Fireproof fencing:
On my way to stake property line. Some line from last year now has new fence.?ÿ
It doesn't look, to me, that this fence is in danger of being set on fire; what am I missing?
All that time and money to install steel fencing, and they're still using a drop-wire gate?
I expect that a grassland fire would do little damage to a wire fence. Here in the largest Ponderosa Pine forest in the world the fires can be extremely hot. I have seen areas where miles of barbed-wire is simply gone. The steel fence posts can remain untoucehed or horribly twisted, while aluminum posts can be vaporized or reduced to melted pools. I have heard of melted aluminum BLM monuments but have never seen one.
Most hedge post fences in this part of the world last longer than the wire they support as the hedge may singe or even burn a bit but tends to put itself out.?ÿ One here or there may go but the vast majority will last.
The drop-wire gates are standard issue for little used pass through gates. This one may not be used again this year once the fence is finally built.
Very common around here as well. Many gates get used only when absolutely necessary. I can think of one of mine that probably hasn't been opened in ten years, but when you need it, you need it. One thing for sure, when there is a grass fire it is far better to have too many gates to get through to get ahead of the fire than to have none.
Over 50 years ago my parents purchased a quarter-quarter adjacent to the west side of an existing farm. While helping Dad checkout and make minor repairs to the perimeter fence we came up on a gate leading to an adjoiner. There was no obvious reason why that gate would ever be used other than to possibly help get a stray cow back on the correct property. I asked Dad why it was there. He promptly told me about how things worked back about 1930 when he was a youngster. In those days most of the wheat threshing (no combines yet) involved steam engines and threshing machines that were few and far between. Most of the small farmers hired a threshing crew to come in at harvest time. The steam engines were so heavy they tried to stay off the county roads/bridges/culverts as much as possible. They would pass from one farm to another to another via gates like the one I was looking at instead of going down the road.
@holy-cow Yes indeed, steam traction engines. Here's a video of a rather plus-sized model:
That grass will be a foot higher in a month and not nearly so green. A grass fire will take out a wood fence in no time.
It looks like standard chain link components. Cheaper and lighter than wood, and will last probably a hundred years. As a bonus the posts will get hot enough in the sun to discourage the cattle from leaning on them. The question in my mind is why it isn't used in that application more often.
I'm betting that fence was cheaper than a wood fence and only slightly more expensive than a t-post and barbed wire one.
I think that you are underestimating the destructive force of a grass fire. There was one just outside Norman, OK when I was there. It literally levelled whole sections down to bare dirt. Steel fence posts and wire might survive, wood posts would be a goner.
Cedar posts and "from the factory" posts do not possess the fire retardancy of osage orange/bois d'arc/bodark/hedge wood.?ÿ Railroad right-of-way fires were quite common back before diesel engines became the norm for pulling trains.?ÿ I recall helping with several such fires due to so-called hot boxes or sparks from a welder working on something along the track.?ÿ Hot mamas, no doubt.?ÿ Depending on wind direction relative to the track they can go for miles or burn out somewhat due to natural breaks at crossings.?ÿ Mile upon mile of hedge posts have lasted for decades.?ÿ Most of the railroad fences built today are your typical steel t-posts simply because they?ÿ are far easier to install than hand dug/tamped holes for wood posts.
I purchased a farm in 1983 and finally replaced the old hedge posts along one side with steel posts in about 2005.?ÿ Many of the posts we pulled out were what some locals referred to as Ben Franklin posts.?ÿ There was a fellow who lived in the community between 1870 and about 1910 who built many miles of fence for neighbors.?ÿ He would use an axe to make the post look much like a sharpened pencil prior to setting it in the hole and driving it to refusal.?ÿ His name was Ben Franklin.?ÿ Many railroad fires had crossed that fence line over the decades as the east end was within 1000 feet of the railroad.?ÿ The old wire we took out was quite brittle from weather and other stresses.
So it is. Nevertheless I still say that a fence made of chain link posts & top rails, with the requisite 3 of 4 strands of barbed wire, would make an excellent field fence. And not much more expensive than t-posts & wire.
Possibly, but probably not for these landowners. They get huge volume discounts on materials.
Can you drive chain link posts, or do they have to be dug and set? The difference in labor might be substantial.
These are driven in.
I talked to one engineer/fencer that stopped engineering and started fencing fire-proof fences. He insists that he doesn't get off his machine and builds it all. However, the fencers I see in the field look like they put in a hard day at the office. I don't hang around and watch. I do hear a lot of pounding and banging.
