Ajmoore1 Posted November 20, 2015 Report Share Posted November 20, 2015 As the title says. Been on a job today installing horse netting and two gates. Plan was to get the gates up this afternoon and start the rest of the fence tomorrow. It is splitting a field so all virgin ground, ground wet but not saturated so should be easyish knocking? Wrong! Rock spiked prior to putting the 8inch 8ft round gate post in felt tight but not to bad. Started knocking the post in, went in just under 2ft then stopped. Could feel the ground vibrating but the post wasn't for going down any more. The first time that the knocker had been beaten (protech p230 with 300kg weight)! Only option was to dig it out by hand as no digger on site. An hour later we had it out expecting to find a big stone or something underneath but nothing. It was just solid clay, proper hard to dig. With hindsight I should have soaked the rock spiked hole for few hours before knocking but thought as the weather has been wet the ground would be reasonable soft. The clay we were digging was dry as a bone. My questions is at what point do you stop knocking a post in if you think it's not going in and how do you get it out when it won't go any further? What I was expecting to take half an hour ended up taking an hour an half, oh the joys! Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Fencin Posted November 21, 2015 Report Share Posted November 21, 2015 Did you sharpen it to follow the pilot hole from the rock spike? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted November 21, 2015 Report Share Posted November 21, 2015 usually stop when you start ruining the post and or the post plate is bouncing all over the place and wont hold the post straight. I use the rockspike extractor or the telemast to pull out or tractor loader but if its really bad will use the link arms or chop off and start again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goaty Posted November 21, 2015 Report Share Posted November 21, 2015 Mike has summed up what we do in the situation. Just happened to mr in the last week. First time knocker (400kg ) beaten. Huge monolith of oak underground the base of the post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RED STAG Posted November 21, 2015 Report Share Posted November 21, 2015 Not to Shure the clay would have got a lot easier with the water but all the above comments are good advice. We can get some hard ground locally from a clay that’s just short of stone to sandstone bed rock And a local grit rock that the rock spike won’t even look at in situations like that if you can imagine the five dots on a dice I put rock spike in a that pattern as close together as posable in a attempt to allow a expansion hole it surprising how it helps to get the strainer in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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