Battle of the Bangers on this week at South Island Field Days
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Battle of the Bangers is a fencing machinery demonstration event focusing on New Zealand manufactured post drivers, being launched at the South Island Agricultural Field Days (SIAFD) in Kirwee, Canterbury, 25-27 March 2015.
New Zealand post driver manufacturers offer the agricultural and civil sectors a wide range of brands which lead the market both domestically and internationally. New Zealand made post drivers also portray the strong heritage that New Zealand has played in the designing of products for the fencing industry, with every post driver representing many hours of local manufacturing labour, which in turn feeds into regional economies.
Depending on budget, purpose and preference model types tend to fall under rear mount, side mount or rotation configurations. Battle of the Bangers showcases and focuses on each model and its merits with both an assessment and practical demonstrations in accordance to the base configurations taking place on the Wednesday and Thursday of SIAFD.
Post drivers will be assessed on manufacturing quality, design aspects including operations and ergonomics, and the hydraulics setup.
Hydraulics assessor Ivan Stratford from Windust Hydraulics is joined by Farm Trader's Brent Lilley, with a wealth of knowledge around the world of farm machinery.
Post drivers main componentry includes steel, hydraulic cylinders, hydraulic hoses and valving. Battle of the Bangers sponsors are Brevini New Zealand and Fletcher-owned Easysteel.
The following post drivers will be taking part in Battle of the Bangers.
Rear-mount division
Fence-pro Ultra G2 on rearshift, far side rock spike with 90mm spike, 300kg Block, 4.5m Hydraulic hinge mast.
Taege contractor model, with a hinged mast, heavy hammer, end and sliding shift combo and rock spike.
Side-mount division
Fence-pro Ultra G3 on sidemount 900, near side hydraulic turn rockspike system, 90mm rockspike, 350kg block, 4.8m Hydraulic hinge mast.
Revolution Postdrivers Telescopic SS post driver with 900 mm sideshift, 900 mm for/aft, 330 kg hammer and auto 100 mm rock spike.
Rotation division
Revolution Postdrivers Telescopic 180 with 300 kg hammer, Auto Rock Spike kit.
With fence lines and posting conditions not always being ideal, Battle of the Bangers is designed to reflect that. Whereas any fencer can breeze down an easy contoured straight fence line with soft going, the reality often differs. Paddock terrain, access, soil types can differ. Seasonal factors dictate access and how long it can take to drive posts with many around the country having to resort to Rock Spikes or Auger kits on their post drivers to get posts in.
The practical posting component of Battle of the Bangers is not a race, rather it reflects the realities of fence line installation with a guide wire needing to be run and posting using No 2 strainers, No 1 rounds and the Goldpine superposts, which are rounded quarters. Posting is to be precise and accurate as dictated by any professional job. Rock spiking is a given on this stony and to date extremely dry Canterbury ground.
Posting takes place in 50-metre-long-by-eight-metre-wide laneways with exclusion zones around these laneways, reflecting the limited access often presented to fencers.
On Friday of SIAFD, the post drivers will be on hand for the public to look over. The posting installed during Battle of the Bangers will be used by the New Zealand Fencing Competitions (NZFC) fencing competition, which features many of the South Islands leading fencers.
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