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[Old80]

I agree with Nathanglasgow, chainsaw them off as close as you can get to ground level, then dig new holes and forget concreting the new posts in, instead rammed earth and stone is by far the better way and will save you time and money, and if you ever need to replace them again it will be a far easier job. The trick with rammed earth is keeping the holes tight, just a couple of inches gap around the post and you will be amazed how much of the soil you dug out will go back in when you ram it with a heavy iron bar.

[gromet]

Wrap a chain around the stump/post stand a spare wheel next to it put chain over the tyre to the tow bar and pull like pulling teeth 

[nathanglasgow]

I think the OP tried that method already with limited success.

[alchad]

Wrap a chain around the stump/post stand a spare wheel next to it put chain over the tyre to the tow bar and pull like pulling teeth 

I suspect that the problem with this and similar methods is that you’re pulling at angle. For a post that is well and truly fixed in you need to pull directly upwards.

Alchad

[Spike68]

on my old small holding, I had a pig  that made short work of pulling up stock fencing posts  with his snout !

[Clifford Pope]

Our daughter had a horse that similarly could pull anything down.
After demolishing standard pencing posts by just putting his head under the wire and lifting, I laboriously dug deep holes for a pair of 10" gate posts. Within a day he had pulled them out too.

When young he smashed the back of a horse box and jumped out at 40 mph, and in later years demolished the side by lying down and kicking it to bits.

He was very gentle to ride, but uncontainable. We sold him.

[diffwhine]

As usual, I'm a bit late to the party, but an engine crane works a treat. Wrap a tree strop round the post as many times as possible, attached  a shackle to the loops. Attach crane to loops and just use as usual. Its an almost vertical pull and easily able to do with a  standard fold up crane. You might need some boards to stop it sinking.

I first used this method many years ago to remove a large and very old and well established rose bush in a friend's garden. They wanted to lift it without damaging the roots and move it somewhere else. Careful attachment of a strap just above ground level and then a chain up to the engine hoist. Soak the ground, take up the strain and leave it. Soak the ground again and pump a bit more. Keep doing that over a day or so and eventually the whole big bush lifts out with a complete and virtually undamaged root structure. Don't rush it though. Slowly slowly...

[Ian F]

No Land Rovers were mistreated in the advice in this posting, but I will post it anyway......

If a garden fence post it is usually set in concrete and with a post spacing which is difficult to deviate from given standard panels etc. The post will be approx 2 feet into the concrete and rotten just at the surface. The concrete part is valuable and is best left in situ, so removing the wood is very tricky!!

The only way I have found is to use 60cm augers freely available from Toolstation/Screwfix etc. Takes a lot of time and effort but the reward is a very solid concrete foundation to insert your new post into.

But each to his own......

Ian F

[Rory]

I just used a high lift jack with a chain looped around a bar fitted through a hole drilled at ground ish level.

[w3526602]

Hi,

OT, but I didn't mention it first ...

... I've heard of a GOS (spotty pig) that managed to move a domestic cast iron bath across a field, without spilling it.

602

[angello]

All good ideas gents, many thanks 

Regrettably the posts still won't budge, are stuck fast and I've reached the limit of all my tools and contraptions... I topped out at 5 tons of pull vertically on the post, have admitted defeat and chopped them off at ground level....
They were in a field and the field owner wanted them gone by the end of August, by hook or by crook. I was planning to re-use, but the dried clay won.... 

[alchad]

No Land Rovers were mistreated in the advice in this posting, but I will post it anyway......

If a garden fence post it is usually set in concrete and with a post spacing which is difficult to deviate from given standard panels etc. The post will be approx 2 feet into the concrete and rotten just at the surface. The concrete part is valuable and is best left in situ, so removing the wood is very tricky!!

The only way I have found is to use 60cm augers freely available from Toolstation/Screwfix etc. Takes a lot of time and effort but the reward is a very solid concrete foundation to insert your new post into.

But each to his own......

Ian F

Ian, you reminded me....I used a similar method to remove the "twin" gate post of the one pictured removed and encased in concrete in my reply earlier on. For this one, I drilled  2 holes using a 35mm wood bit (Toolstation), dropped a chain down one hole and with quite a bit of fishing with a strong magnet on a rope managed to pull the chain up through the other hole. Joined the two ends with a D shackle and pulled the broken fence post out of the concrete.





I think this one took several days to finally extract!

Alchad

[w3526602]

Hi,

Visions of extending the fence  post vertically, and hanging the main sail from the Cutty Sark onto a cross-beam. 

Knowing my luck, it would just move the field.

602

[KAS2A]

1. The double pulley system
or
2.https://www.screwfix.com/p/hilka-pro-craft-800kg-heavy-duty-ratchet-power-puller/33700

3. MF 290 with chain attached to front loader then chain attached at post ground level. Raise the bucket and the post comes out cleanly.  Proven this morning on 6" diameter / 7' high fence post strainer.

[w3526602]

Hi,

The slow but easy way to pull a post, is to plant an oak sapling very close to the post, and chain them together.

Then wait!

602

PS. I think there was a medieval torture based on the same system. Or was it somewhere in the tropics ... involving bamboo?