Build your own Receiver Hitch Barbed Wire Stringer


My buddy recently bought a piece of property with about 6 acres and a lot of fence in need of repair. He came to me with an idea for a receiver hitch mounted barbed wire stringer, so we built and it made the job go a lot faster. Read more to see how we did it.

There are lots of ways to string barbed wire. You can do it by hand with a hand reel such as the one below, which is fine if you are fencing a small garden. Hauling around a 70lb spool of barbed wire can wear you out pretty quick though.

With a little bit of ingenuity, we can save our backs and arms while letting our truck, atv, or tractor do the heavy lifting for us.

My buddy showed up with a piece of 2″x2″x1/4″ wall square tubing and a ~1″ round piece of thinwall round tubing to put the reel on. After talking about it, we decided the thinwall round tubing might not be thick enough so we dug around in my scrap pile and found an old round nail stake (commonly used for concrete forms). They are ~3/4″ in diameter and are solid all the way through with the exception of some nail holes going through them laterally. They look like this:

To start off with we cleaned the rust from the 2×2 and marked the holes to be cut with a sharpie. I used my plasma cutter for the holes, but you can use a drill or torch to get the same result (it will just take longer. Did I mention I love my plasma cutter combo unit??)

Marking holes.

Marking holes.

Holes cut for the nail stake and for the receiver hitch pin.

Holes cut for the nail stake and for the receiver hitch pin.

 

 

 

I also took my handy die grinder with carbide burr bit to clean out the inside of the tubing since I can fit a normal 4.5" grinder in there. Clean surfaces make for better welds.

I also took my handy die grinder with carbide burr bit to clean out the inside of the tubing since I can fit a normal 4.5″ grinder in there. Clean surfaces make for better welds.

 

Next step, insert the stake, use a square to make sure it is straight then tack it on.

Next step, insert the stake, use a square to make sure it is straight then tack it on.

Step back and take a look at it to make sure it is straight.

Step back and take a look at it to make sure it is straight.

Then go to town and weld the stake to the square tubing.

Then go to town and weld the stake to the square tubing.

Viola! A receiver hitch mounted barbed wire reel

Viola! A receiver hitch mounted barbed wire reel

Then put the new tool to work stringing wire behind the pickup truck.

Then put the new tool to work stringing wire behind the pickup truck, tractor, side by side, or ATV. We only have access to a pickup right now so that is what we used.

Video of the new tool in action:   Barbed Wire Stringer

Seriously, this was very easy to do. We barely got through a round of beer before we finished. If you have a welder, grinder, drill and some time you can do the same at home. It just makes sense to spend an hour or so making a tool that will save many man hours (and backs) out in the field.

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