Air Powered T-Post Driver

[Spencer]

</font><font color="blueclass=small">( I'll have to rent a gas air compressor, its rated at 9 cfm.
The driver is 2.2 cfm. The rental is $35 per day at Nuway.)</font>

Picard335, I just came across this PTO air compressor kit from Norther Tool for $149.99 and thought of you. I've also attached a pic of the unit.

 

[gerard]

I've put in 4 acres of horse pasture using 1 inch electric tape, 4x4 for corner posts and t posts w/ pvc covers for line posts. Had some success pushing them in with the loader. Works a lot better if you slip a post driver over the top, THEN push down with the loader. Gives you a lot bigger surface area to psuh on and retards the tendency of the bucket to slip off the t post. You do need soft ground and some weight and it's a little harder to insure they go in plumb. Make sure you get a large charger, you want them to get a good solid zap when they hit the tape, we had to upsize our charger after we added two more pastures, the zap just wasn't discouraging enough, especially as summer progresses, the ground gets dryer and the ground diminishes. Big difference with the new charger!! You also might consider putting it not right on top but about 4 feet high on the inside. They make the clips that hold it out from the surface 2 inches. That way they can't lean on the fence to scratch or they hit the tape. If they lean over the top they still hit the tape. If you run a strand on top they can still sidle up to the fence without hitting the tape. After all that work I don't think you want a 1200 hundred pound animal using your handiwork as a scratching post!!

 

[Darren]

Post life.

Oak posts will last from 5 to 10 years if they're untreated. Treated you'll get a longer life. The problem is the density of the wood and how well it responds to the preservative treatment. Oak probably doesn't accept a preservative as well as southern pine.

For your purposes, I would spend the money on the best posts I could get for corners and pull posts. Osage orange if you can find it will last 50+ years with no treatment. Black locust is good. Untreated it should do 40 years. If any Amish live near you, check with them for posts.

The question is how often you want to redo the fence. If you have untreated oak posts, you might be out there in five years putting parts of the fence back up. When your corners and pull posts rot out, your fence is shot.

Setting posts in concrete is somewhat controversial. Some folks believe the concrete will hold moisture around the posts and cause them to rot faster.

 

[tc35dforme]

Re: Post life.

Oh 'fence' post life !!!!

I thought someone had a project in the afterlife. That would have been an interesting post /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Spencer, cool pto compressor! thanks, wonder if it accept standard air compressor 3/8 or 1/4 hoses and connectors?
Great idea /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Thanks for the Ideas Gerald, really appreciate it....
I've got the 1 1/2 tape for the top, and I'm thinking 1/2 electric tape about 3-4 ft up.

I bought a Solar 3 mile fencer, what do you think? There is no electric there, am I better getting a battery 6v or 12v system? but they only last 5-6 weeks what the box states. Where fencing about 4.8 acres

Darren, I'm gonna call MFA to see if there untreated, I hope they are treated.... I don't wanna be messing with this in 5 years!

John

 

[gerard]

Can't speak for the solar - just don't know. I have mine hardwired. Being in Syracuse, the second cloudiest city in the US, I wouldn't even consider a solar!! I would think with a solar or battery unit the big variable would be how many times the fence gets hit and you would have to make sure it doesn't ground out anywhere. (If you have the tape low and weeds grow up and touch it it shorts to ground, if hardwired it just reduces the effectiveness a little but a solar/battery unit would draw down pretty quickly I would think.

 

[centex]

Before you plop down your $450 for the air powered driver you should talk with a local fence company and to get their opinion on whether this driver will be adequate for the soil conditions in your area. This particular driver looks pretty smal. If you can easily drive the posts with a 35# hand driver then it would probably work but you said you were having trouble with rocky soil in some areas. You don't want to have to use the air powered driver like a manual one on the hard holes! The local fence company here has a lot of air powered drivers ranging in size from small like this one to some much larger ones for much larger prices. I know I spent a lot more money than I would have liked by buying too small a tool and then having to spend more to get the right size tool. Funny that the more expensive tool does not seem that expensive after you break you pick trying to use one that is too small.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Heres an update on my fencing project, got all approx 300 7 1/2 ft tall t-posts in the ground saturday, I rented a gas air compressor for $35 a day, I was expecting to take the 3 day weekend, but I did it in 8 hours! Everything worked flawlessly, quite the piece of equipment to have. What can I say, but its a lifesaver!

I towed a small trailer behind the tractor, put the compressor, tools and a bunch of tposts and went to town, even in rocky soil, it had to no problem driving them down, on soft soil about 6-8 hits down. On nothing but rocky about 25-30 hits. On average most took about 10 hits. I'd started to put them in the ground about 3 notches on the post, then stop, check the level, and continue on.... just like that.... everything came out really nice and level and straight.

Very Cool
John

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Pic 2

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Pic3

These are just pictures from the road, so its only looking at 1/4 of the whole project.