I always run two stays because I always tie off a fence at a corner post. Makes it easier (in my opinion) to deal with and repair damaged fences, which I seem get a lot of between gum trees dropping limbs and pesky skippies.

Thanks Tim and James, great advice , tips and knowledge. I have always wanted to know the best and most efficient way to lay stays on big paddocks, well here it is right here!! Btw myself and the Missus brought 4 pink quick twitch tools, looking forward to using one very soon.

Good looking shirt James.... start that conversation 👍

The perennial question has been explained with the laws of gravity, physics, and a great example of doing push ups! Well done fellas. A point to consider is the cost of the additional material and labour (going through the roof at the minute!). How about a vid on strainer lengths, concreted in vs hammered in? Appreciate your insight Tim!

The physics isn't correct, there has been studies on this stuff. Although I don't know a lot of fencers that run wire around a corner the inside stay is very common for angles under 90deg, other than that it seems to be a argument not worth having. The physics between the angle and box/H assembly is interesting, I think the box/H assembly has just over twice the resistance to lifting the strainer.

You need to draw a vector diagram Tim, the planking analogy is poor because James only has gravity acting on him and not the tension of the fence applying the jacking force from each direction. If you actually draw the vectors of the fence line applying the pulling force in line with the direction of the fence and their resultant forces according to distance / pull you will find the problem with a single stay is actually that unless the wire can float around the post (as it is here) the chances the forces applied to each direction of strain are perfectly balanced for the life of the fence or the stay is perfectly spaced are extremely low. You are in effect trying to balance the strain of two fences on one stay perfectly for years. If the wire can float around the post it will allow it to balance out but if its tied off it will jack out with time or develop a bias. I challenge you to get James back down on the ground and put a rope behind his heels and have two people pull on each end of the rope inline with the fences and see where his balance lies - I bet it spread armed.

I’ve seen a lot of line stayed fences that lay in on a bend!

i did a 45* deg strainers in my shed yard. 15 years ago They have moved a bit in this years wet. I wouldnt do it again when I fix them sometime soon

I’m assuming that if it’s not always a 90 degree bend just measure equal distance up both fence lines Run a line across, find the middle and that is the single stay direction

I'm surprised nothing was mentioned about the angle of the corner. If its greater than 90 degrees you really need a central single stay. If you have two stays inline with the fence and the corner is 100 degrees your strainer post will pull over eventually.

There is more then stay length and position that causes corner posts to jack up, for instance strainer length and the depth in which it is in the ground, over the past ten years I’ve used my Munro driver to drive 3.1m minimum strainers and 1.8m stay blocks using a 3.1m stay and 12mm bottom rod all fully welded. Not one has popped and I never do corner stays as shown as I’m out in the central west nsw there’s a lot of cropping and hay making so that stay style imposes on corners making a lot of damage on header combs, hay rakes and any other wide body machine, also impacting on machine turn ability. So long story short, correct strainer length for conditions and proper stay blocks not pads and nothing moves or tips over.

2 thoughts If you are going to tie off to the strainer, then you really want 2 stays, each inline with the fence runs. This lets you put up each half in whatever order suits. If the wires just loop around the strainer, this is moot. The vector sum of the fence wire forces means the middle single stay gets more load. 1.4 times each of the line pulls for a 90 degree corner. So the single stay has to be somewhat stronger.. not that thats cost significant. Gets down to the potential inconvenience of the middle stay, vs extra cost of the 2 stays.

Hi guys, thanks for the vid Tim. However, forces don't work that way and by use of vectors and the parallelogram (or square in this case) rule you would need a substantial longer stay for the single compared to the two on the corner for the forces to be equivalent (about 40% longer). However, we don't need to get too scientific here and personal preference is key - use what's best for you and your situations once you are fully informed. Cheers and keep the great work going Tim.

I have a question regarding change of direction. Is there an angle of direction change where you can get away without a stay? I.E. setting a strainer post mid run to bend around a tree or obstacle say 10 degrees or so.... I recently did a 300m section like this and put an adjuster stay in to be safe...

Here’s another consideration: What kind of animals do you have? I think my goats might use that brace as a ramp and hop right out of the fence!

Agree with the posts of others that the physics of the explanation is flawed, and I strongly suspect the conclusion is too. But a correct vector diagram as suggested is not trivial as it's a three dimensional problem. But all this doesn't make it the wrong choice or solution, it obviously works well enough in practice, and with lower cost and complexity. Keep up the good work Tim.

Hey Tim, I'd like to see some chalkboard maths on this one. One problem with James's push up / planking analogy, he needs to start with a single arm in the middle, not both.

TT all your clips are 1m high can you make a clip installing 1.8m high fence?

Single stay also cheaper

its a better design

No different to what the power companies do with power poles change in direction