Thread: Suburban Kids,buy Large paddock with Know idea.

Paul,
I unfortunately suffer from that very common man syndrome of SS Stupid an Stubborn most females over 4 years of age are able to recognise it if your not sure, I’ve been diagnosed dozens of times.

So don’t fret if you get a positive diagnosis, an there seems to be no cure,well that’s what women say.

Hence my just using dumb brut force, while not to concert about the pickets ends looking like Mushrooms, as I intend to cut them down once the Great Wall of sweat an tears is build.

I was reading your post looking at gorgeous 1970s caravan(Guests room),an a slight dimmer of a possible stupid idea happened [emoji3064].

That Caravan is never going on the road again an that Bumper bar looks very much like a lovely piece of rectangle steel,do star picket smash thingys really need to be round, an do the red ones go faster.



Cheers Matt.
Digging S…

Originally Posted by Simplicity

that Bumper bar looks very much like a lovely piece of rectangle steel,do star picket smash thingys really need to be round, an do the red ones go faster.



Cheers Matt.
Digging S…

Matt

I am sure some RHS would work equally well. In fact, it might hold the picket squarer when starting as there is a tendency to skew the post. The perfect shape would be triangular, but that would have to be fabricated as it is not a standard profile.

Regards
Paul

No they don't need to be round. I have a round piece of pipe I think. Let me look. Nar can't see any you could use. If you cut the bumper off the caravan you could put it back again.

There will be sparks an Furey tonight lightning up the sky, let the mayhem commence.

Now we’re did I put my cape?.

Cheers Matt.

Matt

The top disc of the driver is often slightly inset into the pipe so that the filet weld acts as a stop as well as a weld. It needs to be robust! Just sayin' . Remember to allow for 1200mm internal length.

Regards
Paul

Hi all,

I've been enjoying reading this post. I was raised on a farm, then moved "into town" but spent most of my childhood visiting/working on farms. I also dream of buying the paddock, workshop, whole nine yards.. but haven't done so yet.

Now I completely agree that a proper post driver will help you as the other posters have mentioned... However, may I humbly suggest a much better way?

If you're over 30, or ever need to do more than 30 posts in a day. (Cows love to push star pickets over) then seriously, do yourself a favour and buy a petrol/diesel post driver. They cost as little as $1450 with a Honda motor. In a few short years (or sooner) your back, shoulders, tennis elbow, etc will thank you. Thinking of it another way, how much injury and inconvenience will a $1450 medical bill will cover? Let's not forget that the injury will slow you down with all the other stuff you have to do on the farm... perhaps permanently. I don't doubt your resolve, I doubt your super-man status, and am stating categorically, that even if you're ok now.. it won't last. Everyone I know who used a manual driver routinely for anything more than the odd star picket... have back, shoulder, and arm issues.

Side note - Legal farming lessons for "city slickers":

There are a ton of laws that will make no sense to town-folks that only apply to rural land owners. Like you still have to pay for water entitlement even if you've been banned from using it during drought conditions. Weed inspectors can and will go onto your land with no warning to ensure noxious weeds are managed properly, and fine you heavily if they aren't. But coming back to my most relevant point...

Did you know, that in some states and territories of Australia... if your neighbour(s) have cattle, sheep, whatever, and they cross your land to cause some sort of commotion on a public road, you are legally liable for the damage? In short, your fencing isn't up to scratch. Whether you choose to have animals or not is completely irrelevant.

There are plenty of reasons you might suddenly need to fix large tracts of your fencing in a hurry. Doing it by hand will be much slower. Seriously, no farmer or even hobby farmer, or permaculturalist I know will discourage anyone from getting a motorised post driver. Sure, keep a manual one around as a backup.. but don't hinder yourself from the outset by trying to save a few bucks. It might work for a while, and I've read from your own posts that you're stubborn... but wouldn't you like to get your fencing done faster, better and without a minimum of pain? How about sipping a cuppa as the motor taps the post into place?

Seriously, once you've used a motorized one, you'll look on in pity on anyone who doesn't. Lend it to your neighbours and he may even fix your common fence lines for free.

I hope this helps!
Hamish.

Hi,
Like they say,
"getting old is a bugger but it is much better than the alternative."
Regards

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Matt

The top disc of the driver is often slightly inset into the pipe so that the filet weld acts as a stop as well as a weld. It needs to be robust! Just sayin' . Remember to allow for 1200mm internal length.

Regards
Paul

I have the proprietary one which is Cyclone from memory. I get what you are saying about the 1200 but that also requires more effort to get onto and off the picket. I just use one of the holes in the picket as my depth guage
The price of a bought one Is around $70 so would want to have a lot of spare time to warrant making one.

Originally Posted by harmo

Hi all,

I've been enjoying reading this post. I was raised on a farm, then moved "into town" but spent most of my childhood visiting/working on farms. I also dream of buying the paddock, workshop, whole nine yards.. but haven't done so yet.

Now I completely agree that a proper post driver will help you as the other posters have mentioned... However, may I humbly suggest a much better way?

If you're over 30, or ever need to do more than 30 posts in a day. (Cows love to push star pickets over) then seriously, do yourself a favour and buy a petrol/diesel post driver. They cost as little as $1450 with a Honda motor. In a few short years (or sooner) your back, shoulders, tennis elbow, etc will thank you. Thinking of it another way, how much injury and inconvenience will a $1450 medical bill will cover? Let's not forget that the injury will slow you down with all the other stuff you have to do on the farm... perhaps permanently. I don't doubt your resolve, I doubt your super-man status, and am stating categorically, that even if you're ok now.. it won't last. Everyone I know who used a manual driver routinely for anything more than the odd star picket... have back, shoulder, and arm issues.

Side note - Legal farming lessons for "city slickers":

There are a ton of laws that will make no sense to town-folks that only apply to rural land owners. Like you still have to pay for water entitlement even if you've been banned from using it during drought conditions. Weed inspectors can and will go onto your land with no warning to ensure noxious weeds are managed properly, and fine you heavily if they aren't. But coming back to my most relevant point...

Did you know, that in some states and territories of Australia... if your neighbour(s) have cattle, sheep, whatever, and they cross your land to cause some sort of commotion on a public road, you are legally liable for the damage? In short, your fencing isn't up to scratch. Whether you choose to have animals or not is completely irrelevant.

There are plenty of reasons you might suddenly need to fix large tracts of your fencing in a hurry. Doing it by hand will be much slower. Seriously, no farmer or even hobby farmer, or permaculturalist I know will discourage anyone from getting a motorised post driver. Sure, keep a manual one around as a backup.. but don't hinder yourself from the outset by trying to save a few bucks. It might work for a while, and I've read from your own posts that you're stubborn... but wouldn't you like to get your fencing done faster, better and without a minimum of pain? How about sipping a cuppa as the motor taps the post into place?

Seriously, once you've used a motorized one, you'll look on in pity on anyone who doesn't. Lend it to your neighbours and he may even fix your common fence lines for free.

I hope this helps!
Hamish.

Hamish,

Your pushing some very good points and I am actually listening, interesting about the cattle an fences, luckily all our Neighbours an including our selves have S …. Fences, but none of us have any live stock.


Cheers Matt.

Originally Posted by Beardy

I have the proprietary one which is Cyclone from memory. I get what you are saying about the 1200 but that also requires more effort to get onto and off the picket. I just use one of the holes in the picket as my depth guage
The price of a bought one Is around $70 so would want to have a lot of spare time to warrant making one.

Hi Beardy,

I appreciate the response. You do make an excellent point about the motorized post driver being heavier to get onto (and off) the post. However, it's the repetition that does the most damage. If you have a paddock basher, ute, ATV, etc... and you're up to welding your own manual post driver... how about bolting on a swing-out arm with car jack for the arm, and winch to make even that easier.

Most of my farming friends have something like that. I didn't mention it in my previous post since I know it's clocking up in cost, but I've seen cranes built out of scrap RHS (or square if you prefer) for a few hundred bucks. However, there are commercially made options like this:

TTI 900kg Swivel Ute Crane TTISUC900S2 | Total Tools
408kg REMOVABLE Ute Crane - Prolift Solutions Pty Ltd

Basically, I'm all for avoiding stress/strain and the resulting future pain... life just gets so much easier. If you have a crane, you're not tempted to try something stupid like lifting packs of 100 star pickets up onto the ute... Don't worry, you'll find other stupid things to do... we all do. )

Anyway, as others have said here... yes, getting old is better than the alternative. Much like if 50% of marriages end in divorce, it's only depressing if you don't consider the fact that the other half ends in death. Hmmm.... happy thought.. kinda... sorta... <cue uncertain chuckle here 'coz it's these quirky awkward moments that make up many of the interesting tales in my life>.

Hope this all finds you all well, and that it's something good to think about.

Hamish.

I had to smile as all the old farmers come out of the woodwork (that includes me too although it is debatable whether I really warranted that moniker) with their tips and tricks. We just can't help ourselves.

Hamish is right to suggest availling yourself of anything that might save the beautiful Australian bod, but we also need a little perspective. Matt does not have a thousand acre property full of Brahmin bulls: He is on 25 (?) acres, has no plans to run livestock and the primary use of pickets could be for corrugated iron retaining walls, at least for the moment.

I actually had no idea that motorised picket drivers were even available (it is more than 20 years since I was actively involved on a property). A very cursory look on Ebay showed prices from just under $400 through to $1000. Motors were available in 2-stroke or 4-stroke. Not many weights were quoted, but the one for $1000 was 15Kg and looked a good unit if you had the work for it. One thing that does occur is Matt has mentioned the soil is difficult as in hard. Without experience of these motorised units I would like to know how well they cope with that. The 2-stroke versions may be too light.

I weighed my driver (that's the picket driver, not the car driver, who is considerably heavier) at 10Kg on the precision bathroom scales that were cast out because they were making everybody too heavy ( ). The trick with loading the driver onto the picket, if you are not overly strong or otherwise damaged is to lay the driver at a horizontal angle and slide the picket in before standing the two upright. However, that is not the method I used. I used to hold the picket at an angle and lift the driver into the air from the middle one handed: Not really that difficult and those that have met me will testify to a frame size that could be described as "slight."

If you have a shorter picket driver, a piece of rod welded to the side to give the correct length can act as a depth gauge. Incidentally, clearing sales are probably the best way to pick up a cheap driver, but know what they cost brand new as some people get a little caried away with the atmosphere of the auction.

Regards
Paul

Edit: I looked up the first post: It is 20 acres.

Yer right Paul – there does seem to be a lot of excitement about fencing, but unless I've completely misread Matt's original post about the star pickets, he only wants to put them in for part of the retaining wall of corrugated iron, rather than re-fencing the entire Shire. So maybe progress with the Cyclone or similar jobbie, or hire a motorised version for a day or two?

Originally Posted by harmo

You do make an excellent point about the motorized post driver being heavier to get onto (and off) the post.

I believe Beardy was referring to the weight and effort of the 1200mm manual version compared to a much shorter (Cyclone) manual version, but I may be wrong.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Yer right Paul – there does seem to be a lot of excitement about fencing, but unless I've completely misread Matt's original post about the star pickets, he only wants to put them in for part of the retaining wall of corrugated iron, rather than re-fencing the entire Shire. So maybe progress with the Cyclone or similar jobbie, or hire a motorised version for a day or two?

I believe Beardy was referring to the weight and effort of the 1200mm manual version compared to a much shorter (Cyclone) manual version, but I may be wrong.

That is correct FF, I wasn’t referring to a petrol one. They do work well but probably overkill for the few he plans on putting in in this instance
I did a few kilometres of fencing with a manual picket driver and didn’t find it too difficult at all. Of course it does depend a lot on the ground type

We need to drive in approximately 20 pickets for the retaining wall, possibly less.

Cheers Matt.