I can sympathize with your situation. My soil here (if I can call it that) is
very, very dense and hard clay like yours. It is close to turning to solid
shale in a few million years <g>. I have heard every tip in the world on how
to drive stubborn ground rods into the ground and non of them worked. I really
have tried every trick. I was able to get a handful of the heavy copper coated
steel rods down 3' or so and then no more. I finally found the perfect
solution. I borrowed an electric jack hammer. If you remove the tip from the
hammer it exposes a 1" opening 6 or so inches long. By standing on a step
ladder and slipping the end of the rod inside the hammer I was able to drive
every rod in the ground within 15 minutes. These are heavy tools and it was a
bit of a job holding it vertical but it sure was something to finally see the
rods go down. As far as removing them, which I have had to do for several of
them, I attached several cable clamps right next to each ot
her and used the bucket of my small tractor to pluck them out. If I did not
have the tractor I would just cut them off several inches below ground level.
73,
Gedas
e-mail w8bya@mchsi.com
online gallery http://gedas.cc
web page http://www.w8bya.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "joegps" <joegps@snet.net>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 10:22 AM
Subject: [TowerTalk] Ground rods
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 14:52:38 -0800
From: "Dr. Howard S. White" <drpaper@msn.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Tools for Installing Ground Rod?
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Message-ID:
<BAY0-SMTP02C5B884482BC6008CE578A5100@phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
My soil is very, very hard clay which makes it a
perfect tower base...
in fact we had to jack hammer it out to build the
base...
... Strong constructions workers hitting the top of
the 8' ground rods
with Sledge Hammers they were able to drive 1 in about
4 feet and one
about 5 feet... neither is deep enough....
Any suggestions on what mechanical or power tool to
use to drive ground
rods further into the ground. Plus I want to put in a
few more....
__________________________________________________________
Howard S. White Ph.D. P. Eng., VE3GFW/K6 ex-AE6SM
KY6LA
Website: www.ky6la.com
"No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"
"Ham Antennas Save Lives - Katrina, 2003 San Diego
Fires, 911"
Hi Howard,
You can find a fence pole driver at Tractor Supply
Co..
The hammer is a pipe with two handles welded onto it,
or if can find a piece of heavy wall pipe and put a
pipe cap on it will also work.
Joe K1NCO
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