 

[RobS]

Yeah, that looks like the cat's meow for putting in posts.

Even with a hydraulic thingy on your tph you're back to the downpressure issue. Any force you try to put down to the ground is going to try to raise the tph since it has no downpressure. You could mechanically lock it down with chains or something. The post pounders work with the inertia of a falling mass so it's not affected by the lack of downpressure.

Unless you want to buy/build something like what you showed, you're probably best off using your FEL. You could still rig a sleeve or something to let you drive the post with the bucket in the curled position so you can carry your stuff, or use a tph mounted carry-all for your materials.

The other nice thing about the FEL is you can always grab a scoop of dirt to make it heavier for a bit more oomph on the post /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[beenthere]

Just looked like an Oliver in the pic. No offense meant to the Deere, for sure. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif