tracked post knockers vs tractor.

[Stephen Blair]

My tracked dumper was 5.5ton, and was about 4 times the size of that.

I bought it blind and was expecting it to be a wee bit bigger!!!

It was hanging off the sides if the low loader:)

[Coletti]

Great to hear first hand experiance of it. Out of interest what did you tow it with to the job? They're quite heavy aren't they.

I know its ground dependant but on average how many stake 3-4" could a bloke knock in per hour with that machine? Assuming average ground conditions.

 

We towed it with an iveco daily and I'm not sure how many posts per hour for a single man but if it's any help we used to average 600-700m of stock fence a day between 2 of us (pig netting and 2 strands of barb) and that's from knocking the first strainer in to knocking the last staple in. It is a seriously effective machine once you get int a rhythm with it.

 

 

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[Tom D]

I saw a great one the other day, mounted on a digger, it was about a 5 tonner but I'm sure it would have gone on a smaller one, works like a pecker vibrating the post in instead of a heavy slow weight. Really impressive, and very fast, so easy to get it lined up exactly where you want when its on the end of a digger arm.

 

It was a bit like this one:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUVWJ64Y8fg]vibrating post driver - YouTube[/ame]

[Matthew Storrs]

I love my digger one much more then my tractor knocker. its far quicker at knocking in intermediate stakes and we've done some really rare jobs with it where normally you would have to do it my hand, over walls,ditches, sneaking through woodlands ,it is spot on apart from being a bit slow on the big strainers posts if its difficult ground. Although I do have an digger mounted auger to pre drill a pilot hole if neccesary but not ideal if you have loads of strainers to do like that- soon starts to knock the profit out of the job.

In an ideal world I would have a 3 ton digger with a 200kg hammer weight but I can't tow that with the landrover.

[Matthew Storrs]

My tracked dumper was 5.5ton, and was about 4 times the size of that.

I bought it blind and was expecting it to be a wee bit bigger!!!

It was hanging off the sides if the low loader:)

 

Did you get rid of your tracked dumper then, not working out for you?

[NI Tree]

Did you get rid of your tracked dumper then, not working out for you?

 

LGP Eddie has it now

[aspenarb]

I saw a great one the other day, mounted on a digger, it was about a 5 tonner but I'm sure it would have gone on a smaller one, works like a pecker vibrating the post in instead of a heavy slow weight. Really impressive, and very fast, so easy to get it lined up exactly where you want when its on the end of a digger arm.

 

It was a bit like this one:

 

The neatest set up for a post knocker I have ever seen was a 4x4 dumper that had the skip taken off the front , the guy fitted a tray in its place which he chucked all his hand tools on and a hiab arm at the very front with a knocker a bit like the one on the clip above . It must of had 5mts of reach ,it also had a quick hitch on the back so he could pull all the materials along on a trailer behind him. He had put a lot of thought into it with lockers on the sides and things like work lights , it even had a third service for a hydraulic breaker. It really was an all in one fencing machine.

 

Bob

[Fenland]

I am currently pondering the exact same query.

 

We run a Boxer with Protech P10 and compact tractor with 150kg hammer.

 

Ideally I would like a 250kg hammer for strainers, but we also do a lot of post and rail with both 5x3 and 6x3. For these the faces have to be spot on and I have seen a hydrualic twister .

 

The Protech machine looks great but at 2.7-2.9 ton I believe it leaves you sweating on the 3.5t towing limit. When I had a look we would have had to have changed to lighter trailer.

 

I have found that Vector PowerDrive also do a tracked machine- a 2.5t "light" weight tracked machine.nThis machine has the hydraulic post twister. Only problem is that I cant get a price out of them..

 

Then the other side of me says get a bigger compact tractor and Protech P30 contractor.....Tractor can then have pallet forks fitted, tow trailer etc etc..

[Matthew Storrs]

I believe the reason why Vector may be unwilling to give a price is because it depends on the condition/value of the base tracked dumper which the post knocker mounts to.

Fenland- I'm like you, I prefer to have a machine that can do other things too like a tractor/digger/skidsteer but then perhaps its a case of jack of all master of none.

Even though by tractor has ample weight to knock strainers in, if I was forced to only have one machine it would be my mini digger any day despite having a smaller weight the sheer versatility of it makes it worth its weight in gold, so many of my fencing jobs involve some sort of grading/ditching so to be able to turn up with one machine behind the landy that can do all the works in one go makes it a real money earner. I spent quite a lot of money buying my new tractor knocker back in the summer but I'm not really convinced that it was worth it aside from the fact that its good with strainers.

An average fencing job for me will be fencing alongside a Devon hedgebank , this involves cutting back the hedge/scrub for which I use the grapple on the digger to clear it, I then do grading works ie casting up the earth bank or ditching and then put the post driver on the digger and anyway I go with the fencing.

[doobin]

I'm fitting mounts for my tracked dumper to take the tractor mounted drive. It will weigh in at approx 2.3t. Best of both worlds then, but still nowhere near as quick as the dedicated conversions. The idea is to have a post driving unit that can be easily transported and take on some wetter/steeper ground with ease, but as my machine is mechanical it will still require two people.

 

I've used a proper conversion and it's awesome. They are still nowhere near as good as a digger mounted thumper on a reasonably steep slope/uneven ground however. Particularly with rubber tracks, they have a tendancy to rock and move about with each blow, even with the jackleg down.