Bulk steel - fencing projects for the orchard

General Fruit Growing
41

Does anybody else get the impression that @clarkinks property is going to have a fence like Jurassic Park?

3 Likes
42

HDPE is a great option for culvert in a heavy traffic area (not double wall culvert, but thick single wall).

Pretty much invincible and bends, with the main challenge being expansion and contraction in temperature swings. If you install it in hot weather, make sure it has room for contraction when it gets cold, and room for expansion if it is installed cold. Hot butt fusing is the preferred option so joints donā€™t pull apart.

2 Likes
43

It works pretty good if it has enough dirt over the top of it. The depth of the dirt helps displace the down force of the tires driving over it.

In my application, the culverts needed are too close to the top of the soil line, (since the ditches are very shallow) so HDPE would crush badly.

It would be interesting to know how many tons it would take schedule 40 steel pipe to yield from a 12" wide tire (assuming a 30K psi yield strength). Way beyond my pay grade to calculate that. Iā€™ve got to wonder the force required would flatten the tire before the pipe would yield.

2 Likes
44

There are definitely thicknesses that would work for that, Iā€™ve seen them first hand in mines. It might be cost-prohibitive for your use case though

However, when the walls get that thick it also stores huge amounts of elastic energy very easily and you need to take care when moving and installing them

2 Likes
45

When I say hdpe I donā€™t mean corrugated drainage pipe, I mean the pressure rated stuff used for material management up hills.

PXL_20240222_163232701
PXL_20240222_1632327011920Ɨ2550 1.01 MB

If you can find thatā€¦ There isnā€™t anything I know of that is better. Iā€™ve driven over failing steel pipe and it isnā€™t a good feeling. To be fair it was probably there for 50+ years.

2 Likes
46

Thatā€™s some thick stuff. Iā€™ve never seen poly pipe that thick. That looks pretty tough.

In Kansas most of the used pipe is from the oil and gas industry, so itā€™s all steel.

2 Likes
47

Yep, probably a half inch wall. Pretty much indestructible against unintentional damage. After covid, pricing around here was fairly competitive with pressure rated schedule 40 for new pipe. I havenā€™t checked it for a little while.

1 Like