Microbud Help

[digiblur]

That WILL be a project. I'm helping a forum member plant his BUD, looks like that will involve nearly a thousand pounds of concrete!

I don't remember using that much when I put my first BUD up over 10 years ago but I did use a good bit. It's still standing after Hurricane Rita passing about 30-40 miles west of it though!

 

[laseradam]

I've had a 6 footer up for 10 years with only 160 pounds of concrete. No problem. Of course about the highest winds we get are around 60 MPH. I use 50 pounds of concrete with my 36 inch dishes.

 

[drhydro]

That WILL be a project. I'm helping a forum member plant his BUD, looks like that will involve nearly a thousand pounds of concrete!

Tron,
I used 17 - 80 pound bags of concrete (enough to fill two 55 gallon drums welded together) to build the mount my BUD pole bolts on to. That is 1360 lbs. That mount wont ever move lol.

 

[Tron]

I think the whole concrete issue is subconsciously the thing that keeps me from going BUD hunting. Just the thought of all that messy, heavy construction in this miserable heat! Of course, I could wait until "winter", which for us means it gets a bit cool.

 

[laseradam]

The way I see it is that the pole would bend way before you would move the concrete in the ground. Have you ever tried to remove a steel pole set in just 1 or 2 bags of concrete? Try this. Hook a tractor to a pole at the level that the dish would be attached. when you pull the pole will bend at the level where it goes into the concrete. The concrete won't shift in the ground.

Two weeks ago a F1 tornado touched down at the in laws farm. I had just installed a 36 inch dish on a 6 foot galvanized corner fence pole 2 days before using one 50 pound bag of quickcrete. The hole was about 30 inches deep dug with a post hole digger. The tornado bent the pole almost at an 90 deg angle. The concrete was not shifted in the ground. I just grabbed the pole, bent it back up, re aimed and everything works fine.

The tornado also layed down hundreds of feet of chain length fence. The poles were all bent where they entered the concrete. A lot of them we just bent back up. But my point is that the weekest point was where they entered the concrete.

 

[Shawn95GT]

I tend to agree with you Laseradam, in spite of my having about 1000+ pounds of concrete under my BUD.

The original pole was a 2 3/8" OD chain-link fence post with about a bag and a half of redi-mix holding it in the ground. upon trying to remove it we bend the pole over exactly like you describe.

To finally get it out we ended up digging all around the concrete bulb until it was sitting on a pedestal of earth and even then it took two of us to get it loose / out.

I only have so much concrete in the ground now becosue I've dug up 2 poles and the hole keeps getting bigger . Next time around I'm burying the bulb and starting over about 6 feet to the right.