Rob, Last year I had some design ideas that I haven't prototyped yet. I thought about building some simple spring activated caliper brakes that would grip the "washers" between the rolls of wire. You would have to have 2 washer/separater disks for each roll and a spacer to keep adjacent disks from touching. I thought it would be good to have the wood disks pressed firmly against the sides of the rolls so that the "disk brakes" acting on the wood disks would engage the rolls of wire and not turn independently.
Why disk brakes you may ask? Because while you are driving along with the wire spool spinning and then stop the spool may continue to spin and create a big tangle. The friction of the disk brakes helps prevent that. I intended to try wingnuts to adjust the brakes, i.e. pinch the brake thingies against the spacer disk. The brakes help keep good tensioin on all strands and prevent them from getting tangled a lot more than can be helped.
I did three at a time horizontally with a "T" post for an axle positioned across the back of my Dakota and used wood disks without friction braking. It was OK but not quite tangle free so you had to decelerate smootly to avoid tangles.
I'm pretty sure I want to stay horizontal and not vertical to reduce tangling. You just drive past the last post in question so as to have sufficient slack to position the wires vertical on the posts.
Anyway, I haven't built a prototype yet but feel confident that I can do this. I think a way to reduce tangling is to use a wider separation between spools so the wire strands are farther apart on the ground before you put them on the post. It may be obvious but I will mention just in case... the wire laying on the ground nearest the fenceline is the bottom wire of the fence.
I expect that when I try this I will make it a receiver hitch type mount so it will fit any 2 inch receiver. For 5 strands it would be wider than a full size pickup if my guesses about reduction of tangling are good. There are little "touches" in mind like double holders for each strand so you can cut thte wire and neither end will be free to whip around. These will be a sort of spring clip. Too hard to describe briefly but simple to build and use. One day... and I will post a picture.
If the posts are already in and in a good straight line then fine. Otherwise it is good to string a single wire with posts as far apart as possible and not have the wire on the ground when tensioned. This should be the top wire. Then you can put the rest of the posts in using the taught wire as a straight edge. Animals could care less but everyone else likes the looks of a nerfect or near perfect straight fence line.
No royalties no fees, anyone can have these ideas for free
BUT... if you make a commercial product out of it then you owe me a rootbeer float made with Hires and hand cranked vanilla.
Patrick
Pat
