Fast Way To Put Up Woven Wire Fence

Fast Way To Put Up Woven Wire Fence FENCING Miscellaneous Fencing especially with woven wire couldn t get much easier than it is with Fence-Mate The rear-mount unit holds unrolls and stretches wire as it goes Although also designed to handle multiple rolls of barbed wire it s woven wire fencing where the Fence-Mate really excels
I was working in a farm supply store when a customer complained about an existing fencing unit recalls Lou Popp He said it was hard to load and required getting on and off repeatedly to feed and alternately stretch the wire
With the help of an uncle who is a metal fabricator Popp built a prototype of the Fence-Mate and received a worldwide patent on it The two are building and selling them direct with the hope to license or sell the rights
The Fence-Mate mounts on a 3-pt hitch Once loaded the operator drives along as the roll of wire feeds out directly behind the tractor A side delivery attachment is available to feed the wire out in line with the tractor s rear tires and closer to the fence line With or without the attachment when the desired length has fed out pulling an overhead lever stops the wire feed
With the brake on you just pull forward until the wire is stretched as tight as you desire explains Popp Then you can get down and fasten that stretch of wire to your posts The best fence is built by tightening short stretches at a time With the Fence-Mate you can do 20-ft sections all day quickly and easily
Popp estimates the Fence-Mate will cut fencing time by a third to half It eliminates having to stop and attach or detach a come-along or other stretcher It also eliminates kinking or damage to the wire with the use of a cam-style braking mechanism
Some fence unrollers use angle iron brakes that crimp the wire explains Popp Once you damage the wire you have a weak spot that can break That doesn t happen with ours
The Fence-Mate is not only easy to use when fencing it s practically self-loading Popp and his uncle devised a unique cantilevered loading mechanism
When loaded the roll of wire is held in place by a steel rod that runs from the base plate to the overhead frame where it locks in place To load the unit the rod is unlocked from the frame and tipped to the side toward the roll of fence Once the wire roll is slid over the rod to the base plate the center of gravity shifts under the weight even if parallel to the ground The loaded base plate swings back into its working position on its own Once the center rod is locked into the top frame fencing can start
You can load it from the ground from a truck bed or from a trailer says Popp It may take two people to slide the roll of wire onto the Fence-Mate rod but once there it lifts into place by itself
The standard unit comes equipped with one barbed wire attachment and room for a 4-ft roll of woven wire With the attachment removed woven wire rolls up to 6 ft high can be loaded in the nearly 7-ft tall cradle
Depending on the tractor and the maximum height of its 3-pt hitch you could unroll tighten and attach a second level of 4 5 or 6-ft high fence above the first says Popp We believe that is a unique function of our design We also offer the option of custom fabricating a taller cradle to handle taller fence rolls
Additional barbed wire spool holders can be added However Popp points out that the tensile strength of woven wire and barbed wire is different This makes it difficult to stretch both well at the same time He suggests making a single pass for woven wire and then unrolling stretching and attaching the barbed wire on a return trip Likewise multiple rolls of barbed wire are best stretched and attached in separate passes
Even with multiple passes it s still faster easier and makes for a tighter fence than other methods says Popp
Popp has priced the units at $1 200 Extra barbed wire spool attachments are priced at $150 The side delivery arm attachment is priced at $200
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Fence-Mate 90 Cook Lane Stockbridge Ga 30281 ph 770 276-5454; lpopp12345@aol com

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