Stock Fence Clamp recommendations?

[jnoon]

What's that strainer? It's like a box but with no wire transmitting the force back to the base, and a normal strut but too high to do any good? Is it a West Country thing?

 

 

That's the way I've always done it

[Matthew Storrs]

What's that strainer? It's like a box but with no wire transmitting the force back to the base, and a normal strut but too high to do any good? Is it a West Country thing?

 

Not round my way- but each to their own! Seen a lot worse then that where farmers have had a go!

[doobin]

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Not round my way- but each to their own! Seen a lot worse then that where farmers have had a go!

 

Most backhanded compliment ever!

 

Josh- a box strainer needs a wire loop running from the bottom of the actual straining/end post to the top of the next post. Tension it up. Then when you pull on the top wire of the fence, although it has a lot of leverage working against the post, the force pushes through the wood strut at the top, then is trasmitted back to the bottom of the end post. Thereby negating the leverage effect.

 

With the angle strut, it's a common mistake to put them too high. I used to do it, I cringe looking at some of my first fences. The strut is not going to snap if you put it lower, but if you put the strut high like that then the post can flip out of the ground. Especially if dug in. And it's a right mess to sort out, ask me how I know...

 

Either of these done right will be sufficient on it's own- I've never seen them combined before. For boggy ground, a box is generally better. Make sure the box is at least 6 and preferably 8 feet long.

[jnoon]

Most backhanded compliment ever!

 

Josh- a box strainer needs a wire loop running from the bottom of the actual straining/end post to the top of the next post. Tension it up. Then when you pull on the top wire of the fence, although it has a lot of leverage working against the post, the force pushes through the wood strut at the top, then is trasmitted back to the bottom of the end post. Thereby negating the leverage effect.

 

With the angle strut, it's a common mistake to put them too high. I used to do it, I cringe looking at some of my first fences. The strut is not going to snap if you put it lower, but if you put the strut high like that then the post can flip out of the ground. Especially if dug in. And it's a right mess to sort out, ask me how I know...

 

Either of these done right will be sufficient on it's own- I've never seen them combined before. For boggy ground, a box is generally better. Make sure the box is at least 6 and preferably 8 feet long.

 

 

The strainer is pinned and notched so it won't slip up the post and as for the top rail it's matching in to the fencing next to it will upload a new pic tomoz

[Jimbob87]

No good having two flat faces for your clamp as already said an angle over tube works well, I made one with two angle irons then welded two bars on the outside of one and one in the middle of the other so the wire gets crimped in an s shape. If you don't bend it round something then wires will pull through the clamp. I have been averaging a tad over 20 thousand metres of stock fencing per year over the last 4 years and learnt a lot about the job and I have not used a wire clamp once in 3 years now. I put gripple joins in where needed and use my contractor gripple tool. You may not agree but I can get the wire tight on all strands in dips and peaks through out the line and you are pulling evenly through out the line. If your wire goes a bit slack if you over stretch your top wires just go back and tweek the joins to pull the netting back. I don't like the idea of pulling big stretches of wire without being able to adjust them in time if needed. So imo forget the clamp and get a gripple tool, buy by the box and get gripples for £0.48 each and it build it into the price

 

 

Im with you on the gripples used them for 8 years now carnt beat them

 

 

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[countrryboy]

Gripples are great pieceof kit for patching fences or snapped wires,

 

Would never use them on a permanent new fence thou, either for joining net or for tensioning it.

 

I used to call that type of strainer a NZ strainer (dunno why?) very rarely use them.

There is an estate further north than me where i sometimes plant and the fencer has his stays literally 6 inch (possibly too low in my opinion) of the deck and his fences are as tight as hell. And it must work as u can see his older fences are still holding as good as when they we're new

 

Loke others have rightly said real easy to make a home made clamp but really need bars or big beads of welding to slightly kink/bend wire so it really grips

[doobin]

The strainer is pinned and notched so it won't slip up the post and as for the top rail it's matching in to the fencing next to it will upload a new pic tomoz

 

Fair enough on the top rail. The strut might be pinned but you are still in danger of the whole strainer lifting out of the ground due to the high mounting point of the strut. Trust me, I've done it. Always best to learn from others mistakes...

[jnoon]

Fair enough on the top rail. The strut might be pinned but you are still in danger of the whole strainer lifting out of the ground due to the high mounting point of the strut. Trust me, I've done it. Always best to learn from others mistakes...

 

 

I understand your comments and yes I have fitted struts lower, (knee height) before this job was replacing like for like as the pics show

[doobin]

Fair enough. There may well have been a wire at some point to make that a proper box strainer. I would add one, the top rail is pointless otherwise.

 

Is that angle strut jammed against the bottom of the first post? It doesn't take much rotting before the strut can slip sideways past it, always better to bury a half round lengthways IME.

[Matthew Storrs]

I like a nice big flat stone buried and then I lever the strut into it and bang it down- wedges proper tight in there. I don't want you to think we're picking your work apart when youv'e been brave enough to post pictures. But those short struts and high placement are just asking for trouble if you pull up the netting tight enough. Had many posts pull out of the ground in the early years- so frustrating when your just pulling up the wire tight at the end of the day! I like to over engineer all my stock fencing with 8ft 8-9 inch telegraph pole strainers banged in and box struts in weak ground or just standard strut in good ground- reckon the wires would snap before the strainers shifted.

All good fun the fencing game- so many people have different techniques.