problems stretching fence

[Philip_L]

I recently installed some 47 tall red-Brand field fencing and am having trouble getting all the wires tight - the longest pull is 200? I clamped the fence between 2 pieces of angle iron, slung a chain over the top and bottom and pulled it with a 2ton come-along attached to a tractor - I pulled until it began to move the tractor. The top 3 wires are super tight and the bottom wire is tight, but the wires in the middle have tons of slack and they look bad. I tried re-clamping the fence and re-pulling, thinking the wires had slipped, but it did not help.
Any ideas on how I can take the slack out of the wires? I even tried pulling the wires individually with a come along and wire grab and it would not pull slack out the fence. I read on the net that I could weld 2 pieces of nested angle iron to the jaws of a pair of vice-grip pliers and put multiple bends in the wires to take up the slack, but it seems like all those crimps would look bad. I also found Jake's Wire Tighteners and it looks like they may work also.
I need some help!

 

[bbirder]

You might try making shorter pulls. After nailing up or fastening that section, move to the next pull. I've found that you can't pull long sections like barbed wire. They also sell a pulling tool at my local hardware, but probably won't work any better than your angle iron.

 

[chh]

I used a piece of steel sucker rod woven down thru the mesh to stretch with. Hooked a chain top and bottom to a come a long like you did. Sounds like the angle iron would work just as well though. What little I have put up I have never stretched all that tight. If I remember correctl, the instructions warned not to over stretch it or it would deform the shape of the squares.

 

[chh]

Red Brand wire has a web site with installation guides in pdf. Sorry I don't know how to post a link. I just googled Red Brand wire.

Good Luck

 

[DavidPerry]

Instead of 2 pieces of angle iron, I used 2 2x4s with bolts through them about every 6 inches. Tighten like crazy. I put angle iron at the back so the chain would pull evenly and not break the 2x4s. Tight like guitar strings.

 

[Soundguy]

They make commercial clamps that stretch woven fence.. I have use 2x4 bolted together every few inches.. the key is to attach it at more than 2 points when you pull. TSC sells them uif you want to look at one for an idea..

soundguy

 

[JESSE1]

One other thing to think about. Try to stretch the wire when the weather is warm or hot. If you stretch it when the wire is cold it's going to get slack when the weather warms up. Of course, this isn't always possible if you have to get a fence up when it's cold.

 

[yubby]

I recently installed some 47 tall red-Brand field fencing and am having trouble getting all the wires tight - the longest pull is 200? I clamped the fence between 2 pieces of angle iron, slung a chain over the top and bottom and pulled it with a 2ton come-along attached to a tractor - I pulled until it began to move the tractor. The top 3 wires are super tight and the bottom wire is tight, but the wires in the middle have tons of slack and they look bad. I tried re-clamping the fence and re-pulling, thinking the wires had slipped, but it did not help.
Any ideas on how I can take the slack out of the wires? I even tried pulling the wires individually with a come along and wire grab and it would not pull slack out the fence. I read on the net that I could weld 2 pieces of nested angle iron to the jaws of a pair of vice-grip pliers and put multiple bends in the wires to take up the slack, but it seems like all those crimps would look bad. I also found Jake's Wire Tighteners and it looks like they may work also.
I need some help!

Here is the (least labor intensive) method that I have used with field fences:

-Limit pulls to 100'
-Bend the end of the pull around a straigt t-post (make sure the bottom of the T toward the direction you are pulling
-after you have bent the fencing around the post wrap the top/bottom wires (larger) tight and leave the lighter wires just a tad loose
-Come-a-long until your tractor moves or your corner post pulls out.. (I used a 3 prong puller to attach to the t-post, a welded hook would work too)
-Attach to t-posts leaving the last t-post unattached (until your next pull)

YMMV, but could never bring myself to bolt 2x4s to the fence.

-y

 

[turnkey4099]

I recently installed some 47 tall red-Brand field fencing and am having trouble getting all the wires tight - the longest pull is 200? I clamped the fence between 2 pieces of angle iron, slung a chain over the top and bottom and pulled it with a 2ton come-along attached to a tractor - I pulled until it began to move the tractor. The top 3 wires are super tight and the bottom wire is tight, but the wires in the middle have tons of slack and they look bad. I tried re-clamping the fence and re-pulling, thinking the wires had slipped, but it did not help.
Any ideas on how I can take the slack out of the wires? I even tried pulling the wires individually with a come along and wire grab and it would not pull slack out the fence. I read on the net that I could weld 2 pieces of nested angle iron to the jaws of a pair of vice-grip pliers and put multiple bends in the wires to take up the slack, but it seems like all those crimps would look bad. I also found Jake's Wire Tighteners and it looks like they may work also.
I need some help!

That must have been one of my posts. I built that tool when I couldn't find a commercial one. It puts "v" crimps in the wire almost identical to the factory ones but a bit deeper. Looks OK but you do wind up with more than one crimp in each 'hole'. I'd post a picture but my digital just broke (permanently it seems) the other day and I haven't replaced it yet. Hoping to do that tomorrow and if so I'll try to get a shot.

The problem with stretching field fence is that any change in elevation really screws up the tensioning.

Harry K

 

[turnkey4099]

That must have been one of my posts. I built that tool when I couldn't find a commercial one. It puts "v" crimps in the wire almost identical to the factory ones but a bit deeper. Looks OK but you do wind up with more than one crimp in each 'hole'. I'd post a picture but my digital just broke (permanently it seems) the other day and I haven't replaced it yet. Hoping to do that tomorrow and if so I'll try to get a shot.

The problem with stretching field fence is that any change in elevation really screws up the tensioning.

Harry K

Well, I have the camera, I have the pictures already in the 'puter. Spent 2 hours this afternoon trying to send them to Photobucket. Nothing seems to be working. Can't tell if it is photobucket or my internet supplier.

I have sent them again and waiting to see if they go this time.

Harry K

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Hmmmmmm, we, my wife and me, just stretched about eleven hundred feet of eight feet high field fence. What made it interesting was the posts were set on fourteen feet centers and there was only one set of pulling braces so it had to be done in two pulls.

It's banjo tight top to bottom.

I also stretch a lot of V Mesh. Fighty eight inch V Mesh has thirteen horizontal strands tied together with a loosely woven vertical pattern. Think pulling thirteen barbless barbwires at the same time and keeping them all taught. Changes in grade are nothing but a thing.

My secret is to pull the puppy twice as tight as you feel comfortable doing. Then I use a simple tool anyone can make if they have access to a welder. I take a piece of half inch round rod and bend it into a one eighty around another piece of half inch bar stock. I weld that to a rod to it looks something like a two pronged tuning fork. I weld that to a cross piece for a handle.

On the eight feet my wife did all the tensioning, easy. I've had grade changes doing V Mesh where after it was pulled the bottom or top would look like a Mexican wedding dress because of the slack. A little quick work with the tensioning tool and all is well.

I've got pictures somewhere if anyone's interested.

 

[turnkey4099]

Finally got 'em organized.

The tool:

This needs to be modified a bit. The angle irons need to be shortened and made of lighter guage - as it is it is very nose heavy.

Also it needs some sort of a 'stop' so you can just jam it against the wire and squeeze vice having to watch what your're doing.

A section of hog wire with the 'v's.

That was old hog wire when I put it up and has been up for around 20 years. I just used the tool on it this morning for a demo of how it looks.

A section of my back yard fence tensioned with the tool after errecting. I don't like the look of chain link so I tried that light guage mesh.

As there were several elevation changes, even on short sections, I needed a lot of the 'v's to take all the slack out of the wires between the top and bottom ones.

The place this type of tool shines is on old, slack fence. Just walk along putting those 'v's in and they tighten right up.

Harry K

 

[turnkey4099]

Hmmmmmm, we, my wife and me, just stretched about eleven hundred feet of eight feet high field fence. What made it interesting was the posts were set on fourteen feet centers and there was only one set of pulling braces so it had to be done in two pulls.

It's banjo tight top to bottom.

I also stretch a lot of V Mesh. Fighty eight inch V Mesh has thirteen horizontal strands tied together with a loosely woven vertical pattern. Think pulling thirteen barbless barbwires at the same time and keeping them all taught. Changes in grade are nothing but a thing.

My secret is to pull the puppy twice as tight as you feel comfortable doing. Then I use a simple tool anyone can make if they have access to a welder. I take a piece of half inch round rod and bend it into a one eighty around another piece of half inch bar stock. I weld that to a rod to it looks something like a two pronged tuning fork. I weld that to a cross piece for a handle.

On the eight feet my wife did all the tensioning, easy. I've had grade changes doing V Mesh where after it was pulled the bottom or top would look like a Mexican wedding dress because of the slack. A little quick work with the tensioning tool and all is well.

I've got pictures somewhere if anyone's interested.

Yes, I would like to see it.

Harry K

 

[pking]

One thing that also helps after you have the angle iron, 2x4's, what ever you use as the clamp on the fence, is to use two come-alongs. Attach one toward the top and toward the bottom. This makes it much easier to get the top and bottom strands tight at the same time.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I can tell by the resized pictures in the album that I've posted this before here on TBN. One of the problems we have is new people come on and the same conversations happen over and over again. Part of that is because some don't understand and use the search functions. And part of it is because new participants bring new information/questions that aren't covered in the old conversation.

I do a lot of woven wire fencing. I started off tightening the fabric due to irregularities in the manufacturing process or grade changes by using my fence pliers to crimp the loose wire. The downside of that is the wire can be nicked which leaves an avenue for rust later on because most of the woven wires aren't galvanized but galvanealed, a much lighter and weaker process.

To eliminate the potential for damaging the wire I took an older pair of fence pliers and modified them with quarter inch steel rods doing what the vice grips pking has created does.

The problem with these was that it took a lot of effort and some of my help aren't into the effort as much as I am.

That's when I came up with these.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Here's what the fence sections looked like after what we in the trade call "dressing". This is before tying in which further dresses it out and makes it looks like a professional installation.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

When you do as much fence stretching as I do you learn the old two by fours clamped together sucks big time real quick. Nuts get lost, even when you weld little arms on them so you don't have to use wrenches. Bolts gall up, even when you use the best bolts and lubricate them often. They just don't hold up to repeated and often use.

Over time I developed these. Their biggest drawback is they have to pull past the terminating post. I've found that not a problem when I plan my stretching schedule.

 

[turnkey4099]

When you do as much fence stretching as I do you learn the old two by fours clamped together sucks big time real quick. Nuts get lost, even when you weld little arms on them so you don't have to use wrenches. Bolts gall up, even when you use the best bolts and lubricate them often. They just don't hold up to repeated and often use.

Over time I developed these. Their biggest drawback is they have to pull past the terminating post. I've found that not a problem when I plan my stretching schedule.

Thanks. Nice pics and beautiful fencing.

Harry K

 

[Aquaman]

I have a small fencing project coming up and learned alot from this thread. Thanks for all the great info guys!!!

 

[dmccarty]

I put up a temp fence around the garden to keep out the deer. 48 inch mesh fence and topped with HT wire to get a 6 foot tall fence. The deer did not get into the garden. The mesh fence is barely hanging on the posts. I just twisted odd size HT wire to keep the fence up.

This was the first time I had messed with HT or the mesh fence and I was wondering how to straighten the mesh fence. Now I know.

When I worked on a farm and we put up barbed wire we had a tool that crimped the wire like Harv's and Turnkey's tools. BUT it was two pieces of round metal that had been formed into a square maybe 8-12 inches. The squares where attached to each other in the middle so they scissored. On end was the "handle" and the other end was placed on the barbed wire. You end on the wire would produce a bunch of crimps to tighten up the wire.

Later,
Dan