Alternatives to Clipex

[smj1]

I know there have been a few threads about Clipex over the years, but are there any similar alternatives, preferably cheaper or any other styles of using metal posts people have come up with?

We have a bit of moorland in Cumbria where it rains pretty much every day, or that's how it feels and wooden posts are rotting out in 3-5 years. I have been reluctant to try it because of the cost but I am fed up of wooden posts so am looking for alternative options.

 

[ARW]

Clipex isn’t that much more expensive taking into account it lasting 30 years + and the saving on labour. No staples to

 

[Goweresque]

On the basis that Clipex posts cost about £6/each (as far as I can see from a bit of googling) and 'pressure treated' timber posts cost about £2 each, Clipex would pay for itself in not much more than a decade, and thats before including the cost of replacing the posts every few years.

Plastic posts are available at cheaper prices than clipex posts, but their usefulness depends a lot on what they are being asked to do - freestanding fences are not the best roles for plastic posts, but they will do a grand job up against hedges for example.

 

[ARW]

Tanalised stakes are up to £2.50 each now, lucky to find them for less

 

[Y Fan Wen]

I paid 4.75 each for 100 Versalok posts. The clips for them come in a 1000 box which costs 180.00. Versalok is made in GB so I hope they won't go up in price as much as the imported product.

 

[Y Fan Wen]

I know there have been a few threads about Clipex over the years, but are there any similar alternatives, preferably cheaper or any other styles of using metal posts people have come up with?

We have a bit of moorland in Cumbria where it rains pretty much every day, or that's how it feels and wooden posts are rotting out in 3-5 years. I have been reluctant to try it because of the cost but I am fed up of wooden posts so am looking for alternative options.

I keep a stock of Clipex Ecoposts to use where a wooden post has cracked. Drive it in beside the stump and clip the wire on. Haven't tried out the Versalok in that situation yet.

 

[ARW]

I paid 4.75 each for 100 Versalok posts. The clips for them come in a 1000 box which costs 180.00. Versalok is made in GB so I hope they won't go up in price as much as the imported product.

Does it take much clipping on?

 

[Bury the Trash]

I paid 4.75 each for 100 Versalok posts. The clips for them come in a 1000 box which costs 180.00. Versalok is made in GB so I hope they won't go up in price as much as the imported product.

So £5.15 with clips ? are they fiddly to put on ?

 

[neilo]

Surely good pressure treated creosote stakes are still a lot cheaper than the (horrible/industrial looking) steel alternatives? Only advantage I can see is supposedly faster to put them in, although I can’t really see that if you’re using a tractor post rammer rather than an expensive handheld motorised thingy.?

 

[exmoor dave]

Surely good pressure treated creosote stakes are still a lot cheaper than the (horrible/industrial looking) steel alternatives? Only advantage I can see is supposedly faster to put them in, although I can’t really see that if you’re using a tractor post rammer rather than an expensive handheld motorised thingy.?

Just checked the McVeigh website..... 5.5ft 3-4" creo..... £6

Clipex standard £5.97

If working on your own, clipex is really fast to put in, even without a petrol driver.
Can't see why what it looks like really matters that much.
Smashing product for more inaccessible places (another advantage for your list )
Guessing you've not given it a try yet neil?

 

[neilo]

Just checked the McVeigh website..... 5.5ft 3-4" creo..... £6

Clipex standard £5.97

If working on your own, clipex is really fast to put in, even without a petrol driver.
Can't see why what it looks like really matters that much.
Smashing product for more inaccessible places (another advantage for your list )
Guessing you've not given it a try yet neil?

No, because it looks like you’re fencing round an industrial estate. I guess you’d get used to it in time though.

I wouldn’t look to MVP if I was looking for stakes tbh. Last time I checked, slow grown pressure treated creosote stakes were about £3.60 ea (by the bundle, obviously) so i’m Guessing they’d be nearer £4 now?

Personally, on an FBT that’s a third of the way through already, and a landlord’s agent that seems only interested in short term income, I’m losing interest in what happens to the stakes in 15 years’ time. I’m on all incised ones now, as a halfway house between cr*p & treated properly, rightly or wrongly. If I owned the place, or saw a longer term future here, I would certainly be thinking differently.

 

[Bury the Trash]

Surely good pressure treated creosote stakes are still a lot cheaper than the (horrible/industrial looking) steel alternatives? Only advantage I can see is supposedly faster to put them in, although I can’t really see that if you’re using a tractor post rammer rather than an expensive handheld motorised thingy.?

Up agaisnt a hedge which is where most of our stock fencing is anyway, ..it grows in after a few years.
One or 2 taps with an old not heavy weight parmiter is what we do easily / nicely ìn not soft ground. Easier to get them plumb than stakes as well but
Watch holding them up right with yer hand without a glove in cold weather........

 

[caveman]

Doing a bit of fence repair last winter I needed a few 6-7 footers to take account of dips and hollows. (I like to keep the wire as straight as possible. Less chance of it getting slack and stakes between straining posts are only meant for keeping the wire in position anyways). I dived into the adjacent wood and fabricated up a few willow stakes. 4 inch or so tops. I've been pleased to see they have sprouted shoots now and would think they have shot roots out too. I think they will probably outlast the chestnut stakes and posts I put in. ??

 

[exmoor dave]

No, because it looks like you’re fencing round an industrial estate. I guess you’d get used to it in time though.

I wouldn’t look to MVP if I was looking for stakes tbh. Last time I checked, slow grown pressure treated creosote stakes were about £3.60 ea (by the bundle, obviously) so i’m Guessing they’d be nearer £4 now?

Personally, on an FBT that’s a third of the way through already, and a landlord’s agent that seems only interested in short term income, I’m losing interest in what happens to the stakes in 15 years’ time. I’m on all incised ones now, as a halfway house between cr*p & treated properly, rightly or wrongly. If I owned the place, or saw a longer term future here, I would certainly be thinking differently.

Funny enough, we've took the opposite view, in that we can pull out the clipex and take with us if need be...... mind you uncliping it is like the most fiddly bra strap ever

 

[caveman]

Funny enough, we've took the opposite view, in that we can pull out the clipex and take with us if need be...... mind you uncliping it is like the most fiddly bra strap ever

Probably appreciates in value.

 

[Jameshenry]

Funny enough, we've took the opposite view, in that we can pull out the clipex and take with us if need be...... mind you uncliping it is like the most fiddly bra strap ever

It's easier if you stand inside the fence in the dark and reach around to unclip

 

[neilo]

Up agaisnt a hedge which is where most of our stock fencing is anyway, ..it grows in after a few years.
One or 2 taps with an old not heavy weight parmiter is what we do easily / nicely ìn not soft ground. Easier to get them plumb than stakes as well but
Watch holding them up right with yer hand without a glove in cold weather........

I will only use wide spaced HT wire (& not the overpriced X-fence stuff), so sheep graze through it and hedges don’t grow through it the same. Handy for Glastir regs that say the fences need to be 2m apart when double fencing hedges, but you don’t want to lose that much grazing.

That’s my point re: a tractor mounted post rammer. It takes longer to line the rammer up, even with teleshift, than the 2-3 taps it takes to put a stake in. I don’t see the claimed saving in time, unless it’s in an inaccessible place where you have to do it by hand perhaps.

Most of the savings the manufacturers claim are when they price Clipex posts at 5m spacing, against timber at 2-3m. With properly tensioned wire in a straight run, the intermediates are only really there to support the wire, and a good timber post does the same job as a metal one at that. Price both up at the same spacing and the costs are very different.

 

[neilo]

It's easier if you stand inside the fence in the dark and reach around to unclip

Whilst looking intently at the front of the post, to see it revealed in all it’s glory as the wire drops away? ?

 

[Bury the Trash]

I will only use wide spaced HT wire (& not the overpriced X-fence stuff), so sheep graze through it and hedges don’t grow through it the same. Handy for Glastir regs that say the fences need to be 2m apart when double fencing hedges, but you don’t want to lose that much grazing.

That’s my point re: a tractor mounted post rammer. It takes longer to line the rammer up, even with teleshift, than the 2-3 taps it takes to put a stake in. I don’t see the claimed saving in time, unless it’s in an inaccessible place where you have to do it by hand perhaps.

Most of the savings the manufacturers claim are when they price Clipex posts at 5m spacing, against timber at 2-3m. With properly tensioned wire in a straight run, the intermediates are only really there to support the wire, and a good timber post does the same job as a metal one at that. Price both up at the same spacing and the costs are very different.

good point mine eat through it as well.... but if you can see them, well I quite like the way they look , more professional ir

I only ever use 8.80.30 estate ordinary stock fence not x knot. I cant afford a big modern knocker and on some of our thin ground the parmiter s not up to putting timber stakes in, especially getting them up right

remember that clipex eco and standard are taller( which is useful ) than 5foot .6 wooden stakes …. should price them against 6 footers for comparison really.

 

[jondear]

Just checked the McVeigh website..... 5.5ft 3-4" creo..... £6

Clipex standard £5.97

If working on your own, clipex is really fast to put in, even without a petrol driver.
Can't see why what it looks like really matters that much.
Smashing product for more inaccessible places (another advantage for your list )
Guessing you've not given it a try yet neil?

Just started using clipex .so much better to use than Wooden that don't last 5 years .Temp fencing in forage rape .Small hole bar and done!They came from McVeigh Parker