Fence posts hard ground

[hgvman]

Trying to fence a field with round fence posts into clay, ending up trying to push them in with a 12 ton digger, our old post banger on the back of the tractor wont knock them in as the grounf is too hard. Any ideas?

posts are 3 to 4 inch wide.

[GazN]

We use a 12 ton digger too. 

[gary112]

Bar a hole first?

[tomo567]

auger a hole smaller than post size

[Matthew Storrs]

58 minutes ago, hgvman said:

Trying to fence a field with round fence posts into clay, ending up trying to push them in with a 12 ton digger, our old post banger on the back of the tractor wont knock them in as the grounf is too hard. Any ideas?

posts are 3 to 4 inch wide.

No amount of force will be any good on 3-4” posts unless a pilot hole is made first. The top spec bangers apply 60 ton or so of force on impact- which would promptly snap anything less than a strainer post! A postdriver with a rock spike would make short work of piloting a hole in clay- usually the spike is about 75mm so allows the post to drive down without the bottom mushrooming or snapping.

[LeeGray]

String your lines, drop a pinch hole in all your post sites, give this weather a day or too, go back to it. Amazing what a bit of water sitting in a hole does in 24hrs.

[woody paul]

1 hour ago, LeeGray said:

String your lines, drop a pinch hole in all your post sites, give this weather a day or too, go back to it. Amazing what a bit of water sitting in a hole does in 24hrs.

If you stand post in pilot hole it will catch more water. 

My mate tried pushing scaffolding poles in ground last year and couldn't so I went with post driver. 

[LeeGray]

1 hour ago, woody paul said:

If you stand post in pilot hole it will catch more water. 

My mate tried pushing scaffolding poles in ground last year and couldn't so I went with post driver. 

If you put a big funnel in each hole you’ll catch more water