Petrol portable post drivers

[perentie]

I have some Strainer posts that need renewing.
Looking at these
https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead ... Qx6BAgMEAE
The hand driven ones with a big star picket thing attached but drive them with a petrol driver.
There are cheapies for less that $1000 and more expensive ones as well.
I was looking at this.
https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead ... QDA&adurl=.
Has anyone any experience with these?
Keith

[Wapiti]

Yep.
I use a Christie Engineering petrol post driver, we are continuously replacing old fences with exclusion fencing, and remapping paddocks for cell grazing.

The Christie has the genuine Honda motor, and the body and hammer is made here in Australia. The version I got has the swappable driver tube to enable it to also drive "Maxi" posts, which we use as intermediates.
Because it's Australian you can get parts in a few days, if you somehow wreck it but it would be pretty hard.
AND>>> It has the guts and good hammer design to actually work properly.

All the people who need these tools to actually work, around here in rocky and variable country, use the Christie because it works beautifully.
A hand driver, no matter what the uninformed might say, is useless except for the weekender or gardener. So if you do purchase one of these things, you will never look back.

Beware of the Chinese made ones, so many fencing contractors have bought these and they fail very quickly, and they never make the same mistake again. There are also Chinese fake copies of the Honda engines used too. But I understand that for non-professional users, a cheaper one will be desirable. but for us, a broken poor quality tool sh*tting itself immediately costs more than the quality tool would have been to buy in just one day of wasted time.
Yeah, you're in the middle of nowhere having taken an hour in low-range to get to the spot, and the chink tool sh*ts itself.

We only use the petrol ones for lock posts, repairs or general stuff, because believe it or not as good as these things are they are too slow for long tough fencing runs. For this, we all use "Marchant" compressed air drivers, hanging off tool spring hangers off a frame that sits on tractor/bobcat forks of back of a 4wd ute, that the compressor is also bolted into as a package. These things run off petrol air compressors of 40CFM or thereabouts, and are well worth the money.
They are basically air driven, slim-profile jackhammers and simply by replacing the driver hammer with a long 4-5 foot spear or chisel point, you can actually jackhammer rock from strainer assembly holes set-ups. they smash through solid basalt. I can attest to that many times!
But for what you want, a petrol post driver is the way to go.
Again, it will depend if you are a serious user or an occasional one, but buying a cheap product that struggles or fails is a waste of money.

[Wapiti]

By the way, if you have an electric demolition hammer, you can get from Trade Tools or Total Tools, an attachment to drive steel star pickets. If you are strong enough to lift the tool up high enough to start the post and have a generator big enough in the back of the ute to run it, these do the job as well.
A lot of builders/chippies use demo hammers with the adaptor, as to have a petrol dedicated driver with all the other sh*t they carry around is undesirable.
They work well if they suit occasional use for you and you are fit enough to use them.

[Ratsmitglied]

In my experience the staytight strainers go in very easily with the hand driver that goes with them (not sure how much it weighs, but I think it's similar to the petrol drivers you're looking at), but then again I was only putting in about 25 of them, and time was more available than money.

[perentie]

Thanks for the comprehensive replies. Just what I was looking for.
This one will do 4 inch posts they say and weighs 17.5 kg. Yet they say in the red print a forklift may be required. If its that heavy I may not be able to lift it.
The Chinese one I linked to is 20 kg but I think that for the extra grand the Christie is the way to go. Aussie made and I cant take it with me. Comes from Brisbane too
https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead ... EDI&adurl=

PS. I used to be a Kiwi prior to 1967 when I came to OZ so am familiar with Wapiti
Keith