T or U posts for wire field fencing?

[chicken fruit]

Yeah you're right pat, I definitely plan to use wood posts at the corners. I just dont know how on earth I could go out, without a tractor, drill holes, plant wood posts, and then come back and pull them all back out again later. Its pretty difficult even with the U posts.

 

[patandchickens]

Yeah you're right pat, I definitely plan to use wood posts at the corners. I just dont know how on earth I could go out, without a tractor, drill holes, plant wood posts, and then come back and pull them all back out again later. Its pretty difficult even with the U posts.

It's really really really not hard. I set and pull wood posts by hand fairly frequently (moving fencelines b/c I don't like the way this place was originally set up when we bought it).

You set the post by using a GOOD posthole digger. It takes about 5 minutes to dig a 3.5' hole with a rented gas-powered one (I highly recommend the 2-person ones, the 1-person ones will REALLY hurt ya) or in my soil it takes me 25-45 minutes to dig a 3.5' hole with a GOOD manual posthole augur. (I find the augur style works much better than the clamshell style, although I own both b/c the clamshell is useful for cleaning out loose dirt sometimes). I'm in real hard clay, so your times might be less. (If you hit a *lot* of rocks it'd be longer - I usually only have to remove one or two fist-sized rocks per hole)

You remove a wooden post by first digging 1-2 shovelblades deep all around it (angled cuts to remove the dirt immediately around the post). If the ground is real dry, pour in several bucketfuls of water and wait a couple hours. Then take a STRONG pole -- we use two 2x6's up on end not flatwise -- and chain it snugly to the post, as low down as you can. Get a cinderblock or whatever to use as a fulcrum. One person wiggles the post, the other person whales on the lever til the post rises enough that you need to stop and reset the chain lower down. (It can certainly be done alone, that's how I usually do it, but is faster with a partner). Lather rinse repeat. It usually takes me about 15 minutes total to remove a 3.5'-deep driven post.

To set T-posts or U-posts, buy or rent a post pounder (it is a heavy cylinder of metal, sometimes with handles, that you put over the top of the post and repeatedly wham down). The only effort you need use is to *raise* the pounder; let it come down with just its own weight unless you are in a hurry. Usually takes me less than 5 minutes per post.

T-posts are SUPER easy to remove by hand -- buy or rent a T-post popper!! (You can rig up a similar thing homemade but IME the storeboughten ones really do work better). It is like a lever-style jack. Alternate between wiggling the post back and forth, and pushin' on the popper, and the posts come out in just a minute or two.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[chicken fruit]

Well if its as simple as you suggest- the cost for wood posts would be the same as 6 foot u posts anyway... and then I could run my top and bottom rails. It would be a far more secure fence.

 

[lupinfarm]

Pat, you can get a t-post popper? Where... TSC? My co-op carries nothing at all, not even t-posts.

I personally hate t-posts, but we have to use them sometimes like along a fenceline that gets really wet mid-winter. Its not worth sinking wood posts there because they'll likely heave and the lack of soil makes it difficult along there. In most places we have 2ft of soil and then either pure bedrock or rocks the size of a Chevy Aveo. In some places you'll get lucky and we get 3ft of soil and then bedrock (but you usually encounter along the way about half a million fist sized rocks). But that is pretty rare. A lot of people in my immediate area that rent or cannot sink posts put down buck fence, or split rail fence. Ours are nailed in the areas we need it but most people wire theirs up which makes it way easier to remove later. A lot of the time they also put in a couple strands of electric on the inside.

Though I kind of envy Pat and her ability to dig so deep, we can dig a post hole by hand with a shovel and manual auger in 15 minutes flat. 10 minutes if you're in a nice soft area and we're on some nice hard clay lol.

 

[lupinfarm]

Pat, you can get a t-post popper? Where... TSC? My co-op carries nothing at all, not even t-posts.

I personally hate t-posts, but we have to use them sometimes like along a fenceline that gets really wet mid-winter. Its not worth sinking wood posts there because they'll likely heave and the lack of soil makes it difficult along there. In most places we have 2ft of soil and then either pure bedrock or rocks the size of a Chevy Aveo. In some places you'll get lucky and we get 3ft of soil and then bedrock (but you usually encounter along the way about half a million fist sized rocks). But that is pretty rare. A lot of people in my immediate area that rent or cannot sink posts put down buck fence, or split rail fence. Ours are nailed in the areas we need it but most people wire theirs up which makes it way easier to remove later. A lot of the time they also put in a couple strands of electric on the inside.

Though I kind of envy Pat and her ability to dig so deep, we can dig a post hole by hand with a shovel and manual auger in 15 minutes flat. 10 minutes if you're in a nice soft area and we're on some nice hard clay lol.

Might as well say, our posts that are sunk 2ft-3ft (usually more like 2ft, but we have some that are 20" down) are done with cement and have never heaved. They're wood posts though, not t-posts... my t-posts DID heave, but the beauty of t-posts is the ability to just knock them back in again lol.

 

[ducks4you]

I've never used 'U' posts - they may work great.

We have heaving soil here and use 6 foot "T" posts...I do like the "T" posts because, as you said, they are easy to install and can be moved if needed.

I agree.
NOTE: when you take them out of the ground, use a sledge hammer. You need to bang away, N-S-E-W until it pulls out e-a-s-i-l-y. If not, you'll bend it and it will be hard to reuse it. Just FYI, from a long-time tent camper, who HAS bent stakes in the past.

 

[patandchickens]

Pat, you can get a t-post popper? Where... TSC? My co-op carries nothing at all, not even t-posts.

Gee I dunno, they're a pretty common item -- try googling "t-post puller" and look for canadian sources? I could give you American mail-order places but that wouldn't do a lot of good

Also are you sure the co-op doesn't carry t-posts, i.e. have you *asked*? (They are not usually out on display, they are back in the warehouse with fence wire and such). That would be very unusual.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[lupinfarm]

Pat, you can get a t-post popper? Where... TSC? My co-op carries nothing at all, not even t-posts.

Gee I dunno, they're a pretty common item -- try googling "t-post puller" and look for canadian sources? I could give you American mail-order places but that wouldn't do a lot of good

Also are you sure the co-op doesn't carry t-posts, i.e. have you *asked*? (They are not usually out on display, they are back in the warehouse with fence wire and such). That would be very unusual.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

One of them doesn't carry much of anything. Actually, none of our co-ops carry much haha.

I haven't seen post pullers, Home Depot might have them... I shall have to take a look around.

 

[cmjust0]

which is best for goats and maybe a pony? and for a 4' fence, in the NE where it freezes and heaves what length posts? 6 foot?

I dont have the option of dug and installed wood posts, its leased land and I need to be able to pull it all up if need be and reuse as much as possible.

I'd drive 6' t-posts about 18" into the ground with a t-post driver, then run 4 or 5 stands of polytwine electric fence around it on insulators. Aluminum would be cheaper in the long run, but it pretty much can't be re-used.. With polytwine, you can just spool it back up.

They make little aluminum braces you can put on t-posts to make h-braces and so forth for corners. I 'modified' (bent ) a few of those and made knee braces...worked great as a temporary kid pen. Quick to put up, quick to take down, and was almost 100% re-useable.