Adapted to jackhammers and later post drivers, hydraulic driven post drivers have many advantages and some disadvantages compared to other post drivers. Hydraulic post drivers have been around for more than 50 years. You’re more likely to get injured using manual post drivers.They are more eco-friendly as they don’t consume electricity or gas power.They do not require a lot of technical know-how to operate.Tools like sledgehammers are readily available and cheaper than mechanized drivers.Compared to the sledgehammer, this manual post driver is much easier to use. You can find these drivers in different sizes to suit the type of the fence posts to be installed. SLEDGEHAMMERSĪ manual post driver is a piece of heavy steel pipe about 30 inches long with welded handles on either side. It is important to note that when installing a fence manually, digging a V-shaped hole (where the top is wider than the bottom) will only result in leaning fences, because any concrete you pour into the hole with will be pushed up by frost, leaving a gap at the bottom where moisture and soil accumulates. For a 4-inch wide post, you will need to dig a 12-inch wide hole. The width of a post hole should be at least three times as wide as the width of the post. DRIVING FENCE POSTSĭriving fence posts in saves you the time and energy of digging a hole larger than the post to accommodate concrete or other backfill material. But driving bare steel posts and painting them afterwards works good too. Powder-coated posts tend to be more durable than painted ones. When using metal posts you will want to consider using galvanized pipe to protect them from corrosion. You will also want to make sure they are strong enough to be mechanically driven into the ground. If you plan to use wooden posts, focus on finding ones that have a good ground contact rating to protect them from pests and moisture damage. You should pay close attention to the quality of the materials you use. For example, if your fence is 6 feet tall, you will want your fence post to be a minimum 2 feet in the ground. As a general rule of thumb, fence posts should be in the ground one third the height of the fence. Your fence will only be as good as the posts you build it with. How you install those fence posts determines everything from its strength to its straightness to its ability to survive severe weather and accidents. When it comes to building a fence, the hardest part of the job is setting the posts. Drive in fence posts to build a better fence, faster.

Metal fence post drivers