Earth Anchors

[Sparweb]

Hi,
Looking for these (photo below) typically used by utilities for bracing utility poles. Can anyone suggest how to get these in Alberta, Canada?
The obvious suppliers have stopped carrying them (Anixter, EECOL, Westburne, Graybar, Acklands Grainger, etc.) Others have gone out of business.
Maybe I'm missing something else that's obvious. Any ideas?

In case it needs to be said, I'm looking for any earth anchor that can offer more than 4000 pounds when installed in sandy soil, so if you know of an alternative to Hubbell, please speak up. The catalog page is just an example of what worked before.

 

[waross]

Wind loading may be excessive. Spar is in an area where wind storms overturn trucks on the highway.

--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!

 

[itsmoked]

The facination with wind generators becomes... much clearer now.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[Sparweb]

Surely my "lawn art" project shouldn't self-destruct in a month. O ye of little faith.
My old tower has been up since 2007, and I'm hoping for another 10 years service with the machine currently waiting to be lofted.
The contractor plans to arrive Wednesday PM. Which shortens my timeline to get the guy anchors again.

Before taking the paint idea too seriously, what do you think would happen to any paint after it's "screwed" into sandy/stony soil?
For the sake of argument, let's say the advance ratio of the auger-plate's helix is about 1 inch per turn. To get it 60 inches down would require about 60 turns. (I can attest to that, having installed these by hand for the previous tower (in my younger days). With a 6" plate having 12" circumference, then the surface of the auger has been dragged through 60 feet (20 meters) of sand and rock, under sub-surface pressure. Would any paint coating survive that?

 

[Palletjack]

Have you looked for helical anchors?
They may be more readily available than the ones you show.

 

[dik]

probably better than no paint...

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[waross]

Can you find some sacrificial zinc blocks to fasten to the shafts?
Some zinc on the screw piles may be a good idea as well.

--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!

 

[waross]

Yes, I know. Marine supply houses are not plentiful in Central Alberta. grin

--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!

 

[Sparweb]

Problem solved!
And the answer was very close at hand.
When the contractor arrived, the first thing to do was to remove the old screw-anchors from the previous tower site. They all came up smoothly and examining their condition I was amazed to see very little corrosion. Having 6 removed from the ground + 1 left over that had never been installed, I picked the 4 best for the new site. Installation at the new tower site was easy.

The main reason for the contractor to be there, the structural screw piles for the tower base, went in very smoothly, too. Their installation torque was 15,000 foot-pounds (wow!) so much stronger than I expected. That pushes the load rating up to about 40,000 pounds so I'm looking at a safety factor of about 10!

Not that I'm planning such a thing, but that kind of load rating would make it possible for a future tower upgrade to a completely free-standing tower rather than one with guy wires.

 

[Sparweb]

I also just got the bill from the installer of the screw piles. I'm still happy.
Why do people pour concrete any more??? It costs less and there's so much less back-breaking work!

 

[waross]

At 15,000 ft/lbs, I wouldn't be standing so close. grin

--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!

 

[dik]

Chicken feed... I used screw piles to support six 400,000 lb transformers... now that's a real load. I don't recall what the torque was but it was a lot greater. I'd asked that torque be recorded and they forgot to.

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[itsmoked]

Well dang! That's no fun having what you need ON - HAND. Oh well, glad you got that covered.

No guys!, that would be great since guy-wires suck to be around, wrecking the visuals and being run into and tripped over.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[LionelHutz]

The piles work great. I put piles in for my new deck (walk out basement and roof over it, so needs to be well supported). So much easier than concrete and way quicker.

Did you drive the guy anchors vertical?

 

[itsmoked]

If you think about it a screwpile is pushing down on the soil in a distributed manner all the way down its length, whereas a standard pile puts all the load on just the bottom of the pile. Seems a screw pile could be better and certainly easier to install by a bunch!

Lionel; You only have screw piles? No concrete blocks, no concrete foundation, no poured columns, no pier blocks?

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[Sparweb]

The guy anchors are installed at 30 degrees from vertical.

There are lots of choices for large screw piles nowadays. I think the advantage is slowly becoming apparent in many places.
I was working with this company:

https://almita.com/

Also found these guys (smaller stuff, since you're talking about decks):

https://www.technometalpost.com/en-US/

 

[LionelHutz]

Under the deck, yes 4 piles along 36' of deck length 10' away from the house. They guy installed them with a mini-ex, would be similar to that skid-steer rig. I think it was something like 2000 ft-lbs of torque on the 2 holding the roof posts (roof is 24') and 1500 ft-lbs on the other 2. They have a screw on the end, not the entire length.

 

[dik]

friction piles utilise the full length... for compressive or tensile load.

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[itsmoked]

Four piles for 36 feet of roofed decking.. I think I'm in love.

Got it dik.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[waross]

I'm not sure if these are what Spar used but they are common here in Alberta. Drive by most oilfield service company yards and you will see piles of them.

--------------------
Ohm's law
Not just a good idea;
It's the LAW!

 

[KillBill7]

Did you try getting in touch with Hubbell Power? Chance was acquired by them, I have used used these power helix anchors on multiple jobs here in Alberta.