Ideas for pulling wood posts with tractor

[Gary Fowler]

If they can be pulled with your tractor, the 3 PH is the way to try it. If you don't have one of the drawbars that fit the 3 PH balls, then get one for $20 or so. Hook a chain on it and around the post tightly. Lift the post out, but if it wont move, you can use the drawbar to pull then push the post back and forth to loosen it up.
Just try not to back off into that pond when pushing the post.

 

[Western]

Make sure if you hook up higher than your draw bar, that you do not engage forward gear, can be dangerous or deadly. I have pulled allot of post and concrete bollards in parking lots, generally a few good hits with a sledge, or a "nudge" with the FEL forward and then back to loosed the post, then chain as mentioned earlier. I always use the FEL. Some times woth tension on the chain, you can pull it by rocking the tractor (very little) with forward and reverse.

From your photos, you will be working in an area where you will need to be extra aware, near the pond. If water soaks in around he post it may be more difficult with the "suction" action, drive a bar down beside the post, then remove to negate that.

Read this.
CDC - NIOSH Update - NIOSH Warns: Improper Hitching to Tractors Can Be Fatal

 

[Gary Fowler]

Those look like square timbers that were possibly concreted in. Sometimes the post will pull out of the concrete and then you will have to get a backhoe to dig those out if you want to remove the concrete.

 

[crackerjack222]

I would try the fel first. If that did not work, I would get a truck tire rim. Run a chain from low on the post over the rim and to the draw bar on the tractor. Pull. The rim converts the forward motion of the tractor to a vertical pull on the post.

 

[Zockel]

I recently pulled about 20 5" posts with concrete base out of clay soil using a Kubota 3430. Used the chain on the FEL and after a rain it worked like a charm. Now I'd like. To reuse the 20 posts. Any idea how to get the concrete base off? I was told to hit them with a sledge hammer, but they are not budging.

 

[BeezFun]

My experience is posts are usually rotten right around grade, so they often break off when I try to pull them. I have a really large lag screw, I make a pilot hole with a spade bit, put a few large washers on the lag, put it through a loop in a wire rope, and screw it deep into the post. Then either use FEL hook or 3pt arm to lift on the wire rope and try to pull it out. I usually want to replace posts so I try to avoid digging them out because then I have a huge hole that won't hold a new post.

 

[BeezFun]

Any idea how to get the concrete base off? I was told to hit them with a sledge hammer, but they are not budging.

Hire a teenager and tell him to hit them harder and more times. I've found that labor costs usually exceed cost of new post.

 

[Western]

I recently pulled about 20 5" posts with concrete base out of clay soil using a Kubota 3430. Used the chain on the FEL and after a rain it worked like a charm. Now I'd like. To reuse the 20 posts. Any idea how to get the concrete base off? I was told to hit them with a sledge hammer, but they are not budging.

Sledge will do it ! Try starting on one edge, them hit along the same line until it cracks, then it will go easy. Sometimes a whack to the post will cause enough cracks to facilitate this, just make sure to use a piece of sacrificial wood to protect the post.

 

[BHD]

if really solid and I need to remove a post I take posthole digger and dig a hole next to it and if need to take a bucket of water once I get deep enough to hold the water pour in and come back a day or two later, finish digging and then rock the post and usually can pull by hand,

but I have had some so stubborn I can't pull with my tractor loader and (4000 pounds of lift) I do not have a three point device to lift that way, in most conditions I can pull with the loader,

just have to try some thing and if that does not work go to a plan B or C,

 

[Zockel]

Thanks Dennis, I'll keep pounding at them (or find a teenager to do it). I think part of the problem was that I was hitting them on soft ground.