Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Wire Gates?

Barb wire gates, they hold cattle when tight. Being able to open. and shut them can be troublesome. There must be several patents to pull, and latch the gates, I have rigged a pipe "cheater" cam to help.

Any thoughts on the gates?

Hate the damned things! Work of the devil! (Right up there with square balers.)

Well John, the gates are a way of live "down on the farm". The idea is to make the gates as cattle tight as possible, and still let a weak old man get in, and out.

The gates in my counary were rigged with horse hames..the metal bar with brass knob that was on each side of the collar...never see them any more they probably all got stolen..they worked slick and in the days when the tractor took over the harnesses all got repurposed...

Rain, I have seen those, many years ago. I bend a kink in 3/4, or so pipe/tubing to do the same thing.

I have one barbed wire gate. I hate the darn things.

Had several at the west Texas ranch.

Going to the back end of the ranch there were 8 gates. 3 were regular gates, and the rest were wire gates.

PITA...

Always invite someone to ride with you... To open the damn things.

Wives will catch on to that real quick.

We mark most wire gates so dummies can see then easily in the dark.

Reminds me of the joke....

Man drove his pick-up to the gate and stopped, looked over at his hired help and said, " Hop out and open the gate".

Man replied, " I'm the helper and if you need some help opening the gate, I'll be right there".

They are everywhere on BLM land around here. Haven't got my dog trained up to open them for me yet, but he is still young...

Old hubcaps make good wire gate markers

We have tried those steel loop and lever things that fasten to the top of the line post and you put the loop over the post and pull the lever down. They will smack you pretty good if you get in the way if the gate is pulled real tight. Another couple of gates have a chain and stick lever like yours to lever the closure wire open. Most are just the stretch it a bit and lift off the closure loop. I carry my fence stretcher these days for some of those.

Old chunk of rope works in a pinch.

As a matter of fact, I use old lariats as gate fasteners. You can get them quite snug with a rope.

My only wire gate has one of those steel loop and lever things. My main gate has a cattle guard, It's way better.

Open and shut 4-5 a day here one way.

Open and shut 4-5 a day here one way.

3-4 steel panel(gates).


It's a cow farm.

I always thought barb wire gate operation is a way to tell a Westerner from an Easterner?

Wherever one goes out here, it seems one is opening a wire gate.

The gate to my "backyard". It's in worse shape now, pic was taken about 2 years ago. The center stick is broken now. I keep thinking I'll fix it for rancher Dick before he puts his cows out there in the spring, but once I get home it's out of sight, out of mind. Dirt two track county rd runs right next to our place.



Geno

Fence stays, I could not find an image.

The twisted wire spreaders to space barb wire. They look like a good idea on the wire gates, and they work, until the gate is opened a few times.

They're not holding up too well on that gate in my pic Richard. I think a few more branches would be best in this case.

Geno

Owner of the ranch I worked on out of college told story of a group of them riding up to a wire gate. Buddy of his from his day job got down and opened the gate for everyone else to ride through.

They stepped through and kept going. After a brief time, they noticed the "gate-opener" guy wasn't with them.

When he closed the fairly snug gate, He got his whiskers caught between the loop and gate post and was pretty much stuck there until they returned to rescue him.

One of the true signs of an experienced cowboy and horse is when, as you are riding up to a wire gate, he and his horse, imperceptibly slow down ever so slightly as to arrive at the gate after others in the group do.

Pretty easy to pick out an inexperienced hand slowing his horse a bit.

Unless you are in a big hurry it's a common courtesy to pass through and wait for the gate opener/closer to saddle back up.

Pretty much a given if the opener/closer is riding a young squirrely horse...


Young guys should be doing it.

I always want to be the first to open the gate, because many riders can't figure them out and close them to make sure they are fastened properly.

Reminds me of the joke.... Fellow and his helper ride up to the gate and the fellow asked the helper to open it. Helper replied, "I'm the helper, if you need help opening the gate, just holler and I'll give you a hand".

Ya told that'n twice in this thread!

"Wire Paladin - San Francisco"

We must have 100 wire gates on the place and could use a couple more.


High traffic get the cam over closers. Others are just wire loop.

Carry your stretcher.



Been putting in some metal gates too.




My father in law has all swinging metal gates on his place.

Dementia

Randy, good jokes are worth telling twice.😁

Hey man! How are you and the family doing? Tell everyone 'howdy'.

Trying to recover from a 12 vertebrae fusion and having lots of complications. Wife is doing good. All the grandkids growing like weeds.
Your wife and son doing well I hope.

Old lariats or any rope works well to cinch gates shut, nice and tight with a trucker's hitch or any other tightening knot.

I've seen modified hand winches mounted on the fence post, with an eye in the rope looped over the gate's post. Put the bottom of the gate post in its place, then winch the top of the gate closed. Tighter than high school snatch.