Removing Fence Posts

Possible. maybe a foot or so.

Huh? You don't want velocity on the strap and you don't want the chain to "jerk." If you ever stand near a chain that breaks you tend to be very leary of "jerks." The reason I suggested that one might want a strap is that straps often have a higher capacity than smaller chains.

Reply to
George E. Cawthon
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I'm not referring to _big_ jerks - where you back the thing off

20 feet and flooring it....

I'm quite well aware of the consequences of having one of these things break under tension...

My reasoning:

The typical tow strap has a moderate amount of elasticity, you often need it's "force multiplier" effect in order to, for example, "snatch" a vehicle out of a ditch - the tow vehicle often doesn't have enough traction to break the thing loose with a straight-smooth pull - so you give it a moderate and controlled amount of "jerk" to get the "snatch". With a concrete-embedded post, you'll often need a bit of the "snatch" too to break it loose.

With a tow vehicle, it also makes the strap a lot more forgiving of accidental jerks that might snap a cable or chain with a higher breaking strength.

The problem being with a tractor lift you're going to lose a lot of that effect because the lift is _very_ slow, and you also lose a lot of it to the suspension/tires of the tractor.

Chain has very little elasticity. With the chain you're likely to _use_ for this purpose (if you have a tractor at your disposal) a slow moving lift, and the suspension cushioning it, it's more likely to transmit a lot more multiplier effect to break the post loose, yet, everything else is cushioning things, so it'd be very difficult (if not impossible) to snap the chain. Worst case, the tractor starts to tip.

Secondly, it makes me very nervous using something elasticy to break loose something as light as a concreted post. As compared to at least a ton or more for a vehicle moving horizontally under drag which will dampen the springback of a strap.

Whatever, chances are that you're not going to be anywhere near needing enough pull to get you into the danger point - likely either would work just fine. In other words, I'm fussing about nothing.

Reply to
Chris Lewis

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