10 foot dish mounting post

[rrob311]

I picked up a 3" steel pole to setup my 10 foot dish. What length do I need to cut the pole in order to set this into the ground? How deep should I put it into the ground? I heard about the rebar trick in the bottom. Should I leave the top of the pole capped?

 

[phlatwound]

How long is the piece of pipe you have? How high off the ground do you want the dish to be?

Won't your mount cap the top of the pole?

Depending on your soil type I would say you want a minimum of 3 feet in the ground.

 

[brex2001]

Here, start reading. Google is your friend.
Satellite Footprints by Dish Size - Ground Pole Installation, Pad Mount Installation, Wind Loading

 

[rrob311]

The pipe is too long for me to transport in any of my vehicles. probably 15 feet long. It(10 footer) doesn't need to be very high off the ground at all.

 

[phlatwound]

I have 8' out of the ground on my 10' mesh, and when it is at apex there is over 5' clear under it. I am located at 93W, and when I turn the dish to 137W I have around 4' clear under it.

That should give you an idea.

 

[toucan-man]

I harvested a 10' dish off a pole 4.5' tall above ground. Not great for lawn mowing, but easy to work on.

 

[Lone Cloud]

"Not very high at all" isn't a measurement.

You do a site survey to find the right place to put the dish - usually the spot where it can see the arc - the Clarke Belt. Then dig down a little to determine if your ground is rocky. Usually that means you can do with a smaller concrete footing. If it's sandy or loamy soil, you might have to go four feet by four feet. Then, depending upon the height you want to go, you might have to have guy wires. In that case the footing might have to be wider at the top, with loops for wire ( or "J" bolts [painted well] ) concreted in.

If you are right near the ground and the earth is rocky, your pole can be maybe six feet and your footing three feet deep and three feet across.

I am an advocate for filling the pipe with concrete, and bending some rebars into an "L" sticking out the bottom into the footing. Some claim this is overkill.

 

[rrob311]

Here, start reading. Google is your friend.
Satellite Footprints by Dish Size - Ground Pole Installation, Pad Mount Installation, Wind Loading

Thanks! This is pretty much the resource I was looking for. I knew someone would have something like this for reference.

 

[delta_charlie]

The pipe is too long for me to transport in any of my vehicles. probably 15 feet long. It(10 footer) doesn't need to be very high off the ground at all.

Hi, if you have access to a pickup or SUV with a little ground clearance a neat trick I have used in the past to move long things is to tie/chain up the item under the truck. I moved the 18 foot long pipe for my BUD that way. I just chained it up to the bottom of the bumper and frame. Later, DC

 

[rrob311]

Hi, if you have access to a pickup or SUV with a little ground clearance a neat trick I have used in the past to move long things is to tie/chain up the item under the truck. I moved the 18 foot long pipe for my BUD that way. I just chained it up to the bottom of the bumper and frame. Later, DC

Thats an awesome idea, I suppose I could just tie them down to the axles. My land rover would work well for that. Thanx!

 

[upnatm]

No No, not the axles! The first bump you go over will either bend the pipe, or snap
the axle housing!

Hang it from the bumpers, clear of the moving parts.

Now, if you had "tongue-in-cheek" when you said that, I must admit, you had me going on that one!

 

[Magic Static]

Have a flatbed tow truck move it and put it on your AAA card

 

[Nosbod]

Depending on where you live, if you have very cold winters you may want to be below the frost line. Where I live in northern Ontario that would be about 41/2 feet.

 

[rrob311]

Well my genie in the lamp leprechaun friend granted me a wish and brought me a 20 ft+ 3" pole but couldn't get it out to where I live so as soon as I can figure out how to haul this thing to my house I can proceed with my project. I like the idea about mounting it underneath the car.

 

[coinmaster32]

Keep in mind the larger the dish, the more wind load on the pipe. Of course a solid dish will have more wind load than a mesh dish.

In a 60mph gust, a solid dish can put 1200 pounds of wind load on a pipe.

I recommend digging a hole 18" in diameter, at least 3 foot deep, if you can, go 4 foot deep.

The entire hole should be filled with concrete, if you want, leave 6" from the top to fill with dirt. I never did like doing that because then you would have to weed around it.

I always liked leaving a 2 foot diameter slab about 8 inches deep flush with the ground, that way I could just trim around it with a push mower.

For extra wind load resistance, it is best to fill the entire pole with concrete.

Also before you set the pole in the hole, it's best to weld 4 pieces of 6 inch long rebar where it will go into the ground, this keeps the pole from rotating in the wind. Or if you don't have a welder you could drill a couple holes and run a couple foot long grade 8 bolts through it.

As far as how far it should stick out of the ground, you should have at least 5 foot sticking out of the ground. The higher up you go, the more the dish can wobble in the wind.

Good luck!

 

[knowmiddlename]

Keep in mind the larger the dish, the more wind load on the pipe. Of course a solid dish will have more wind load than a mesh dish.

Mesh dishes have no practical wind load advantage over a solid dish of the same dimension. Mesh dishes should always be calculated exactly the same as a solid dish.

 

[coinmaster32]

Mesh dishes have no practical wind load advantage over a solid dish of the same dimension. Mesh dishes should always be calculated exactly the same as a solid dish.

So what your saying is the holes in the mesh are too small for the wind to pass through?

 

[toucan-man]

If you hold a mesh quarter panel upright in your hands on a windy day, you'll be surprised how much wind they catch.

 

[coinmaster32]

I know a mesh will catch wind, but a solid will catch even more.

 

[phlatwound]

I know a mesh will catch wind, but a solid will catch even more.

Everything I have ever read, written by people a lot smarter than me, says that at winds speeds of around 50 mph and above there is virtually no difference in wind loading between solid and mesh dishes.