Best fence posts?

[Smith31]

Thank you for the replies.

Anyone know the best place to buy Clipex posts from? preferably online purchase and delivered to farm.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

McVeigh Parker supply them.
Available online but better to speak to a rep as you should get a much better price. I was pleasantly surprised at what I paid for some more I bought recently.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

How do you put steel posts down ? I take it Clipex are steel ?

 

[DartmoorEwe]

I used to bang clipex in by hand with a narrow drivel. We've got a post banger now and that works too but we bent a couple of posts working out how to tell when we hit a rock.

 

[CollCrofter]

Does anyone know what kind of money are in those petrol post drivers? look fairly handy and a lot faster than setting up the tractor post driver just for intermediates, less mess just now too

 

[Bury the Trash]

How do you put steel posts down ? I take it Clipex are steel ?

Mell /sledgehammer is sometimes what I use , just like the old days ...
Or in field situation a not necessarily heavy weight tractor knocker ..1 or 2 careful taps and they are down .
If It's hard ground like into shale or stoney, we use a genny and a big 110v sds max drill with a about a 3 ft long by an inch drill bit ( not chisel) to drill out a nice pilot hole which is easier knockable in but still snug that works well and the idea came from @joe soapy

Best bit is around the garden or in awkward places to get to , useing a sledgehammer is a useful option

 

[exmoor dave]

Does anyone know what kind of money are in those petrol post drivers? look fairly handy and a lot faster than setting up the tractor post driver just for intermediates, less mess just now too

Absolutely brilliant for clipex standards and beefys..... won't even barely touch timber posts, i managed some 2" stakes in clay, anything else went no where.

Circa £1500 I believe

 

[Grassman]

Absolutely brilliant for clipex standards and beefys..... won't even barely touch timber posts, i managed some 2" stakes in clay, anything else went no where.

Circa £1500 I believe

Cheaper versions are available!

 

[CollCrofter]

Absolutely brilliant for clipex standards and beefys..... won't even barely touch timber posts, i managed some 2" stakes in clay, anything else went no where.

Circa £1500 I believe

Think I'll stick to my naked lady, mel and tractor post driver. Thanks for that, saved me a few quid!

But we do have sandy ground so might get away with it, expensive gamble I won't be taking.

As farmers I do believe we should try and work smarter and not harder because even in my mid 30s by body is buggered. Back cramps up daily, shoulders gubbed... Not long before I'll have the crofters hobble!

 

[Grassman]

I really think this rotten timber job is verging on criminal.
But everyone passes the buck to the Eu who changed the active ingredients allowed in the preservative.
But the treatment manufacturers claim it's product is fit for purpose if correctly applied.
However it is well known that timber fencing manufacturers were not getting the moisture out adequately before tanalising. You can't get liquid in timber if the timber is already full of liquid.
Now they are incising the timber to help get the preservative in. I'm not convinced it will work.

 

[CollCrofter]

I really think this rotten timber job is verging on criminal.
But everyone passes the buck to the Eu who changed the active ingredients allowed in the preservative.
But the treatment manufacturers claim it's product is fit for purpose if correctly applied.
However it is well known that timber fencing manufacturers were not getting the moisture out adequately before tanalising. You can't get liquid in timber if the timber is already full of liquid.
Now they are incising the timber to help get the preservative in. I'm not convinced it will work.

Wait till I show you the pictures of strainers I put in back in 2015, maybe even 2016

 

[SilliamWhale]

Its why I dont hardly bother with sheep anymore. At nearly £7 metre to stock net properly your looking at a lot of money £4-5k to fence a 10 acre field.

If you count the amount of time livestock are in these fields its a lot of cash!

 

[Y Fan Wen]

Only thing is their strainers are very very expensive, better to get something like electric poles for straining post and use the clipex for intermediates ir

I renewed a fence built in 1963 (I think) last year. I used Hampton intermediates with X fence and re used the railway sleeper strainers the original fence had. They give the impression that they will last another 50 years as well! I think I posted a picture in the fencing thread.

 

[CollCrofter]

I renewed a fence built in 1963 (I think) last year. I used Hampton intermediates with X fence and re used the railway sleeper strainers the original fence had. They give the impression that they will last another 50 years as well! I think I posted a picture in the fencing thread.

We have a fence away out the hill that runs for 1000s of meters and was put up long before I took over here in 2003 and you would think it was put up last week. Difference being the sheep and cattle rarely venture that far out so the fence has no natural predators except the elements

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Using nothing but creosoted strainers now...and will be using creosoted stakes next
How they get away with selling stakes that last 3-4 years is beyond me...trading standards should be on it

 

[Crofter64]

We will be replacing 4/5 year old timber fence posts later this year due to them rotting. Angry is an understatement.

What are the best alternatives to timber?

TIA

Ugly but true: I don’t usually replace fence posts. I just place a new one next to the old one. In your case, perhaps not all are rotten and you won’t find out till you’ve pulled them out.

 

[Danllan]

Fence and forget

Great stuff & lovely folk to deal with

Had a lorry load end last year and very impressed
Cheers dh

Yep, same here, Mark is a great bloke and was straight down here with some replacements when we had a problem with one batch - took a quick look, no arguing, job done.

But, the last time I spoke with him, he was saying that biofuel + pulping were taking a lot of the wood that's needed to supply his posts.

We use utility poles for strainers and gates, and all poles - even from F & F - get a good coat of creosote on the top once they are in, belt and braces here.

All that written, if anyone knows of reliable recycled plastic ones I'd be glad for a link, any that are brown? TIA

 

[Grassman]

I have used quite a lot of these. Quite happy with them.

Versalok metal post and clip | Hampton Steel

Versalok metal fencing posts have been designed with lozenge shaped holes to easily and securely lock in the patented stainless steel Versalok clip.

www.hamptonsteel.co.uk

 

[Grassman]

Using quite a lot of octopost. Not cheap but works well and looking at it I'm quite confidentwith it lasting me out.

 

[Smith31]

Ugly but true: I don’t usually replace fence posts. I just place a new one next to the old one. In your case, perhaps not all are rotten and you won’t find out till you’ve pulled them out.

I don't have the time to do it myself. Staff are on an hourly rate, so I think it would work out more economical in the long term to replace them all at once, with clipex etc.

It is disheartening but just one of those things, pointless stressing about it, lifes too short