Advice on fencing type and installation

[greggyy]

Nothing. Nothing but people that is. It's decorative:

Well, maybe your (or OP rather) wife or someone may not want animals coming in and eating your decorative garden ? or vege patch ?

Or maybe you might get asked too mind someones pet dog ?

Something always pops up after the fact.

What about a neighbors nasty dog that wants to bite or bail you up ?

 

[EddieWalker]

County line 3pt PHD and a 12" Auger are now resting in the back of my truck. I intend to take my time installing the fence and hope to enjoy the process.

Congratulations on a nice auger. You'll be happy that you got the 12 inch auger once you start trying to get your posts in a straight line. Funny things happen when drilling holes, and the bigger the hole, the less time you will spend with a clam shell adjusting the hole. Be sure to get a good, heavy duty clamshell digger. Mine is all metal, no wooden handles, and it does a great job at shaving the sides of a hole and cleaning out the bottom of it. I have smaller augers and regret spending the money on them. 12 inch is ideal!!!

If you are new to using an auger, be careful with this one. It's super aggressive and it's real easy to lose control of how fast it's digging and bury itself in the ground. Go slow and keep raising it over and over again to avoid going down too fast.

Eventually you will screw up and bury it. When that happens, you will have to disconnect the auger from the gear box. Two bolts hold it on there. Then get the tractor out of the way and use a VERY LARGE pipe wrench with a 8 foot long pipe over the handle to get more leverage, and unscrew it. I broke a 36 inch wrench and bought a used 48 inch one that does the job for me.

Also be careful when you bury it not to bend the driveshaft. If you go too deep, it will bend. I did this recently and now I need to replace mine. I'm going to add some sort of block or skid around my gear box so that when the auger decides to bury itself, the gear box wont be pulled into the hole and my driveshaft will remain straight.

 

[Atchuuu]

Here is a quick update on my fence build project. (with photos)

The TSC auger dug over 100 holes with no problems other than one broken shear pin. It broke on the last hole which I chose for last due to the proximity to tree roots. Never had it bog down or dig in too deep. Found that cleaning off the clay every couple holes really sped up the speed of digging.

One thing I would do different - I would not dig all the holes at one time. I did this and then couldn't get the posts right away. We had over a week of rain so many of the holes filled with water. In the future I will dig what I can fill then dig again.

Agree with Eddie on the size of the auger. The 12 inch made it easy to line up the post in all directions.

 

[Lowcountry Rebel]

Something I have not seen here and is the method I used to install my posts( and dock pilings- I'm a marine construction contractor) Rent a mini excavator with a hydraulic plate compactor( used for compacting footers ) stand the corner posts in place and drive them in with the plate compactor, run top and bottom strings between them and you can drive right down the string line and drive the posts right into the ground.
With a helper, once the corners and string lines are up, you can drive 30-40 posts in an hour.
6" round posts pointed on one end with a chainsaw first.

 

[Atchuuu]

Something I have not seen here and is the method I used to install my posts( and dock pilings- I'm a marine construction contractor) Rent a mini excavator with a hydraulic plate compactor( used for compacting footers ) stand the corner posts in place and drive them in with the plate compactor, run top and bottom strings between them and you can drive right down the string line and drive the posts right into the ground.
With a helper, once the corners and string lines are up, you can drive 30-40 posts in an hour.
6" round posts pointed on one end with a chainsaw first.

You're too late for this project but I like that ideal. Tried to find a place to rent a driver but couldn't find anything local so went at it with the auger instead. With all the holes in the ground already I am committed to this method of installation. Thanks for the tip though, might help other.

 

[Atchuuu]

Have about 75% of the posts in the ground and the only thing I can think is "I sure am glad I am not fencing 40 acres"

 

[EddieWalker]

Until I moved out to the country and started working on my land, I had no appreciation at all for a well built fence. Now that's the first thing I look at when driving down the road!!!

 

[greggyy]

Have about 75% of the posts in the ground and the only thing I can think is "I sure am glad I am not fencing 40 acres"

What about a job on 10k acres...or 40k acres, rocky soil or rock and hand installing concrete posts and the heaviest wire available....you in ?

 

[greggyy]

Just to make you feel better, about a year ago I got a real heavy post hold digger, anyway, with 10 inch auger, I tried to put some holes in a few spots, auger just spins as hits rock about 2 inch or so down, 8 in some places, so I added weight, and more weight, till I broke the digger frame, once, twice, and many more times, I think 8 inches was about the best.

I have re build the frame and added new teeth, but essentially, I have had to manually bar and dig, breaking rock or removing rock of various kind....the real hard kind, not shale or sandstone.

It makes me think of people fencing new land hundreds of years ago, with no machines, no AC, primitive tools and having to make posts from trees on own block

 

[Lowcountry Rebel]

Just to make you feel better, about a year ago I got a real heavy post hold digger, anyway, with 10 inch auger, I tried to put some holes in a few spots, auger just spins as hits rock about 2 inch or so down, 8 in some places, so I added weight, and more weight, till I broke the digger frame, once, twice, and many more times, I think 8 inches was about the best.

I have re build the frame and added new teeth, but essentially, I have had to manually bar and dig, breaking rock or removing rock of various kind....the real hard kind, not shale or sandstone.

It makes me think of people fencing new land hundreds of years ago, with no machines, no AC, primitive tools and having to make posts from trees on own block

they make rock cutting auger bits- it takes a while but it will go through the rock