Fence Post Pulling Rig with a Harbor Freight Farm Jack
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- In this video, I show how to use a Harbor Freight farm jack, two 2x4's and a length of chain to quickly pull out fence post. This can also be used to pull out the concrete base where the post has rotted away. You'll still need to do a lot of digging for those, but at least it makes it easier to pull out the concrete base.
The chain we use is 5/16". The 2x4s are 4'9" - because that's what I had on hand. I think anything that's about 6"-12" longer than your jack would work. I used a 1/2" x 6" bolt to hold them together. Be sure to make the holes large enough and leave the bolt loose enough to let you move the 2x4's to be able to make the tripod shape.
12/1/20 update - I took out four 15 year old burning bushes over the weekend. Just trimmed off the tops so I had about 1 foot left to wrap the chain around. Worked like a champ. I used a "beater" ax to cut through the smaller roots in the soil as I jacked it up to make extraction easier. Harder than the fence posts, but still worked just fine.
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Thanks for throwing the toy for the dog! Great video.
Oh hell to the yeah. About to do a large fence job and was trying to figure out the easiest way to remove some posts. You the man and thank you
Right on!
This is Amazing. Thank you for sharing 4 posts out in 20 minutes. No digging 🤩
Thanks for your excellent video! I was trying to remove 10 and 20 ft tall 6x6 posts held with 3 bags of concrete in 4 ft Sonotubes. Your idea made it possible to extract them without dying. Much appreciated!!!!
That's a heck of fence! Congrats on getting the post out! Glad the video was helpful. :-)
Brilliantly simple!! Needed to keep my jack from leaning into the post and this did the trick!
This video helped alot with the removal of our fence posts due to the A frame technique. Agree that it only takes a few minutes per post to pull them out. Thank you very much for the info.
That's great to hear that it worked well for you!
I’ve used the handyman jack trick for years. I have never added legs to the jack before. Makes too much sense. I’ll be giving it a go here in a day or two. Thanks for the video.
The only downside is that it weighs more!
I've always used an old car jack that you can grab from a salvage yard for a few bucks - worked great.
I pulled post like that lot.. Never thought of using 2x4s. I am changing my way. thanks
Thanks! It worked like a charm, quick and easy.
I made the mistake of trying to get both pieces of 2X4 out of an 8 foot 2x4 that I had laying around. So I cut it into two 4 foot pieces figuring that 48 inches would be long enough since the jack is only 42 inches high. Wrong. Those 2x4 legs need to be at least 5 feet (60 inches) long. Also the bolt holding those 2x4's to the jack needs to be at least 6 inches long. Otherwise you won't have enough play to spread the 2X4's around a 4x4 post. Finally my 3/8 grade 70 chain would not go all the way through the hole in the hole in the lifting arm. You will need a quick link connector like the one in the video. That being said, once I got everything set up I was able to pull up a 4x4 that had at least 3 times as much concrete around it as the one in the video.
Excellent comments. Thanks for sharing your experience and recommendations!
Thanks for reposting! Got a bunch of fence post to replace
Nice idea. I need to the pull the concrete out as the posts have rotted off. I will use your idea combined with a pair of ice tongs to pull them loose.
You just saved my back so much pain and aches. Amazing
You'll still feel it after moving the jack assembly around all day. But it definitely is less of a pain (physical/time wise) than digging those post out by hand!
This is the best easy post removal idea I’ve seen yet!
Glad it was helpful!
Using the jack without the tripod method like you show here is a pain in the ass. My posts were breaking at ground level so without the tripod I couldn’t get any leverage. I was about to give up and dig em out till I saw this. Saved me tons of time! Great video
I saw a few of the no-tripod methods before I came across this method. Without the tripod they were basically just knocking the post over, not really up. That's wild that yours were breaking!
I LOVE your cute dog who wants to help!
Play with the dog for heaven's sake!
hahaha
🤣
1rst thing I noticed..
The best and most complete method yet. Thanks
Glad it helped!
This is genius. Great video in every aspect. The description, the setup is simple and effective
Glad you liked it!
Using the bricks really helps!
Works great. I pulled several posts. Thanks for sharing...
Awesome! I'm glad it worked for you!
Nice tip, thanks. That "locking carabiner" is actually a quick link.
Thanks for the clarification!
Grab hook would be faster.😅
Yeah, the "locking cabaneer?" 😂
Would somebody please play catch with that dog!
The problem with him is that he'll drop the ball about 10' from you and expect you to always go over and pick it up. I try to reason with him but he doesn't seem to care. Oh wait, you're talking about the dog! I was thinking about my son for minute ;-)
Wow that works really well! Great idea and thanks for sharing! 👍
Thank you! Cheers!
Nice job! I'm going to try this to pull the huge rabbitbrush.
I pulled some bushes out with it a few years ago. It works, but you will probably have to alternate between jacking and cutting some of the roots as you pull it out. It's not as fast as a fence post, but it's about as fast as any other way of getting the main part a root system out of the ground. I ended up jacking once or twice, finding the roots that were too big to pull out, cut/dig around those, and then jack some more. good luck - let us know how it goes!
@@fishpotpete 👍 Thank you so much for the tips! Will follow your instruction.
Those jacks are crazy expensive now (about $100) and only rated for 5,000 lbs but I just got one and rarin' to try it out. Thanks for video!
Hows it treating you 8 months later?
@@edwardtoal5783 Not OP, but I got the HarborFreight 48" Badlands ~5K Lbs. rated farmjack. I did two posts in swampy soil which didn't even have concrete bases. The bar already has noticeable bend in it. This'll be going back to HarborFreight, especially at the inflated $85 price...
I screwed a small block on the side of the post about 8" from the ground and used a bottle jack under it. Pumped it up to its max height, then just grabbed the post and slid it straight up out of the hole.
I just did it today after watching your video, and it’s OFFICIAL 👍🏾 only thing is the jack is $100-150 now
Ouch! The price really went up! I guess everything is getting more expensive, like or not :-(
The two by fours are a great idea thanks.
Great video. Thanks, giving more confidence i can replace my fence.
Love the 2x4 attached. Now if the post is rotted off from concrete. dig down and wrap the chain around concrete and away you go. I have also due to least destruction of the earth around the concrete due to customers request. I drilled and installed Redheads and attached chains to them then lifted concrete out.
I'm glad you brought that up and the rotted post. I did exactly what you said during that fence project... more times than I wanted 🙂
Did you drill the redheads into the side of the concrete or the top? Also, do you know if the concrete was "fence post" concrete or "high strength"?
@@chuckzissman I drilled straight down from the top.
This is 🔥🔥🔥
Appreciate the video. Need to use this to take out bushes
Ha! That's exactly what I did this weekend! I took out four 15 year old burning bushes. Just trimmed off the tops so I had about 1 foot left to wrap the chain around. Worked like a champ. I used a "beater" ax to cut through the smaller roots in the soil as I jacked it up to make extraction easier. Harder than the fence posts, but still worked just fine.
@@fishpotpete I have a mattock I can use. May I ask, How long did you make the 2x4s and what size bolt did you use to hold them together. Thanks, Great video
@@DOCREAL1118 I just measured them this weekend. The 2x4s are 4'9" - because that's what I had on hand. I think anything that's about 6"-12" longer than your jack would work. I used a 1/2" x 6" bolt to hold them together. Be sure to make the holes large enough and leave the bolt loose enough to let you move the 2x4's to be able to make the tripod shape.
Please let me know if you have any other questions. thanks!
@@fishpotpete Thanks so much buddy. That helps alot
@@fishpotpete Just subscribed
Great video! I think I am going to buy of of these Harbor Freight Jacks soon!
Thanks!
Nice 👍
I just did some with an engine hoist which is a pain to move but on some I was able to put it on the end of a trailer and back up to them
That's a cool idea. you could almost temporarily add some kind of bigger wheels instead relying on the caster wheels on the lift.
Brilliant! Thanks for taking the time to post/share. Wondering if this method could be used to loosen up/remove smaller tree stumps (if not deeply rooted).
Yes, you can! In fact I pulled out several mature burning bushes last year. It is a lot of work (much more than the fence post). But with enough digging, cutting, hatcheting, you can eventually pull out the main part of the stump. I started by cutting the top of the bushes off to about 1' or so. That way you've got enough to wrap your chain around.
@@fishpotpete Will give it a go. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
The dog is stealing tje show and I'm not even a dog person. Still love him tho! Great channel
I think I need to borrow him from my son every time I do a new video :-) Thanks for the comment!
Usually the post are lose enough to push back and forth and you can take them out easy.
It really depends on the soil type and soil moisture. But you are correct that some posts can simply be rocked back and forth and eventually come out. Most of mine were not rockers 🙂
Thanks.
Beautiful!
Thanks, gentlemen! Great info!
Our pleasure!
@@fishpotpete, on the strength of your video, my eldest son (with whom I share a home) and I bought our own farm jack . We have many large shrubs and some old fence posts to pull up on our new property, and have set it up just like y'all did. It's really been a great help. God bless you!
@@sharonpeek4578 That's awesome to hear!
What size bolt did you use?
@@aimeetorres1. my son put the whole thing together. I just asked him your question, and he says he can't remember for sure, but he believes the bolt was a half inch by three inches, and he got the big flat washers to fit, as well. Looking at the video, I think that's about right. If you don't want to trust my son's memory, Fishpotpete is really good about answering these posts. Good luck with your farm jack endeavors!
I'll be trying this tomorrow. Someone hit my fence last night and damaged one of the posts (2-3/8" steel post, set in concrete). I'll have to buy the jack.
Sorry to hear about the accident. Hope this works out for you!
@@fishpotpete - Unfortunately, this didn't work for me. Turned out, the concrete plug was so solidly in the ground that pulling the post just snapped it off right at the surface of the concrete. The soil here is about 75% clay, 10% sand and the remainder gravel. Removing old concrete fence post plugs almost always involves digging them out with a backhoe. Or, if you have to do it with hand tools, busting them up with a jackhammer, then digging out the pieces with a post-hole digger. Fence installers here don't even try to use hand tools: they all have a Bobcat with a hydraulically powered post hole augur and a backhoe. The use the backhoe to dig out old concrete plugs, then set a new post. Thanks!
@@laura-ann.0726 Wow, that sounds expensive! Sorry the jack didn't work :-(
@@laura-ann.0726 sometimes when the post breaks you can drill a hole in the concrete and put a anchor in it with a bolt and hook the chain to the bolt and pull it out with the farm jack like this.
@@TheBeStLifehomestead - Yes, I'm familiar with concrete wedge anchors, but I have heard that they often won't hold under high pulling loads in fence-post mix, which is usually no better than 400 pounds portland cement per cubic yard. Foundation mix, which is used for driveways, sidewalks, house foundation slabs, and other applications where the concrete is fully supported by the ground and not subjected to any bending or tension forces, is typically 517 pounds of portland cement to 1,560 pounds of sand and 1,600 pounds coarse aggregate per cubic yard. This concrete has a compressive strength of 400 psi after 28 days. Structural concrete, used for manufacturing pre-cast/pre-stressed I-beams, cast-in-place/pre-stressed highway bridge girders, and cast-in-place retaining walls, has 4,000 psi of compressive strength, and the mix is Portland Cement - 611 pounds, Sand - 1450 pounds, Aggregate - 1600 pounds. There are specialty mixes that can have compressive strength up to 12,000 psi, but these require special sand, special aggregate, and very precise mix ratios and curing temperatures. And needless to say, they are very expensive. Anyway, what I did, was to use a 1-7/8", 16 gauge chain link post, which just fit the inside diameter of the broken off stub of the original 2-3/8" fence post, which had not been backfilled with concrete and was still clear of dirt and debris. I cemented the new post in, and it works perfectly. Due to the slightly smaller diameter, this new post won't have quite as much bending strength under wind load as the original post did, but it should be more than enough. And I didn't have to dig the old post plug out, or offset the new post, which would have meant uneven support of the fence. This experience has made me realize that one should never assume that it will never be necessary to dig up or pull out an old fence post; so that making provision to pull the concrete plug out is a wise idea. In future, I might pour fence posts with a loop of 3/8" rebar or 5/16" chain embedded in the concrete, to give something other than the post itself to hook the farm jack too.
Awesome work!
Thank you! Cheers!
Awesome job thanks for your time
You are the best version of this idea … but, it is “kare-Ra-beener “
I was lucky to even say it sort of right 🙂 Thanks for the comments!!!
Very good idea.
Thank you! 😊
I'm using the same setup to pull out stumps The problem that I'm having is the chain keeps slipping so I've got to figure out a way to secure the change of the stump before I try to use the farm jack
That post had a tiny little footter on it I've seen posts that were set for feet deep and had a 3 foot wide ball of concrete on
BRAVO!
Thank you!
Nice job! I posted a video of the exact same rig I built using a hi-lift jack. If I had seen your video first I could saved 3 minutes of internet video and just pointed to yours. :)
Thanks! I definitely appreciate the vote of confidence :-)
That HF farm jack here in PA in May/2024 was $100. Will do the job though and worth the money.
Those things keep going up! I noticed the same price in St. Louis a couple of of weeks ago.
Don’t let the jack fall over and land on the arch of your wife’s foot!!! They are very heavy and can break bones....Nice rig, works good!
LOL!! I hope that's not from personal experience! :-)
This is awesome.
The dog wants so bad just to help.
OMG I bought a jack hammer to remove my post lol I wish I should have watch this
Bummer! I'm not fan of jack hammers. But they do what they do!
Thank you.
Great Video, Thank you.
Jack height was 42 inches but how long were the other two 2x4's that you attached?
The legs are about 6" longer than the jack. It's awkward to carry and set up - but you need to do that so the jack is more parallel to the post.
Great concept but unfortunately didn't work for me. Snapped through two different lengths of 1/2" threaded rod without budging the concrete plug.
I suspect the post I'm trying to pull had been removed once before and replaced because the plug of concrete seems to be approaching 12" - 14" in diameter at the surface. Will have to break out the jackhammer for this one.
FOLLOW-UP
After having used a jackhammer to beak the muffin top of concrete, reducing the height of the column of concrete to about 18" (and 8" in diameter), I then tried again and the post pulled from the concrete plug.
The soil where I live is a loamy clay. Having ran the specs of the hole, the concrete and the soil through AI, it calculated that the pulling force to extract an 18" x 8" concrete plug from my soil would be between 5,000 and 7,000 pounds, an amount of force that the 1/2" bolt passing loosely through the 2x4's and the thin steel of the farm jack couldn't possibly take.
I have no doubt that this puller works great in some environments (eg soil types) and situations, but I think for extracting 4x4 posts set 18" - 24" deep in concrete in loamy clay soil, it will be a no-go every time.
It was a worthwhile experiment though, one that I had high hopes for.
Man, what a bummer! I wonder what the 12" plug even weighs????? Good luck with that one!
Can someone please throw the dogs ball! Good Boy!
He lives to chase the ball :-) Now my neighbor got a new puppy recently and she always waits at the fence for me to throw her the frisbie. So is life :-)
I just tried this. It worked, but the HF jack main bar bent on the very first post. I had to give up on it and got 4 other posts out, but had to stop because it kept bending. I think it had to do with the bracing, as it bent up above where the actual mechanism was. Going to see if HF will take it back, so I can go get a stronger rated one from elsewhere.
That almost sounds like a defective part. They're pretty good about taking stuff back - I wonder if you got a different one it it would still have the same problem? Sorry about the HF fail!
Yeah, it bent after 2 cranks. So, I have a feeling it's defective lol But, we shall see! Thanks for the reply!@@fishpotpete
These are cool, but....
I decided it was just easier to cut off all the old posts, then offset the new posts ~ a foot. Sure saves a ton of time .
That's certainly on option. But that entire side and back row with mine are thick with roots. I'll take doing this over digging through roots any day of the week. But if I had a post hole digger and clear open land, that would certainly be something I would consider!
in most cases, pulling it up lets you re-use the old hole for the new post, thus saving a ton of time and work, especially if the other fence pieces are to be re-used (same spacing).
Great idea, I will be putting it to use this weekend.
What size chain are you guys using? I was going to but some 3/8" chain for this.
It was pretty heavy chain. I don't recall the size, but it was the thickest that would easily fit in the jack opening.
My husband is having issues with getting it to lower!! He is frustrated and ready to take it back to Harbor Freights.
I'm glad you brought that up! Yes, the stupid mechanism to get it to lower can be a total pain! It's one of those "squeeze this while doing that" kind of things that you have to figure out. It shouldn't be that difficult. Obviously a lot of people have figured out how to deal with it... But why do we have to "figure it out" in the first place? I agree and I probably should have spent a few seconds on that in the video because I deal with it every time I use the jack. And that's a major annoyance. Thank you for mentioning the issue!
Most post are rotten at the base and I dig down to get the base out, same principle but more time consuming..
What size bolt? I just seen a jack at the feed store
Thank you for the great demo. Gotta question for you: Say I was able to impact-drive in a 1/2 inch thick lag screw into one side and have it protrude out from the opposite side. Do you think I'd be able to take out the post using 2 of these jacks pushing on each end of the lag screw ?
That sounds like it should work. Dealing with 2 jacks might get awkward. But depending on what you're pulling out, your idea makes a lot sense!
I think I would use something with a real load rating in place of the D-ring to secure the chain. A fastener supplier or rigging supply would have a rated carabiner and it would be safer than the D-ring.
Actually the D-ring is load rated. I don't know what it was off the top of my head - but it was one of those ridiculously high ratings that I would never expect to reach. It's not one of those spring lever jobs. The ends screw together to close it. I probably should have clarified that in the video since it wasn't obvious.
@@fishpotpete Thanks for clarifying that. I spent many years in theater, and we were extremely careful with all of our load bearing gear. Great design on the post remover, btw!
Please, please, please play with the dog. He needs a friend to keep him energized.
Believe me, he gets plenty of "energization"! It take 3 adults and 2 children to wear him out!
What do the 2x4's do? Are they just there to keep the jack centered?
For the most part, yes. If you just hook up the jack/chain, the post moves the opposite direction and you may not get a good angle to pull it out as effectively. So you would have to manually try to keep the post more or less straight as you do this. With the 2x4's, there's no fighting with the post/jack as you jack it up. There are videos out there doing it with the jack only and it looks like A LOT more work.
Tthat is pretty shallow. It would take more effort up here where the frost goes down 3ft and post are buried and cemented 4ft down
FYI this also works with a ratchet strap.
That's a good suggestion! I never thought of something like that. Thanks for sharing 🙂
You might not have noticed, but I believe your helper has a tick attached to his ear. .... just saying.
The dark spots are actually his skin color - but ticks certainly been a watch out with him. Sometimes you may not notice them until they get bigger than they should! Keen eyesight on your part though! :-)
Just throw the damn ball already. The pooch peed on that post regularly.
He has an unusual way to pee. He basically just stands with his rear legs sort of extended to the rear and pees that way - it's not always obvious that he peeing. I never have seen him raise his leg on anything! That's sort of good... but apparently he knows what spots in the yard are going to turn brown in a couple days and he only pees in those exact spots :-(
Do you have a part number or description Number For the farm Jack?
www.harborfreight.com/48-in-farm-jack-58395.html
I think it's a "newer" version... which means slightly more expensive.
All you need to pull a steel fence post is the fence pounder you installed it with......
Not sure how that would work? Seems like a fence punder is a one-way tool?
@@fishpotpete google it. I remove t posts all the time as I set up temp fencing quite a bit.
Does this work if the bottom of the post is partly rotted?
Maybe. It depends on how much of the post is rotted. BUT it's worth starting out with this method. Worse case in you still need to dig out next to the base (concrete in my case) and you can eventually pry the base over to the side and still get enough chain around the base to use the jack. I had about 20 post total and I think maybe 5 or 6 needed to use this method because they were rotted out. But it was still easier to get that chunk of concrete above ground level using the jack.
Use a chain on the jack.
I see this done a lot with wood posts. Any ideas on how to adapt this method to metal posts?
It works exactly the same. The key is that the chain self tightens. With wood, you can see it dig into the wood. You just won't see it dig into a metal post - but it will be tight. If there's oil or some kind of coating, that might cause an issue. Otherwise, you should be fine.
Works great unless your chain link fence posts are concreted in 6 feet deep.
@@s6juggs Wow! That's some serious anchoring! I think you're right, this method probably wouldn't work on that. Maybe 2 or 3 jacks :-)
That guy needs a new pair of jeans
Is that in the instructions?
As far as pulling out fence posts? No, not specifically. But these are rated at a high capacity (5,000 lbs!) for dealing with farm equipment, etc. So pulling out a fence post is really an easy task for the jack on something like this.
Now the 2x4s cost more than the jack.
Sad but true! :-(
No one wants to play with the dog....lol.
Nice video. What about removing posts that have rotten off and only the concrete base is in the ground. Any tricks for getting those out?
I dig out enough next to the base so I can tilt it with a big pry bar. Then I wrap the base as well as I can with the chain. It might take a few tries to get everything in position/etc. But it basically comes out just the same as one that's intact. I should have shot video one of those, but this was the last post I had.
@@fishpotpete okay, that sounds doable. Thanks for the video and the tip!
Just think about it
Dogy looks like he wants some attention.
A dog and his ball :-) He never stops with that thing! Sometimes in the middle of the night you'll feel a ball drop on your head and wake up to see him looking at your ready to play :-)
Nice video ... now PLAY with your Drama Dog!
He was over today with my son and the dog gave me a sore arm from me throwing th ball so much! Good timing on your comment! :-)
What if the post is broken?
That's where the REAL fun begin.. NOT. I had a few that were broken off at the top of the concrete base. I dug out one side of the concret so I could eventually lean the base over a little. At that point you can work the chain around the concrete and lift it out. I think that took a couple of tries. But they eventually came out easy enough without lifting them out by hand. At first I tried putting a big lag bolt in the remaining wood post and use the chain with that, but they were always too rotted out to hold the lag bolt.
@@fishpotpete thank you
Actually I’m looking at the dog, he wants to play.
with all that money you saved by DIY get your son some pants
And that's not even his worse pair! 🙄
The use of the boards as an extended brace is a great idea!
The biggest advantage is that the hi-lift jack wants to naturally LEAN toward the object being lifted. The "brace" boards prevent that.
Thanks for the video, and thanks to whom you got the idea from!
ua-cam.com/video/PC2gPvvoBnY/v-deo.html
Is it a 48” jack ?
It's a 42".
fishpotpete closest I could get in the UK was 48” thanks for making this video by the way, work smart not hard” 👍
@@c0deye1 the longer one might even be better!
Please buy that poor helper a new pair of pants.
:-) He actually likes wearing torn up paints on some jobs. I guess you can't ruin them!
💯💯💯💯💯
The jig cost $ 99 on 2023 in HF tools
SEems like the price of everything at HF keeps going up :-(
Posts are only 2 feet deep
My posts were all over the place on depth because of the clay/roots/rocks in that area. Some where 3' and the one in the video wasn't very deep at all.
Will someone play with that puppy?
It's my son's dog. All I am to Kota Boy is a ball thrower. It's so humiliating when he come's over to visit :-)
In this video he used the farm jack to pull out a post.
ua-cam.com/video/ZkZSvBW0DtE/v-deo.html
Мы так пасынки бетонные дергаем.
Translates to: We pull concrete stepping stones like that... Fishpotpete: That's a another great application for this! Thanks for the suggestion.
Roots? Your fence post has roots. Don’t think so.
Very true! But where I was pulling them, there was plenty of root growth grabbing onto about half of them.
He could have done that by wriggling the post in 30 seconds !