Best way to vertically lift phone poles for fence

[AGRIMAN]

Holy cow folks... its only a 9' pole going into a hole in the ground. Just get two guys and tip it into the hole!

No offencse intended, but apparently you have never gabbed a hold of a solid 16", 9 foot utility post. Can two big determined young guys set one by hand? Yes, (done it myself), but you just don't grab it and throw in the hole. It also doesn't take long before you realize just how bad of an idea it is and you won't do many.

As I said, we have set them in the 20" range and two good men won't come close to lifting one end off the ground.

 

[BukitCase]

May be only 9' long, but it's 16" diameter - rough math puts it at around 375 pounds, depending on the wood and treatment -

If he only gets two guys to help, they better be a dang sight younger than I am ... Steve

 

[tomcat7359]

Holy cow folks... its only a 9' pole going into a hole in the ground. Just get two guys and tip it into the hole!

No offense Mossman, but why own a tractor if I am going to do it by hand? This give me an excuse to use my equipment.. he he. I use my Cat to lift a 5 gal can of diesel.. LOL

 

[TomSeller]

No offencse intended, but apparently you have never gabbed a hold of a solid 16", 9 foot utility post. Can two big determined young guys set one by hand? Yes, (done it myself), but you just don't grab it and throw in the hole. It also doesn't take long before you realize just how bad of an idea it is and you won't do many.

As I said, we have set them in the 20" range and two good men won't come close to lifting one end off the ground.

Duplicate

 

[AGRIMAN]

May be only 9' long, but it's 16" diameter - rough math puts it at around 375 pounds, depending on the wood and treatment -

If he only gets two guys to help, they better be a dang sight younger than I am ... Steve

To be honest with you, it was a few years back for me also. A few months back, I watched my two sons (mid 20's) show me they could set a ~14" post without the loader. They eventually got it done, but they don't want to do another one.

 

[TomSeller]

No offense Mossman, but why own a tractor if I am going to do it by hand? This give me an excuse to use my equipment.. he he. I use my Cat to lift a 5 gal can of diesel.. LOL

Plus you would have to watch for nasty splitters as the post drops down. A little different, but I set my 500 lb concrete posts with the loader. Usually working by myself but even if I had three of us, no sense blowing out your back when you have a machine that can do it. Also, you might want to raise it if the hole is too deep. You can use the pole on the loader to tamp the dirt back down if you had to fill some in the bottom of the hole.

 

[Haoleguy]

To position heavy 10ft black locust posts I took the forks off and used the plate to secure the chain that was wrapped around the chain. I did it this way as I had to get into a tight area of a post pounder when putting in vineyard end posts. Here's a link from my spouse's blog that shows the setup(open up the pic)..... EnoViti: Days of Pounding End Post .

 

[Mace Canute]

........no sense blowing out your back when you have a machine that can do it.........

:thumbsup:

 

[pat32rf]

Nine feet long means you wrap the sling just about 4'6" from one end. The taper should put the center of gravity just below the sling. Either use the bucket or fork plate for the lift which could be only 6 feet...Your wife can guide the pole into the hole once you get the right spot for the sling/choker.

 

[Mace Canute]

Nine feet long means you wrap the sling just about 4'6" from one end. The taper should put the center of gravity just below the sling. Either use the bucket or fork plate for the lift which could be only 6 feet...Your wife can guide the pole into the hole once you get the right spot for the sling/choker.

That's not what I found when setting power poles. Hooking a pole as you suggest would make the pole want to hang much closer to horizontal rather than vertical. Best is to hook as close to the snipe as possible while still being able to raise it high enough to get the butt into the hole.

 

[MossRoad]

You tractor seat weenies! :laughing:

 

[wedge40]

How high does the 7800 FEL lift? I've read about people placing a 2x6 in the hole to help guide the pole down.

Wedge

 

[MossRoad]

If its a 9 foot pole, you only have to lift it slightly over center, in this case, a tad over 4.5'. Gravity will tip the heavy end down. Sure you can lift it higher on the pole and it will hang straighter, but generally, only a bit over centered will do the trick. You can maneuver the butt end into the hole and work it in with gravity and wiggles of the loader controls.

 

[crazyal]

Granted my tractor is a little bigger but I just used the front bucket. I have a large flat rock that's about 4' tall that I placed the end of the pole I wanted to be the top of the post. I drove up to the post with the front bucked into the dump position (both top and bottom of the bucket touching the pole) and chained the pole on both top and bottom of the bucket. I could get about 3' up from the bottom. The edge of the bucket kept the pole from slipping as I used the curl function to raise the pole into the vertical position. I have a 55 gallon drum filled with cement for the 3pt as a counter weight but they stood right up. It worked fine for both rail road ties and power poles that were 10' long. My friend had an auger on his 3pt and I was following behind him dropping the posts into the holes.

 

[pat32rf]

I figured your helper can guide the butt end down into the hole. How deep are the holes anyway? I didn't like the idea of the FEL at its full height with that post swinging in the wind....If I keep the attach point low the center of gravity stays low as well.

 

[Western]

Read through the thread, for the most part. Co-op gave me a 40' power pole they replaced with a new one. Still has the ground and insulators attached and thinking of using it for a security light pole:thumbsup:. Some goo ideas so far and many I have used on shorter poles in the past.

 

[oosik]

I used my tractor this past summer to set railroad ties at various locations on my perimeter fence line. I have a set of logging tongs. I slung a chain under the bucket - from hook to hook - and attached the log tongs at the dead center. BTW - this IS a two person operation. So you go over to the RR tie and grab it above the half way point and lift. Once the RR tie is in the air you can adjust its vertical angle by tipping the bucket forward/back because the tie is pinned hard against the lip of the bucket.

Anyhow, after you get all of this over to the hole - it helps to have a second person guide the tie as you lower it into the hole. Once everything is lined up, fill the hole, compact the dirt, lower the bucket and whack on the tongs to release them from the tie.

 

[hal2001]

I used one of the first ideas...choked chains just above 3 foot mark and at top of fork back (or whatever you call it) and then set the pole with 6 feet above ground all by my lonesome.. worked great. These are very large diameter heavy treated poles, much too heavy for 2 men. Was at the top end of the capacity for lift with my 7800. Thanks to all who chimed in, Hal