What is the Cost of a Petrol Post Driver?

If you regularly install fencing posts, whether it’s for farming, landscaping, forestry and beyond, you’ve likely asked yourself: is the cost of a Petrol Post Driver really worth the investment?

Despite that initial investment putting a dent in your bank balance, a Petrol Post Driver will more than pay for itself in no time at all, and its versatility will open up your business to streams of revenue you never considered possible with manual knockers or tractor-mounted systems.

So, let’s break down the monetary cost of an Easy Petrol Post Driver and the significant savings you gain in time, labour and productivity compared to manual post driving, with some real-life examples that show the true value of adding a PPD to your toolkit.

The upfront cost of an Easy Petrol Post Driver

An Easy Petrol Post Driver is a professional-grade tool that’s designed to drive posts quickly and efficiently with minimal physical strain.

For the Classic35 model  supplied with a Honda GX35 engine, the price is £1,950+VAT for the machine and includes a choice of adapter that best suits your needs. If you opt for the  multi adapter version which includes 3 adapter sizes, the Classic35 model costs £2,100+VAT.

The  Classic50 model features a Honda GX50 engine to provide an extra little bit of horse power, and starts at £2,220+VAT including a choice of adapter. For the multi adapter version, the Classic50 model costs £2,350+VAT.

The Max107 model also features the GX50 engine like the Classic50, but is a larger model that’s designed for when you need some extra reinforcement for even more power and durability at your fingertips. The Max107 starts at £2,650+VAT with a 107mm Round adapter only, or is £2,850+VAT for the multi adapter kit version.

At first glance, this may seem like a sizeable investment compared to a manual post rammer, considering you have to factor in outgoings such as fuel cost and servicing, too. However, the true cost comparison becomes clear once you factor in labour, time and physical wear.

The hidden costs of manual post driving

Using manual post driving methods may appear cheaper upfront, but it carries a number of hidden costs that can quickly add up over time. From safety risks to physical strain and reduced productivity across a long fencing run, the true cost of manual installation often becomes clear once the job is underway.

Safety risks of manual post knockers

One of the most serious risks associated with manual post driving comes from the tool itself. Manual post knockers are sometimes nicknamed the “man killer” in the industry, and unfortunately the name reflects the potential danger involved.

If the operator becomes fatigued or misjudges their swing and clips the top of the post, the heavy knocker can rebound and come crashing back down towards their head. Accidents like this can result in serious injuries and are one of the reasons many organisations have moved away from manual methods.

In fact, concerns around operator safety and fatigue were a key factor in Network Rail replacing manual post knockers with Easy Petrol Post Drivers. They became one of our early customers back in 2014 and continue to purchase machines and accessories today, recognising the benefits of a safer and more efficient installation method.

The physical toll of manual post driving

Even when injuries are avoided, manual post driving places a significant physical demand on the operator. It typically requires considerable upper body strength and often two people working together to maintain stability and speed.

Over the course of a long fencing run, fatigue quickly sets in. Frequent lifting and repeated impacts can lead to shoulder strain, back pain and long-term repetitive stress issues. This not only makes the work more difficult as the day goes on but can also result in lost workdays and reduced productivity over time.

Maintaining productivity across the whole job

Manual post driving can be quick for the first few posts, especially in good ground with a strong operator. However, as the job progresses the physical effort and time per post begin to increase. Fatigue, maintaining alignment and varying ground conditions all contribute to slowing the pace, meaning that over a typical fencing run manual driving can begin to average several minutes per post.

With an Easy Petrol Post Driver doing the heavy work, installers are able to maintain a far more consistent pace throughout the day. With good preparation and teamwork, contractors have demonstrated installation rates of around a post per minute. Our friends at Eley Agri Services, for example, recently drove around 60 posts in an hour on a fencing project.

The real advantage isn’t just speed on individual posts, but the ability to sustain that productivity across the entire fence line. Installers can complete large runs more efficiently while significantly reducing the physical strain associated with manual post driving.

Strain and injury risk in marquee installation

The benefits of a Petrol Post Driver aren’t limited to fencing. In industries such as marquee and event installation,stakes have traditionally been driven into the ground using a sledgehammer.

While this method has been used for decades, it’s actually a surprisingly precise activity that requires good technique and concentration to avoid glancing blows or poorly seated stakes. As fatigue sets in over the course of installing dozens, or even hundreds, of stakes, the risk of missed strikes, damaged equipment or injury increases.

Using a Petrol Post Driver removes much of that physical effort, helping crews maintain accuracy and consistency while dramatically reducing the strain associated with swinging a sledgehammer all day.

What is the value of a Petrol Post Driver to our customers?

Something we hear regularly when asking our customers why they decided to finally invest in an Easy Petrol Post Driver was that they weighed up the monetary cost versus the time and labour savings and found it to be a no brainer. Often, one specific job leads them to buying a Petrol Post Driver, and from there it opens them up to branch out into other areas of earning potential now that they have the power and reliability of a PPD in their corner.

ForEley Agri Services, theirPetrol Post Driver story began after being contracted to install 315m of deer netting and a 6ft timber deer gate for a customer. The site was inaccessible for their existing tractor-mounted post driver set-up, and they quickly realised that they were going to need a helping hand - knocking the posts in manually was simply not an option. After seeing positive recommendations for the Petrol Post Driver online, they decided that it was a worthy investment for what they were looking for. Despite buying it with one particular job in mind, they saw it as an investment for the future, and that it would pay for itself from this one job alone. Since then, they’ve been using it to install Clipex fencing, estate fencing and more with the range of adapters available – and it alleviates the physical strain on Richard too, one half of the duo behind Eley Agri, who suffers from sciatica.

iFence and Sons decided to invest in the power of a Petrol Post Driver after being contracted for a very specific, and quite unusual, job - installing a riverside boathouse. The customer needed a really long scaffold pole driving into the ground to be able to securely tie the boat up, requiring something compact and easily transportable to knock it in. Although the post driver was bought specifically with this one job in mind, he didn’t want to commit to such an investment simply to drive one post in and call it a day. Realising how invaluable a Petrol Post Driver would be for future stock fencing work, including being able to branch out into Clipex fencing, he knew it was worth the money. So not only did the post driver serve its niche intended purpose, but it’s now diversified iFence and Sons’ already varied offerings, being used for different fencing types and also for installing bespoke sheds and composite decking.

Richard the farmer is another customer who was drawn to the Petrol Post Driver for its ability to quickly and securely install Clipex,after having already made the transition to Clipex fencing a few years ago.Before the Petrol Post Driver, he was manually driving in posts with a hand bumper and also had a tractor-mounted knocker, but with an upcoming project that involved an astounding 30,000 metres of fencing, he knew he was going to need something innovative to streamline the process. He wanted to save on the physical strain of manual knocking as well as save time on moving from post to post, whether that was manual or with the tractor. Investing in a Petrol Post Driver saved his operation so much time, money and labour across the board – it was just the answer for their needs.

The cost of an Easy Petrol Post Driver isn’t just about the price. When you factor in labour savings, time efficiency, increased earning potential, reduced physical strain and faster project completion, it becomes clear that it quickly pays for itself and continues to deliver value to your business operations for years to come.

Contact us

If you’d like to know more about Easy Petrol Post Driver products, please get in touch with us via the contact form on our website, or you can call us on +44 (0)114 2699 119 or email info@petrolpostdriver.com.