I often (well several times a year I suppose) have to pull old fence
posts out as we have a 9 acre smallholding with electric fencing on
wooden posts.

I'm lucky to have (and always have had) a mini-tractor with a
hydraulic three-point hitch on the back.

When I first wanted to pull the bottom of a broken post out I rather
tongue-in-cheek wondered if I could pull it out with the tractor's
three point hitch. Much to my surprise it worked quite easily with
just some 120mm screws driven into the post in the ground and a bit of
chain round them to pull with the hitch.

I now have three big (as in 300mm long by 10mm thick) coach screws
that I use to do this and it has never failed so far. I even lifted a
the remains of a big square field gate post (300mm square) using this
method.

I think it works well because the posts are rarely rotted down into
the ground, it's just an inch or so at ground level where there's both
water and air.

--
Chris Green
·