ground anchor

[parrotveasey81]

i have done a search and looked at all the threads but there is not much helpful info on how to make your own.
what i would like to know is what size box(dont want to use tube)you have used,how big the blade needs to be and what angle to bend it,how tall the upright from the blade needs to be plus what angle and how long the other bit of box needs to be or
has any one close to me have one i can use for a week to copy and make one from
thanks parrot

[mudplugga]

Team Idris will be along shortly.

[parrotveasey81]

[mudplugga]

Here's a couple of pictures of Steve's anchor,

[RichardD]

TBH it is probably easier and cheaper (including your time) to buy a ground anchor than go through all the testing and rebuilding that making your own requires, especially if you need it to be stowable.

[sitrials]

I copied my D4x4 anchor but made it lighter using slightly thinner box section.
Best size/weight to hold one i've deen in use is available from goodwinch for its size it did a great job!
http://www.dborc.co.uk/goodwinch/pdf/longbow.pdf

[parrotveasey81]

[teamidris]

I'm here Somebody mention my name

Well team name



We started with a blacktop-jeeps one, then butchered from there. The only real critical thing is that piece of flat bar thats fills in the triangle in the bent tube. Its doing the actual pulling All rope force goes through that. The tube maintains the angle of the plough and is under compression. It isn't possible to have an anchor you can carry easily and not have this tension brace.
It seems shallow plough angles are for loose material, and steep angles for clay? We kept increasing the angle in Midlands-UK-clay untill it worked, and its now way steeper than expected and quoted?
Tubes just nicer to hang on to
Stick length seems to work better the longer it is. The original donor anchor was short, (2ft) and seemed to put up more of a fight than the long stick.
That 'T' handle is removable for stowage, and gives you a strong pokey stick to clear the waffle boards of clay. It sockets into the handle rather than the plough.
The plough is 6mm steel. It has shown no sign of bending. Do you want light weight, or build and forget? A gusset to the plough is a must. Three bends works well.
We have a removable plough/stick socket joint. If you don't need one, don't fit one. It's a point of weakness. Ours is nearly right, and requires a bit more work

Is it worth building one? Yeah, sure You can save some cash if you have the gear. Some say its a safety risk, but it's not as risky as welding up your own 3 link suspension

Edit; Nice picture of it split and on the bonnet Dave I must go grab some photo's off your account

[Stal1878]

Hey Parrot, there is one with LT, I could take some pics of it if you'd like. Shame you didn't mention it when you came round, could have seen it in the flesh!

[parrotveasey81]

[parrotveasey81]

[sitrials]

[parrotveasey81]

[teamidris]

I can't see me doing much tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get a CAD drawing done to put on here. Then any one can view the angles anytime

Also a good time to design this 'twin key' back plate for the new MSA regualtion on electrical cut off switches

[parrotveasey81]

[sitrials]

[teamidris]

The MSA requires total electrical isolation in 'one action' for 2011 as far as we can see
Which is easy on a comper or trialer as there is one key with an ignition cut off switch piggy backed onto a high current red key swich. But a challenge truck usually has two batteries, which means fitting a special swich with two stages or a very large earth switch. And those sound hard to get and expensive
So the aim was to get two standard switches http://www.thetoolboxshop.com/0-605-90-100a-rat...switch-2300-p.asp to fit into a back plate with a 'thrower plate' to turn both keys anticlockwise at the same time. Ideally the common thrower plate swings rather than slides. The Marshal accessible pull cables then go to the common thrower plate. Then its both switches in one action

So this morning I sat down and drew up a device to do just that. At the moment the back plate is 120mm by 310mm long. The key swiches have to be re-set individually. The design can be expanded to throw 3 key switches. Most of the parts are made from simple stamped aluminium sheet. (which is good cause 2011 is rapidly aproaching. No time for any long winded part development).

So thats it really. See a need, fill a need


Anyhoo, next job is get buggy off axel stands and greece king pins on dragon wagon. Then hopefully ground anchor draw up

[teamidris]

[bertie_bas205]

Steve,

Do you think these would be enough if it was made of aluminium??

Or would it be better if a few mm were added???






Bertie.

[teamidris]

Double

I work in ally all day, and it is capable of incredible strength, but thats 5083 or 6082, or even higher mag content. I have some 8mm sheet at home with so much mag you can light the swalf But the risk is the welding, which softens the ally back up I used it to great effect yesterday with some 4mm 5083, where we did a tight bend by running the tig welder accros the bend line without filler rod
So my ally ground anchor plough blade is hollow, made from two layers of 6mm.........and to be honest, thats where I left it. Last time out we bent the steel scaffold tube just after the brace, so aluminium is at greater risk, and is more likely to snap Therefore the Team Idris aluminium anchor is complete, but not used.

Only 1 in 3 Steve projects work out

But it could be reserected with the knowledge we have gained.
To build;
I'd use ally scaffold for the arm, but steel as the brace, and go from tip-to-tip with that brace. Then I'd bolt to the ally with a hook point and the a plough mount in steel. So basically, a steel anchor arm with ally backbone. As for the plough, I'd make a hollow structure about an inch deep at the back and fit it with a steel tip. There agian, I'd tie the tip into the mount point

[durdzz-suzuki-redtop]

so glads this has been brought up iv been looking to make my own, cracking drawings btw

[teamidris]

And thanks to Mrs Knight, who let me draw it up while it leaned against the wall in our hallway



Behind every great man is a great woman.
Behind every offroader is a tolerant woman


I could of made that less gender specific Like; "Behind every offroader is a tolerant life partner, friend or family". But we all know that friends and family think were nuts

[teamidris]

Update;
If you are hunting via the search engine, I can say we've had a good run with the anchor, but we killed it last week. The scaffold tube collapsed where it joins the square.
As such I'd say skip the removable joint, unless you can engineer in 2 connection pins. And even then I wouldn't bother unless vital.

What I'm building now uses the old spade (which is 6mm with 3 bends) with the old scaffold tube, with one bend, that terminates at the base. Then there is a new large 6mm gusset that is 150mm long where it welds to the spade. This supports the tube bend and is the point the brace bar welds to. This gusset is mad big compared to D44 or Xeng units, but we seem to be putting some serious load on it in dry clay. It is starting to look like it belongs on a mog
Photo to follow once I've done some migging.....

[ukjeeper]

Traded some axles for this a few years back. Bl**dy strong, but i think the axles were lighter...

[teamidris]