A fence post puller grips a post below grade and lifts it out with the footing still attached, and rental counters price one at roughly $35 to $70 a day. The manual version is a long handle, a chain and your weight. The hydraulic version is an attachment that clamps to a skid steer coupler. How many posts you have, and how deep they were set, decides which one you book.
Hand lever or hydraulic jaw
A manual puller is a fulcrum and a chain, and it will lift a wooden line post set in gravel without complaint. Concrete footings and driven steel pipe are another job. There the counter rents a hydraulic jaw for a skid steer or a mini excavator, which pulls straight up with tons behind it and leaves a clean hole.
How the counter writes the rate
Hand tools are priced by the day with a four hour half day beneath, and the puller itself is the cheap line. If the posts need a machine, you are hiring the machine as well and the attachment rides along at a much smaller rate. Ask for both numbers when you book, because only one of them appears in the tool listing.
What decides whether a post comes out whole
Depth, footing and rot decide it, not force. A rotten wooden post snaps at grade and leaves the concrete behind for you to dig. Steel and vinyl usually rise intact. Soaking dry clay around the base the night before buys more than an extra ton of pull does, and costs nothing but a hose.
Clearing the posts is the slow half
Pulling is quick and hauling is not. Every post arrives with a lump of concrete on the end, and a hundred of them is a weight nobody planned for. Have the trailer standing before the puller arrives and stack as you go, or you will walk the fence line twice and pay a second day for the tool.
Questions people ask about fence post puller
Can I pull a fence post without renting anything?
Sometimes. A bumper jack, a chain and a block of wood is the old trick and it works on a shallow wooden post in soft ground. Once the post is set in concrete, or once there are more than a dozen of them, a rented puller pays for itself inside the first hour.
Will a fence post puller wreck the lawn?
A manual puller sits on a small foot plate and leaves little more than a dent if you slide a board underneath it. A skid steer marks soft ground with its tires or tracks. Plan the route in and out before you start, and expect to rake and seed behind it.
Does the rental include the chain and the grab?
The chain and hook normally come with a manual puller. The hydraulic jaw is a separate attachment and it has to suit your machine's coupler and hydraulic flow, so tell the counter which model you are running it on before they load it.