I'm in North Carolina... very dense, hard clay (the only time I miss Michigan
is when I'm digging!).
I own a power auger. Yes, they will twist your arms off. It's "interesting"
when they grab a root, twist your arms and you are standing there trying to
figure out how to release it or let off the throttle without knocking yourself
out.
The problem is.. this is a densely wooded area. No machinery can get back
there. If it was on flat clear land, I'd pay somebody with a big machine to
drill them in and deal with the lawn later.
If I remember the specs right, these things take 4400lbs-ft of torque (avg
soil) to screw in. My one-man Earthquake power auger (bought from Home Depot or
Lowes) develops about 60. It's at a slight disadvantage.
The one on wheels... how large is it and how difficult would be it be manuever
on sloped land? Also, does it handle angles well? Because of the slope of the
land, on the down-side of the hill, the angle is probably closer to 30 degrees
than the normal 40-45 degrees.
And... where do I get a solid steel bar in an 8-10 foot length? The closest
thing to it that I've found is the steel dowel rods at our local Ace Hardware
(one of the old-style ones that has nearly everything).
Thanks!
Rusty
K0FE
----- Original Message ----
From: Chet Moore <ChetMoore@cox.net>
To: R Atkins <rusty_atkins@yahoo.com>; towertalk@contesting.com
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 9:27:23 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] AB Chance anchor installation... How!?!
Rusty,
Don't see a ham call listed or your location so I have no idea what your
soil conditions might be. N4BAA and I dug 1 tower hole here and 2 at his
place. in November. We rented an auger on a small trailer. Its pretty much
like a mobile drill press. The trailer which most people use for digging
fence post holes comes with 4 sizes of auger. The augers attach to a kelly
bar. We took a 2 foot piece of pipe, drilled holes in each end, one hole to
pin it to the KELLY BAR and one to fit thru the holes on the end of the
anchors. The Auger spins about 4 times, "bites" and the anchor is in the
ground in about 4 seconds. It took us longer to push the trailer into the
back yard by hand than it did to drive all 3 anchors. For the hole itself,
We dug 4 holes with the auger and just shoveled out the the dirt between the
4 holes. We got the unit at Home Depot. in our area (chesapeake/Va Beach)
there are at least 7 Home Depot stores. Only two of them have a tool rental
center, so you may have to call around. It was $88 for a full day, $50 for
a 1/2 day and around$7 for insurance. They also rent 1 and 2 man augers
(not mounted on a trailer) the 2 man augers do not have the kelly bar
fitting.
Some of the other rental places had larger units that would have done the
job. The bigger augers would have required the rental of a separate trailer
to get the unit home. the larger ones would not have fit through the gate
going to the back yard. The one we had was on wheels about the size of
those seen on a tent trailer and one person could maneuver it on level
ground without much effort. I have pictures of it somewhere.
If you have never used a power auger before........I hadn't............it
spins a few times and I thought "nothing was happening" then I was sort of
looking
down an pushing a bit harder to see why "nothing"was happening and then it
bit, just about pulling both arms out their sockets so hold on tight.
press on regardless
73
Chet N4FX
----- Original Message -----
From: "R Atkins" <rusty_atkins@yahoo.com>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 8:05 AM
Subject: [TowerTalk] AB Chance anchor installation... How!?!
> First off, let me thank all of you for the responses these past few days
> about all facets of tower installation as well as a few bits and pieces
> I've needed to get the job done. Its amazing how responsive and helpful
> this list/"reflector" is. I've been so busy installing the tower that I
> haven't had time to touch the computer, but all your help is VERY much
> appreciated.
>
>
> Now,.. for the question.
>
> How in the world do you install those 8" diameter (model 816?) screw-in
> ground anchors?!?!?!
>
> We've bent a 6' long pipe and a 8' long pipe so badly that we could
> hardly remove them... and these anchors are only halfway in.
>
> There are limitations to what we can because of a heavily tree lot that we
> want to keep that way (so... we can't get a tractor in there).
>
> How do you get these things screwed all the way into the ground?
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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