How to wind up fencing

[Cougsfan]

I just bought a 46 acre piece of land. It has been dormant for years. The previous owner had built multiple small pastures by putting up barbed wire and electrical fence using tee posts going all over the place in a non-nonsensical (to me) manner. It is mostly all down and in terrible shape. There is probably 3 or 4 miles of fences and 10 or 12 miles of fence wire in total! I plan on removing all the fence and putting it again. I made a tee post remover for my FEL which works really well. I think there may be enough good barb wire to re-fence, plus miles of 12 gauge electric fence wire that is mostly in good shape. My question is; Does someone have good ideas on how to wind up miles of fencing material? I have been thinking of some way to make wind up spools to somehow bolt on to the FEL of the tractor and just winding it up by hand. Also, I have a fence post pounder but dread the idea of pounding 100's of fence posts by hand in hard dirt. Is there an easier way?

 

[BHD]

there are wire rollers, if one can find a bunch of old rims, say you have a 8 bolt truck and if one can find a bunch of old 16.5 rims

one can jack up the truck put on the rim and hook up the wire and put in low gear and roll up the wire, (have a helper to shut things down fast if problems arise, hooking up a sash weight on the end of the wire helps,

my dad bought a wire roller that had two halves that would bolt on the truck rim and rolled up wire for years that way, now I use a hydraulic motor on a hub that I attach it to,
see post 4, Rolling up used electric fence wire | Welcome to the Homesteading Today Forum and Community!

now I put the smaller roller on the hub of the larger roller, to roller fence wire, and to unroller

one may be able to make a reel, and some type of holder and power with a heavy duty electric drill

 

[Cataclysm]

I've found that a power rake rolls barbed wire really well.

Probably someone make a roller that will work on your FEL.

 

[Scook222]

We used to do it by hand by making a loop and rolling it on the ground like a wobbly wheel. But you could make something like the one with green pictured or get a style like that. We used it for moving hot fence wire and it works great. It should work good for barb wire too.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Your place sounds like my place when I started. That old fencing is a pain and actually quite dangerous to people, animals and equipment, you want to get it out.

I got rid of it by going out with a five gallon bucket and coiling it into the bucket as I went. (into, not around). Wear good gloves and eye protection, I came very close to losing an eye when I cut a wire and it whipped back at me. I made no effort to save barbed wire, it sticks to everything and it's easiest just to cut it to get it out and if you cut it into 10-20 foot sections it's easier to deal with. It costs less than $50 for a quarter mile roll, you couldn't pay me enough to pull a quarter mile out of the weeds uncut.

The high-tensile electric wire is quite slick and you can pull out long sections if they aren't attached. If I were to use a powered roller I would power it with something no stronger than perhaps a cordless drill. It would be just too easy for things to get out of hand in a hurry with something powerful pulling on a wire. If a cordless drill can't pull it out of the weeds you need to investigate and find out what it's hung up on. I had a lot of spots where tree trunks had grown around the wire, that just needs to be cut.

If the electric wire is old it's probably not worth reusing. Once the galvanized coating starts to go it will rust. Plus you'll probably end up with a bunch of short sections. In the scheme of things the wire isn't that expensive.

 

[AWSubie]

When I have to pound a lot of posts I use a pneumatic post driver (Post Driver, Fence Post Pounder, Pneumatic Post Driver | Rohrer Manufacturing) but of course these also require a compressor and if you are in a really remote area a small generator as well.

 

[Cougsfan]

I've found that a power rake rolls barbed wire really well.

Speaking from bad experiences, Bush hogs work really well too, but unfortunately it takes hours to get the the tangled mess off the blades:thumbdown:. Thanks for the ideas. I'll probably start with the 5 gallon bucket idea, and go to something else when and if that gets to be too much. I like the pneumatic post pounders, but I have no compressed air anywhere close. Has anyone used one of these? Fence Post Driver-T-Post Driver How well do they work?

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Speaking from bad experiences, Bush hogs work really well too, but unfortunately it takes hours to get the the tangled mess off the blades:thumbdown:. Thanks for the ideas. I'll probably start with the 5 gallon bucket idea, and go to something else when and if that gets to be too much. I like the pneumatic post pounders, but I have no compressed air anywhere close. Has anyone used one of these? Fence Post Driver-T-Post Driver How well do they work?

According to Amazon the shipping weight is 51 pounds. My manual pounder is 14 pounds. I don't see how lifting 50 pounds over every post is less work. If it came on an arm that bolted to the tractor I might be interested.

 

[M5farms]

I have a spool for high tensil wire , I have used it to roll barb wire by hand use a piece of pipe to guide wire. You could adapt a electric motor to one pretty easy.

 

[gsganzer]

Use a PTO post hole digger with a scrap piece of 2" pipe instead of an auger. Wind the fence onto the scrap pipe and then toss the whole mess away. I cut the wire loose from the poles and attach a sandbag or scrap metal as a weight on the far end. Attach the other end to the pipe and lower the PHD so the pipe is on the ground. As you roll, change the angle of your pipe as needed to adjust the wire as it winds up.

 

[cat fever]

I got mine all loose from the post that were mostly laying on the ground. Pulled all four wires tight and just started rolling it up. When they got to big to handle I'd cut the wire wrap it on itself and start over. I can lift the wire in a trailer or truck to get rid of it.

 

[dieselscout80]

Use a PTO post hole digger with a scrap piece of 2" pipe instead of an auger. Wind the fence onto the scrap pipe and then toss the whole mess away. I cut the wire loose from the poles and attach a sandbag or scrap metal as a weight on the far end. Attach the other end to the pipe and lower the PHD so the pipe is on the ground. As you roll, change the angle of your pipe as needed to adjust the wire as it winds up.

That is a great idea :thumbsup:

 

[gsganzer]

That is a great idea :thumbsup:

I actually learned the trick here on TBN.

It works unbelievably well. My daughter and I rolled up 650' of 5 strand fence in about an hour. Start with the lowest wire first by clipping it free from your poles, put a weight on the far end, attach the other end to the scrap pipe (I drilled a hole in my scrap pipe to pass the wire through) and roll it up. After you roll the first strand, carry your weight back to the far end, clipping the next wire free as you go. Rinse and repeat for all remaining strands.

For safety sake, it's a two person job and I run the tractor barely above idle.

Depending how high your PHD lifts, you could probably do the same think rolling up 4' woven fence.

 

[jaxs]

You could set several T-posts with hand driver just enough to stand, rent an air cooled engine powered driver similar to a log splitter,carry driver in fel bucket while posts are driven.
If you are a tinker/fabricater/welder,how bout this? Obtain a Hydrostatic lawn tractor transaxle,preferiably with frame and if lucky,engine as well. If necessary, a frame can be fabed to mount transaxle and engine on. If original engine isn't available or not worth repairing,a 5 or 6 hp push mower engine should be enough power. Provide slots on frame for fel forks. Replacing bucket with forks work better,give better visability and much stronger than bucket mounted forks. You will find plenty of uses for forks. Offset roller to right or left for improved visability while operating. Don't know why you would need to reverse it while at driver's station but a 1/4tr inch rod will do it. Otherwise a lockable lever at driver's station,cable/string/rope from lever to shifter handle and spring that pull's shifter handle toward slow-neutral when rope is slacked. Reel has to be two piece to alow removing wire roll. Two halves of wheels with bolt centers intact would be easy to build. Lawn tractor wheel might make wire roll too small but a larger reel can be welded to original wheel. I'd try and retain original wheel mount system or try to make reels interchangeable for larger/smaller rolls/other purpose. Tension on wire can be adjusted by raiseing/lowering roller which cause's wire loop from roller to ground to increase/decrease. A little practice watching wire loop will tell you if wire hangs up in brush and you need to stop. Let's paint it! :drink: