Roland Girard, Cochrane, Ontario, uses a steel pipe mounted on his loader bucket to make holes for fence posts, and then uses the bucket itself to push the posts in.
A 4-foot length of 3-1/2-inch-diameter drilling pipe, clamped to the back of the bucket, is used to make the hole. Then Girard uses the bottom of the bucket to push the posts in.
The top end of the pipe butts up against a short length of square tubing welded onto the angled back side of the bucket. The bottom of the pipe is open. Girard used a pair of 3-inch muffler clamps to attach the pipe to the bucket.
“I got the idea because I had to build an 8-foot-tall fence for some whitetail deer that I raise,” says Girard. “The posts I use are 12-foot tamarack trees that are 4 to 6 inches in diameter at the bottom and a little wider at the top. I sharpen the bottom of each post with a chainsaw. I try to set the posts about 4 feet deep.”
To make a hole, Girard lowers the bucket until the pipe is in the ground, then rocks the bucket back and forth, applying downward pressure to push the pipe into the ground. “The pipe fills up with dirt as it goes down. The bucket’s tilting motion causes the pipe to loosen up soil and enlarge the top part of the hole so it’s easy to start a post.”
Girard then tilts the bucket forward — so the pipe is parallel to the ground — and uses the inside of the bucket to force the post down into the hole, tilting the bucket back and forth all the while.
“The post goes down about 6 inches at a time into the hole,” says Girard. “The hole is smaller toward the bottom, so as the bucket pushes down on the post it gets locked in solid.”
For more information on his fabrication, email Roland Girard at rargirard@puc.net.
