We have some barbed wire fences that I need to take down.

The wire is still good so I want to spool it up and reuse.

What's a good easy way to do this?

Where can you buy those spools to use to hold wire?

Good pair of leather gloves and coil it up like a rope.

I've always just rolled it up in 3ft diameter rolls and never worry w a spoil. You can still handle and reuse them pretty easily like that.

Coil like a rope is better descriptor

You don't want to spool it. My dumb self did and it was a hassle to get on and off. Rolling it up is way easier

Best way to do it:

Pay someone else.

I've rolled also in large diameter. 2.5' or 3'. I think rolling tighter will be difficult and hard to work with.

This is how I've always done it. If it still on the fence, only cut at one end. Then while facing down the line make a loop with the rest of the wire coming out the bottom of the loop. Loop should be 3' or so. Then with the line taught, roll a third loop with the line on one side, then make the line switch to the other side of the main loop and roll it another third. Repeat for the length of the wire.

I rolled up 3000' of 5 strand over the summer and I built a hand crank contraption that I could insert into the receiver hitch of my truck or the ranger.

Basically I took an extra hub assembly from an M151 jeep and bolted it to the square tubing so I could reuse it (I've got a lot of parts so I just used what I had). I bolted a handle on the yoke side so I had plenty of leverage. I then built several spools using 14" pieces of 2-7/8" pipe with 4 pieces of rebar welded on each end to keep the wire in place. I welded the rebar so that I could bolt each spool to the hub and would be able to unroll it when i was ready to reuse the wire.

If I get time I'll try to grab a picture of it tomorrow but it worked pretty damn well. There is absolutely nothing easy about rolling up barb wire though...

Turns out I actually had some pictures on my phone. Hopefully I can make these work.

Edit: Evidently I haven't posted pictures from my phone in a while and I can't get them to work. I'll try again tomorrow when I get to my office computer.

What's with all this manual labor? Get a wire winder that hooks on the PTO on a tractor and have that fence rolled up in minutes while enjoying a nice cold beverage.

I've rolled up miles of barbed wire and destroyed many gloves in the process. The idea of the saving that to unroll and use again makes my stomach knot and my butt pucker. Ymmv.

I've always started with a big loop, about 4'. Once you get a couple of loops in it you can sit it on the ground and roll it like a tire over the wire. I have zero idea how easy it'll unroll, buts it's as easy as walking while rolling it up.

We had a spool roller that hooked up to a 3-point hitch on a tractor that would spool wire up easy. Just make sure you unhook it from the posts first. We did barbed wire fences and more electric fence than I can think of.

We have rolled it up on a 55 gal drum before. Rolled up pretty easily, but can't recall being around when/if it was unrolled.

Buy a gas powered wire roller. They make them with split, tapered halves, so that. You can roll up the wire and then remove the spool, leaving the wire.

Take the wire off the posts.

On the first end you take off, put a small weight on the wire to add drag as you roll it up

Hook the opposite end to the roller

Slowly roll the wire up, being careful to not get caught in the moving wire.

Tie the end of the spool of wire off so it won't unroll.

Remove the split spool from the wire.

Load the wire in your pickup.

Take it to a scrap metal yard and sell it.

Buy new wire.

We've never had to tear down a fence worth keeping. Brazos River usually just washes them away lately.

I'm with Canyon though. I'd rather have unstretched wire all even lengths to prevent any splicing or weak points.

Roll it in a ball and sell it to someone with a small lot for "yard art".

T posts however, save those bad boys.