Meet the "Big Bopper"

lastcowboy32

Well-known Member
Yes, I know that you can push T-posts in with a loader.

I know that you can buy a hydraulic or gas-powered thingy.

I also know that you can get one at the store... but the local TSC and the Lowes were out.

The "heavy duty" model at Lowes is 17 pounds. This version comes in at about 25.

Puts posts in the ground in a hurry.

Might put me in the ground too... but I'm OK for now.

OK... sometimes I make stuff just to see if I can. But this thing does work, and it was made from scrap that I had sitting around. Took about an hour of actual fab time. Took about two more hours to find my tools, get my tools setup... put everything back...

Yes, that is a bathroom scale in the foreground of one of the pictures. It's always a fun project when you borrow the scale from the bathroom and then weigh yourself holding various pieces of scrap metal to see what they weigh...


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No handles? How do you pick it up and slam it down? It may be that I just don't see it correctly.
 
And not to be the internet safety police, but those gas cans look to be in a very dangerous location, right behind the chop saw.
 
Be carefull using those post pounders , you can rip your shoulders up pounding posts all day , it takes a long time for your shoulders to
heal. We shove posts down with the loader bucket and avoid sore shoulders !
 
(quoted from post at 11:26:07 06/22/20) And not to be the internet safety police, but those gas cans look to be in a very dangerous location, right behind the chop saw.

No umbrage taken. I took that picture before I started working.

The workbench, chopsaw, generator, welder.... etc... were all pulled outside of the garage to do the work. So, no gas cans were injured in the making of this project.

Internet safety policing is welcome... we should always be happier safe than sorry.
 

The C-channels on the sides are the handles.

With gloved hands, the outer ridge of the C channel fits very comfortably in my grip.

Since I've used it, I have thought about torching a slot in each one for my thumbs to stick through.
 

Absent Minded Farmer...

I wonder about the same thing. The people that used to run our farm put in a bunch of eight foot treated lumber fence posts, just as you describe... they pushed them down with a loader.

This was about eight years ago.

I've found that many of the posts are cracked and only take a little bit of force to get sheared off. I wonder if the loader cracked them during installation.

A loader describes an arc from its pivot point... it will push a post down, but not in a straight line.

It might work OK for steel posts? You can always bend them to your liking, once in the ground.

For wooden posts though? I wonder, based on my experience repairing the fence on my farm.

My fences are truly mongrel. Between myself and two previous owners, there are 8' treated lumber posts (sort of a rounded 3x4)... there are a bunch of T-posts, which I am removing from one area to re-use in another.... and there are about 300 cedar posts; which I have installed with a post maul since I've been here.

The cedar post has been my preferred method over the years.
 
I have a purchased pounder since I can’t weld well.

When I rest my fingers on the bottom of the handle rod to pound, it jars and hurts the finger real fast. Ya learn to grab he middle of the handle, so your hand can slide
and not bounce off the metal.

So, if you torch in a handle fine, but I would not plan on having a finger or thumb in a groove while pounding. At least as I understand your meaning.

Pretty nice deal, for the used pieces you threw together. I understand how he angle fits in your hand, not a bad design.

Paul
 

How about rebar for handles? Nice looking manure spreader in the background there. I need to get those diggers off to you.
 
I have some T-posts to put in once it dries out. Will be giving the loader idea a whirl. Figure, if anything, it's an acquired skill that I could
stand to learn. I'm relatively new to having a "real" loader with down pressure & like learning all the things that can be done with it. Can't wait
for this exercise. If it works, it will be right up there with using the bucket's edge to split soft stumps to dig them out. Then I'll turn the
tractor around & dig out the roots with the trencher. It's really quite the time saver. A bit fun, too!

Mike
 
The trick for me when driving T post is to 'throw' the driver down not hold onto the handles when the driver impacts the posts.Think you will find out in a hurry why the post drivers
that are for sale are built and balanced the way they are.
 
(quoted from post at 23:54:10 06/22/20) The trick for me when driving T post is to 'throw' the driver down not hold onto the handles when the driver impacts the posts.Think you will find out in a hurry why the post drivers
that are for sale are built and balanced the way they are.

I studied the commercial ones at least a little before I made this. The handles are offset because of that and it feels good in my hands. Not sure if I would trade it for a commercial driver.

And yes... the idea of "throwing" is the same as with a post maul. Get the weight moving at the top of the motion, let momentum do its thing at the bottom.
 

members of our Fire Dept. use one for putting in posts for street numbers. Two guys have gotten hurt using it.
 
Mike, it takes 2 people, one to hold the post and second loader operator to keep bucket level while pushing and may have to move tractor a bit forward or backward while pushing to keep post straight. And oyr post pounders were just a piece of 2" pipe with a piece of shaft welded in the end and NO handles, just put your hands over the pipe to lift and releace to drop them. Saw the factory with rod handles and did not like them.
 

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