Actually miniture piles. I need to put in some 400 to 500 - 6" diameter fence posts 3 to 4 feet into the ground. I do not have any kind of pile driver either hammer or vibratory type. What I was thinking about doing is to use an excavator (probably something on the size of a CAT 308) to push the posts into the ground (no rocks i'm aware of). My concerns are primarily related to the bucket. Will it damage the bucket if I use it to push the post in? Am I likely to break the post and any hazzards to people nearby? I do not know the soil condition yet. One thought I had was to replace the bucket with a pipe and put the post in the pipe and use the cylinder on the hydraulic thumb to push the post in that way. (needs modified thumb parts to do this). Any thoughts or comments?
do you own a machine or are you going to rent. anything over 12.000 lbs will do, as long as it is easy digging. rent a mchine or head shaker and stand it on top of you're posts and walla, you can also weld a template on the bottom and it will work as a guide, when you are done, torch it off and grind. good luck
Vertical alignment of the post is going to be tricky working with the excavator. You probably would be happier by using a post pounder. Even with a post pounder, you have to really put a lot of "english" in the post as it goes in to get close to plumb.
My brother is planning on buying an excavator in the next month or so and I've talked him into exercising it on the ranch. I'll check on the shakers to see what's available, but probably try the template idea first. Thanks
Hey mate we do this all the time, depends a lot on how hard the ground is though. For the vertical alignment you need one more person to stand in line with the post and you (in the cab) can line up the other way, cut points (chainsaw) on the ends and push away, take the bucket off fairly often as they tend to skew off and once you have them pushed in away you wont straighten without snapping then. Use the end of the stick with the bucket curled right back, really strong there and if you want you can lift arm up a bit and hit down, go easy though pretty hard on the gear, you can really slam if you feel the need. You should fly through it if the grounds is good. Even a small starter hole with a bucket of water poured in helps heaps.