Mobile Home anchor

[woody]

we moved my grandsons portable building and it had mobile home type anchors. we need to remove them and reinstall them at the new location. I welded up a peace of square tubbing but my impact rounded the shoulders off the nut I welded on. What would be a good tool or idea to do this. I'm thinking some type gearbox that can be power by a 1/2 inch drill.

 

[garry1p]

I guess it depends on the type of anchor.

The ones I had the top was a "U" shape plate welded on with holes in the sides. You ran a rod through the holes to screw it in or out.

You might square the top with a grinder and use an impact wrench.

 

[woody]

That sounds like what we have, he screwed one out with a 2x4 and a long piece of square stock but it took a long time and was not easy. I'm thinking if it's that tough to unscrew we would never get it back in the ground.

 

[dstig1]

Impact wrenches are great for many things, but there are times where they just don't work and you need steady leverage to move the fastener. This sounds like it might be one of those situations. I've had this happen on car suspension work at times. My very strong air impact would not budge a fitting but a breaker bar worked easily. I suspect it has to do with rubber bushings soaking up the impacts. In your case, that might be the earth doing the same thing.

 

[BlueKnife]

we moved my grandsons portable building and it had mobile home type anchors. we need to remove them and reinstall them at the new location. I welded up a peace of square tubbing but my impact rounded the shoulders off the nut I welded on. What would be a good tool or idea to do this. I'm thinking some type gearbox that can be power by a 1/2 inch drill.

How big of a building is this and how many anchors do you need? A new anchor from Lowes is $20. It's not going to take much messing about at all to get to the point where it'd be easier and cheaper to just cut the old ones off and buy new.

 

[woody]

How big of a building is this and how many anchors do you need? A new anchor from Lowes is $20. It's not going to take much messing about at all to get to the point where it'd be easier and cheaper to just cut the old ones off and buy new.

That's true and that maybe what we do, but we still have to install them.

 

[jyoutz]

That's true and that maybe what we do, but we still have to install them.

I’ve had those anchors installed for steel carports. The company that installed the carport had a huge corded electric driver that is designed for the purpose. Even still they had to work at it. The driver was about 3’ in length and they drove the anchor down around 3’. The only way they can be removed is to dig them out or cut them off. Maybe they rent those? If not, maybe one of those steel carport companies would come and put in a couple of anchors for you?

 

[BlueKnife]

That's true and that maybe what we do, but we still have to install them.

I've never done this but that seems like something that could be done with a skid steer auger with an adapter on it. Might have to make the adapter but it doesn't look too hard to do.

 

[woody]

I had thought of that and figured using the forward remote and float I can put them in the ground fairly easy. I may have to look into that a bit more.