Right on. I'm guessing 6 x 60# bags of ready-mix?
Yes around here it can be had for scrap metal prices.
Oilfield pipe is a good choice but beware it is thinner wall than SCH 40 or SCH 80. It also can have wear on the inside. I though about using oilfield pipe and constructing this mount. The material list cost was surprising, even with oilfield pipe. I ran across a FB ad with some damaged MT Solar mounts located about 2 hours away and jumped on it. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/sinclair-or-mt-solar.76590/ I could compete with the used mount cost wise.
The 4" pipe I get is 4.5" OD. 1/4" wall thickness. As far as I know it measures out as schedule 40. I pick through the pile, some stuff has only been used as a temporary hookup so it looks new, its just dirty.I just finished installing a pair of 8 inch SCH40 poles for my next MT Solar mount. Holes were 9.5 feet deep with an average of 3.5 feet in diameter.
It would take a few bags, it was 6.5 cu yards of redi mix.
Oilfield pipe is a good choice but beware it is thinner wall than SCH 40 or SCH 80. It also can have wear on the inside. I though about using oilfield pipe and constructing this mount. The material list cost was surprising, even with oilfield pipe. I ran across a FB ad with some damaged MT Solar mounts located about 2 hours away and jumped on it. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/sinclair-or-mt-solar.76590/ I could compete with the used mount cost wise.
Be aware the Solar Tax credit states only new mounts qualify for residential. For a business like mine, I get to depreciate the whole cost, used or new. I guess one could say they built one using new materials.
If you want to use something like oilfield pipe, I'd use the smaller sizes and construct a mount with many poles and gussets. One thing is the stop sign high wind sway when using a single pole mount. Thinner pipe will eventually fatigue and break. I think that is what happened with these used MT Solar mounts, over time the pole was weakened due to the sway as these were single pole mounts. High winds with a tornado came along and bent the poles over. In my case, I'm going with a larger two pole setup and a small single pole that is smaller than what the original owner had.
super thin and almost rusted through. Still holding though.
It depends on the panels and angle and how much leverage above ground. I know in the winter with my panels tilted to 65° the mount gets some stress during high winds. I have 11 feet of pole above ground and the array is 17 feet of panels so I'm sticking up about 22 feet at the top with the 5 feet of ground clearance. In the summer we can see higher winds but the angle is 30°.I ran across a guy that had a pole mount up and I got to looking at it, the pole was from a basketball hoop!
Wow and those are posts aren’t in the ground, just ballast?
Nice, very, very nice!
Yes, correct! The rocks here are like a mine field.
Thank you kindly!
Nice. Would you mind showing a close up of the h beam top fitting?
Thanks. Very impressive. This could solve one of my issues. Huge rocks on mountain side.
Exactly what I'm doing right now, same tubes and mount. Did you let the concrete dry for a certain period of time before drilling the four holes for the expanding bolts? It's been about a week for me, not sure if I need to wait the full 28 days for it to gain it's strength.
I'm going to guess that they are using a hammer drill and not a rotary hammer.
Perhaps we did use a hammer drill. Don't do that.
