[TowerTalk] EdgeHog

[Jim Lux]

At 03:48 PM 6/2/2003 -0700, Michael Tope wrote:
>Has anyone tried one of these in rocky soil? I thought about getting one to
>do my yard, but I have so many rocks in my soil, I figured it wouldn't last
>very long (one cubic foot of soil area in my yard will fill a bucket with 2"
>to 3" diameter rocks). A pick and shovel works pretty well, but is a helleva
>lot of
>work (or in my case money since I am paying someone to do it).
>
>73 de Mike, W4EF.......................
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "AA6DX" <aa6dx at pacbell.net>
>To: "tower" <towertalk at contesting.com>
>Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 12:30 PM
>Subject: [TowerTalk] EdgeHog
>
>
> > Hey ... you that are wanting to lay some ground wires for your verticals,
>check out the Black & Decker EdgeHog ... about 90 bux, at Wally World, and
>you can use it for other "normal" edging, too!  Bury them thar waaarrrss....
>Pretty kewl, as the grandkids would say ...   73, Mark ... AA6DX
> >


I've tried a bunch of approaches to shoving wires or small tubes into the 
ground, including various kinds of knives, power edgers, flat bladed 
shovels, etc.  A lot depends on how deep you want the wires.  If you're 
just going to bury them right below sod level, then there aren't as many 
rocks, and almost anything works.  If you want to go down a foot, it's more 
of a challenge.

How much are you willing to disturb the surface?  and how straight does the 
wire have to be.  If you need a straight wire, then you've got to move the 
rocks, whether underground or on top.  That takes some serious leverage and 
force.

I think the best way, in rocky soil, but not having tried it, would be to 
make some sort of draw knife with a tube that is somewhat flexible on the 
trailing edge to feed the wire to the end of the blade..  You'd load up the 
knife with a  lot of weight, and use a winch to pull it through the soil. 
(think of a farmer's plow, with the blade set straight).  It would probably 
need to be something pretty sturdy (1/8"-1/4" steel with a sharpened 
edge).  Hopefully, it would bend and flex to handle the smaller rocks.

Failing that, the easiest way is a gasoline driven trencher.  The problem 
with this (essentially a big chainsaw for dirt) is that the trench is 4-6" 
wide, however, even in really rocky soil, it just chugs on through and cuts 
that beautiful 18" deep slot.