I need to build or repair about 450 feet of fence soon. I was going to go in with wood post corners and gates, and wood post every third post with t posts between. Spacing maybe 8 or 10 feet. Thinking 2 strands twisted, top and center, as I am placing rolled of weld wire or goat wire to contain dogs and critters.

Any tips on stretching the wire, etc?

Good posts and gates with braces. Put posts 15' apart with 6 T posts and a good post as the 7th. Repeat 6 +1. Install end posts first then run string or barb wire on ground and stretch tight. Use that to install all posts in a straight line. Tractor Supply or American fence sell something to attach to the net wire to stretch it. Use a ATV skid steer or truck to stretch. Do it in cool weather.

To stretch the netwire, we took 2 5ft 2x4 boards and drilled 4 or 5 holes through them and bolted them together with the netwire in the middle. Then simply took a chain and comealong wench using the tractor or truck as the base and and pulled until firm but not excessively tight. Stretching barbwire is much simpler just wrapping the barb wire around the come a long hook and tightening again until firm. Tightening too much can damage the wire or end up pulling the anchor post out.

Read this. http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs144p2_016391.pdf

If you have critters that will test it spend the money on high tensile versus standard.

I second what Agyskeet said about stretching too tight. You will only pull your corners crooked over time. Stretch it so it is just tight enough not to sag. Also I have a homemade pair of 2x4's like Agyskeet described. But if you are only doing this one time you don't even need that. You can pull and wrap one horizontal wire at a time. Your top and bottom mesh wires are usually thicker so stretch one of those first.

For net wire we do the same thing as Agyskeet said with the 2x6. With slick wire or barb wire use a clamp instead. Once you have your brace posts in place wrap a heavy chain around the end with enough slack to hook one end of your come along. dont be afraid to over tighten it bc if you did things right your corner posts wont sag, however if you do go too tight you run the chance of breaking you wire and having to splice it (highly unlikely). If you bought quality wire you wont have a problem damaging the wire either. Look for a higher tensile strength and gauge. If you want a fence done right it comes down to that brace assembly. Place posts 7-9' apart and be sure to tamp them well between shoveling more dirt in. We've used both pipe and wooden cross members, depending on availability and time. Wooden go up easier and look sharp. Most importantly, do not make an X brace with the brace wire, wont gain you anything and makes you look like an amateur. Use a single diagonal wire starting at ground level and up to around 5' on the other side. Hope this helps, good luck.

Heres the general idea on what I was getting at on the brace assemblies.

I prefer an old type wire-stretcher similar to the one in the link below. I don't know about this model in particular, but the one I use often is an old and sturdy model that we have had for a long time. It works great for either stretching and reattaching a broken line or stretching an initial line on a corner post. And I do everything by myself, so I have found that this is easiest type for me to use. There are probably a ton of youtube videos. With any stretching, just make sure you are looking down whole line when stretching to make sure the wire is clear of any snags and make sure nobody is near wire as it is possible to stretch too much and break the line. With these models, also make sure hand is clear of ratchets when you release tension so you don't smash your fingers---Because it hurts like hell.

Stretcher


Edit: I prefer to use wire to secure t-posts rather than those stupid clips because those break over time. I secure with wire and make sure pointed end of wire is facing out so cows cant get snagged on it.

Best advice I can give you is to run at least one line of high tensile to keep your livestock off the fence line You will save a lot of money in time and repair costs down the road if you use high tensile. Otherwise- your cows will be rubbing all over it if they get lice and don't forget "the grass is always greener on the other side" so they will have their heads through the wire- especially the calves.

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Read this. http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs144p2_016391.pdf

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This. Pay attention to the corners, and they won't pull up no matter how tight you stretch. 450 feet seriously needs double H braces on the ends.

Never EVER poor boy a fence. Do it right the first time and you'll save money in repairs and replacement over time.

my only tip is if the t posts are being hand driven, get a young'un to come help do all the driving. Speaking from experience as said t-post driving young'un, being paid in beer and a place to shoot is more than adequate compensation

My own personal preference is to put corners 5ft deep and 5 ft tall. I almost never make it 5 ft deep on my place but my minimum is 50". When I stretch the wire, I never see my corners move. But if I stretch it too tight, I see movement many years later. It is not necessary to play a tune on your fence wire.

Sometimes when I am removing old fences, there are corners that are crooked from the pull of the wire over 50 years or more and they are freaking stout. As they sit, crooked, you still cannot pull them out with a front end loader without ramming them a few times to try to loosen them. And you can see the workmanship was not shoddy. Whoever put them there, used a lot of labor and heavy posts, etc, and they lasted many years. Some of them I know are over 62 years old because that is how old I am and I never saw anyone build a new fence there.

A couple of years ago, I think I removed the last of old posts on my place that were actually cut from mesquite. They lasted many years, but not as good as ashe juniper. All of the ones I saw were hollow, like a pipe almost, from rotting on the inside.

When it comes to splicing, do not make loops and tie the wire back on itself. It looks terrible, and is prone to breakage. Instead, do what looks like a blood knot, but instead of coiling the wire back on itself, the coil go onto the other wire. It won't slip, and pulls against the other wire as opposed to pulling against itself. If you are doing it with barbed wire, just untwist about 8", and do the same thing with each strand, but leave enough space between the coils of the first wrap for the second wrap to sit in between it.

Growing up and working on fences with my dad, all he used was that jack-type bar most stores call a fence-stretcher. After I began buying my own stuff, I acquired a couple of those cam type wire grabbers, and one of those ring/tapered bar that is in AgySkeets post. That ring is my favorite just because it is fast to use and you can trust it.

I like having at least two different wire grips because every once in a while (if you do a lot of fencing) you have to pull the ends of two wires together, which is easy with a come-a-long and a couple of wire grips.

Just yesterday I started building a catch pen near my corral because my cattle have become fat and happy, making some of them hard to catch. I have never had this problem before, but very glad to have the rain. I thought I was finished with building fences, but maybe someone else in the future will enjoy being able to easily catch their cattle.

I seriously wish I knew how many miles of 5 strand barbed wire fence I built in my days. That's all I used to do when I was young.

For the wire-stretcher - we like to extend the handle a good bit. Basically, we hammered the end of an aluminum pipe so that it would slide over the existing handle, and give more leverage.

quote:

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I prefer an old type wire-stretcher similar to the one in the link below. I don't know about this model in particular, but the one I use often is an old and sturdy model that we have had for a long time. It works great for either stretching and reattaching a broken line or stretching an initial line on a corner post. And I do everything by myself, so I have found that this is easiest type for me to use. There are probably a ton of youtube videos. With any stretching, just make sure you are looking down whole line when stretching to make sure the wire is clear of any snags and make sure nobody is near wire as it is possible to stretch too much and break the line. With these models, also make sure hand is clear of ratchets when you release tension so you don't smash your fingers---Because it hurts like hell.

Stretcher


Edit: I prefer to use wire to secure t-posts rather than those stupid clips because those break over time. I secure with wire and make sure pointed end of wire is facing out so cows cant get snagged on it.

Best advice I can give you is to run at least one line of high tensile to keep your livestock off the fence line You will save a lot of money in time and repair costs down the road if you use high tensile. Otherwise- your cows will be rubbing all over it if they get lice and don't forget "the grass is always greener on the other side" so they will have their heads through the wire- especially the calves.

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I'll only use one those golden rods on splicing wire. Only use a come along to stretch. Don't see how you could get enough pull on that little guy to stretch with.

Gas powered t post driver. Probably not worth it for 450 feet of fence, but if you replace, build or repair sections of fence often it might. I think they're about 1500 bucks. We have started buying them at work and they are awesome. Two guys can put in about 100 t posts in about 10 minutes.

Depending on the type of ground you can just use a front end loader to push t posts in. Be sure to have a driver (of long pipe with a cap)over the post to keep them from bending.

i was pulling a couple of old cedar posts yesterday

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This fence was built about 1986, so 30 years, this is normal rotting. Post is about 4 ft in the ground and about 5 ft out.


I took a picture of my little Klein Grass field. I am sorta proud of it because it was full of mesquites about 8 ft tall about 3 years ago. I have got 3 cuttings from it (2 this year) and will not cut again because I have plenty hay right now.

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Finished my catch pen.

This first picture shows come-a-long pulling bottom wire using one of those rings with tapered shaft. Pile of rocks in the background was in case I needed any to add to the concrete.

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Next is the finished main fence... maybe 60 feet long.
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The adjacent side, next to the county road.... and old barbed wire fence.... I just added a couple new posts and wire mesh fencing.

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My bull... a registered Brangus... horrible picture... he looks better than that. I have a peeve about horrible cattle photos (like almost all of them on Craigslist) but I couldn't quite catch him in a good stance as he was passing by.

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