[TowerTalk] Ground rods

[Gedas]

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 other 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 at mchsi.com
online gallery  http://gedas.cc
web page  http://www.w8bya.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "joegps" <joegps at snet.net>
To: <towertalk at 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 at msn.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Tools for Installing Ground Rod?
To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Message-ID:
<BAY0-SMTP02C5B884482BC6008CE578A5100 at 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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