Pulling posts

wroughtn_harv · Feb 4, 2003

Today I had some real fun pulling cedar posts, just limbs put in the ground many years ago that had barbwire and field fence nailed to them.

The old boy next door to where I'm working let me know them posts were in there forever and wished me luck. I explained I had a trick up my sleeve and I didn't think they'd be much. I then offered to pull a post sitting in his line. It was an old telephone pole piece. He told me they'd tried to pull it with a back hoe and hadn't had any luck.

Using this technique I pulled the post in a minit. I just slid the curved piece over the post. Rocked it back and forth a time or two or three, and then pulled it right out.

It beats the heck out of using a chain. Especially if you're old like me. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

ScottAR · Feb 4, 2003

Really slick...

JTD · Feb 5, 2003

Slick. I assume you made this since your design and welding projects are nicely done. How about a couple of closeups of it?

herbenus · Feb 5, 2003

Neat. I pulled up a 4x4 post the other day that I planted 2 years ago, 3 feet deep and cemented in 9" augered hole. It came right up with chain and fel. No rocking. I was expecting it to be a bear. Now ground was wet which was key. Not sure how it would do in summer.

Anonymous Poster · Feb 8, 2003

Help a beginner out here. I've got a ton of 4" to 6" posts to pull, along with old barbed wire and mesh fencing. I have yet to buy my tractor, but I will end up with a 20-25 hp 4wd machine (probably Kioti, Kubota, or Mahindra) with FEL. Do I need any special attachments on the FEL to pull a fence? How do you use a chain on the FEL to lift the fence posts? If you could spell the whole process out (and I mean every detail), I would greatly appreciate it.

Bird · Feb 8, 2003

I never had that "curved piece" on my buckets like Harv, but I had chain hooks on either end of the top edge of the bucket. So I just drove up to a post with the bucket dumped forward and with the post right in the center of the bucket, then ran a chain from one bucket hook, took a loop around the post, and on to the other bucket hook; i.e., chained the post to the center of the bucket. In many cases, I could then simply lift the post out of the ground, but if not, I gently rocked the tractor forward and backward, while maintaining a lifting force with the FEL. In other words, I did about the same thing as Harv, but with a chain. The advantage to his system is not having to get off the tractor to hook up a chain to each post (or have a helper to do it). I have only encountered one single post that I could not pull up and that was a steel t-post that had been there so long, it was completely encased in a very large tree root.

Just be sure you have it pretty well centered instead of pulling from one corner of the bucket. Of course, for those who have a chain hook in the center of the bucket instead of just the two top corners; no problem.

wroughtn_harv · Feb 8, 2003

Welcome aboard,

I'm a little different than most folks when it comes to this kind of work. I'd like to think I try to do it the easiest way possible while making sure I'm thorough.

One of my pet peeves is staples. When you remove the barbwire the staples must be disposed of in such a manner as to prevent animals, human and others, from exposure to them in the future. Cows and horses are notorious for consuming stuff like staples and then getting so mad about it that they keel over dead. Lawn mowers love to throw staples. Some of them even get lucky occasionally and hit a kid or almost as many points, a window or paint job.

So I take extra time removing the barbwire and the staples. I make sure that I find all the staples I can and I try to keep the rolls of barbwire sized for easy handling. I do recommend a pair of good welder's gloves for handling the barbwire. I know you don't absolutely have to have them for barbwire, at first. I also have a scrap pile where I put the used wire. The guy who picks it up takes the old wire not because it's so valuable. But the stuff in there with it is.

Most folks like a chain and a FEL for pulling posts. That works. The bigger the tractor the easier and better. Smaller tractors have some problems with this method under a lot of circumstances.

One of the most common mistakes I see when folks do it this way is they don't bother to look at the angle they're using for pulling the post. Pulling it straight up is the easiest. Pulling it out at even a small off angle means you've put the post in a bind in the hole. That increases the resistance. The smaller tractor really bites it then.

I also see a tendancy to want to pull the post with the FEL as high as possible. I see that as working against the tractor. It also puts the operator and anyone within striking distance in danger from broken chain parts hauling butt for the next county. Lower is better. Better yet is to use the curl feature of the FEL versus the lift when the post gets difficult.

On my loader I welded a half moon. It's been sharpened a bit for bite. My tractor is a skid loader. I pull up to the post. If it's a small one then I curl the bucket where it's pointing down and gently bump the post back and forth with the curling action. I then place the half moon over the post. I lower the bucket till the blade hits the ground. I then very carefully curl the bucket until the blade and the half moon have got the post in a bind. I then lift.

My tractor has a lift capacity of less than two thousand pounds. Yet I've pulled some pretty big posts set pretty deep with it. I think the secret has been lifting straight up after rocking the post.

I've also used chains. The way I'd do it with the kind of tractor you're considering is I'd attach the chain via clove hitch knot to the post as low as possible. After rocking the post with the FEL I'd place the loader bucket centered on the post with the blade and the top of the bucket touching the post. I'd then attach the chain to the hook I'd attached on the center of the top of the bucket. I'd lift while using the tractor to gently rock back and forth, not the bucket.

The half moon piece on my tractor works like a hose in water fight. I've had great success with it. And I don't have to have someone handling a chain. That is important to me. You see that someone handling the chain has to be paid and they aren't bullet proof.

Of course anyone I hire hears the speech about our workmen's comp policy. We have found it cheaper to bury than to repair all but the most minor of the injured. So you get hurt, we put you out of your misery.

ns_in_tex · Feb 8, 2003

I like WHarv's ring on top of bucket for removing clean post to save.
If you have old fence & post to discard, or are grown up badly, I like how I cleaned up over a mile of fence row this year.
I cut the fence with bolt cutters about every 100/150', then used my treegetter to pull the post/brush out by the roots while pushing, wire/post/brush to small pile near the center of the wire cuts. Later would come back with forks & load on dump truck or trailer to haul off.

One man can do this without getting off the tractor except to cut the wire.