re: Manually raising a heavy pole... best method

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Can you get a truck or 4 wheeler where you will be setting it up? If so set the bottom of the pole near the first hole. Raise up the end opposite of the hole and sit on the tailgate, get in back the truck and have someone back up slowly while you walk it up, It shouldn't be that heavy

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He's right. The heaviest it will be is the first couple of feet off the ground. The higher you go the lighter it will be as the center of gravity moves down past the midpoint of the pole(basically a function of the distance from truck to hole). 2 guys in the back of the truck and one backing the truck up is the way to go. Really need 2 people holding the pole to keep it from moving left or right. If you are holding it by yourself and it starts to go left or right... you will not be able to control that much weight if not directly in center of you where you can use both arms equally.

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with only two people to work and no tractor to lift it

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20 ft long

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40 inches around

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I dont think its going to work with two people and no machinery, that sounds like a heavy arse poll.

I'd look into amish barn raising techniques though

My current, non-final, idea is this. Dig 4 holes with entrance slope and 2x4 back stops. Position two poles and lift them into the bed of the truck. Lift again and put a board across the back of the truck to get them even higher.

Next lag bolt in the floor framing board and some bracing. So that they will be the correct distance exactly. This will also prevent the side to side movement when trying to lift a single pole.

Attach a rope 15 foot rope to top of pole 1 and then again to top of pole 2. Attach two pull ropes to the center of that rope and use a come-along to begin pulling the pulls vertical. Move truck clear. Once all the first come-along is racheted as far as it can go then use the second rope and come along to pull further which will allow us to alternate as needed until the pole falls into place.

Repeat process for other two poles.

How can a 40 inch circumference pole cut in half only be 3 inches thick? Pie tells me it would be 12 inches in diameter and there for 6 inches thick after cutting into two.

And after doing these calculations I see that I underestimated the size when I said 40 inches.

Regardless of the circumference the diameter at the butt end of the pole is actually about 22 inches in diameter. So once cut in half the thickness of the butt end will be about 11 inches.

Exactly, I don't know how heavy the poles will be. Trying to plan for the worst so that I am up there with a bunch of work too do and can't past step 1.

Two hour drive is way to long to just unload materials and then turn around to head home.

If they are light enough to simply push them up then that will be the solution. I doubt it will be that easy. The suckers are originally from a powerline.

Could place a 2x6 in the hole to guide the pole down the hole.Board gives it a smooth surface to slide down and keeps it from digging into the ground while lifting it.

Honestly I think you use this as an excuse to rent a tractor or something for a day. Maybe get one with a bush hog and knock a couple jobs out that weekend.

You could build something like an A frame with some 4x4s to help hoist.

Now this is how you do it.

First off you need some 2x4's to make a channel/trough that your pole can slide on. You will need a lot of rope, something to anchor the rope into the ground with, and a pick-em-up truck preferably a Chevy GMT400 series with a Vortek not one of those new sissy King Ranch ford pseudo trucks.

What you will be doing is raising the pole up by pulling from the bottom with a rope hooked to the trailer hitch of your GMT400. First you put the top of the pole onto your tailgate. You will lash the top of the pole in two places to the ground triangulating the ropes from each other. This keeps the top of the pole from wandering and tipping to the side. Bottom image is a top-down view showing what I'm talking about. Bottom of the pole sits in a 2x4 trough. This trough will keep the bottom of the pole going in the right direction and should end at the entrance to your hole. Might need to be anchored to the ground too. Rope is attached to the bottom of the pole hooked up to your trailer hitch. After all the ropes are secured you just need to use that Vortec power to pull the bottom of the pole towards the hole. The guy lines hooked up to the top will pull the top of the pole up as you pull the bottom of the pole towards and eventually into the hole. If you have any smart Auburn Engineering friends they can figure out the geometry on how long the ropes need to be and how far apart they need to be anchored.



For the record I have never seen nor heard of this being done. I just sort of dreamed it up while sitting here bored on an HR conference call. There is a good chance the pole comes through your cab if one or both of your guy lines give. I can not be held liable if you die which you most likely will. Please film and post on yourtube if you do it this way. My scale model worked like a f'king boss though.

seems like if you could drag it over a fairly high center pivot point, maybe a 55 gal drum you could lever it then walk it up

Wow thanks DeoreDX. That is one idea that I had not thought of.