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we have a ball peen we give the boss’s son for this

Keeps him busy wha? ;)

Ball? Peen? Rods? Sounds like a Tuesday night

Let's all be honest... what's the maximum length of ground rod you are all willing to cut off?

Perfect world, none. Shitty day, depends how shitty.

Haha that is a perfect answer

I've only ever had to do it twice in 5.5 years. Like 3-3.5' IIRC.

My job is 12 ft ¾ ground rods per spec I’ve only had to cut one so far and a few I’ve had to drive them at angles

Where do yall live to be able to consistently send a 12’ long 3/4” ground rod, and with a sledge at that? Around here that takes a jack hammer, even still you’d consider yourself fortunate if it went smooth (even at an angle).

I use a sds max with a driver bit a lot of times it’s near excavations so I try and drive it before they back fill so I only have to drive like 5 feet

This is the way. We drive them for cell sites with our hilti and a rod driver bit usually without too much fuss

youd need heavy equipment to drive a pole 12ft in my yard. its like 70% clay and 20% rocks.

Did a sub division like that, we had to drive them in on an angle and even then there would be one for every transformer base that you'd have to cut.

You can drive it at an angle though, also using a big hammer drill with nothing in the chuck is a nice trick

I live in an all red clay rocky area. They most always go in at an angle. I use my sds max with a ground rod driver and have a sledge for persuasion when I hit a hard layer. Sometimes I pound that bastard so hard, 12" or so can just fall off!

Yikes that sounds painful

FWIW: if you're driving 100% with a hammer, a good trick to keep the thing from wobbling all over the place with every strike is to get a scrap 2x4 about 2' long and drill a hole. Slide that thing down the rod and tension it at an angle by standing on it with your foot. It keeps other guys out of the way of the hammer, as well as your foot which is at the far end of the board.

I use a t-post pounder to get it most of the way in then I have where I had taken a socket and welded it onto an old scraper for a chipping hammer, put that thing in put it over the top and pull the trigger. Drives it right down

I have almost bought a post pounder multiple times. I personally have never used them for ground rods but back when I was an apprentice had to use them to drive temp fence posts on a big underground job.

It helps a lot saves a ton of work on getting them started and most of the way in

Most likely will be purchasing one for service changes instead of a bigger sledge. Thanks

And the finish off the last bit that’s when I’m use the socket on a larger size rotary hammer that has a fixed setting to where it’s more of a jackhammer it will save a ton of wear and tear on your body. Avoid fighting those things into the ground. The job is hard enough as it is the post pounder is 30 bucks well worth it

Yeah I was using a combination of sds plus hammer drill and sledge for years. Then splurged on sds max hammer drill thinking I could retire the sledge. And unfortunately I still almost always have to pull out the sledge. I've always thought about buying a bigger sledge but thought the bigger hammer drill would solve the problem.

It works for me and I’m in West Georgia Clay and rocks

Rotary hammer or hammer drill? A rotary hammer is a mini jackhammer that also turns the bit. A hammer drill is a drill that gives the bit mild taps. I assume you mean rotary hammer from the "SDS."

Wear ear protection

This, seriously. I have painful tinnitus now. Protect your fucking ears, people.

What?

I have an attachment for a jackhammer. Get up on a ladder, get it started then just hold on and ride it down. Fun until bedrock.

Had an apprentice somehow cut off the tip of his finger using a post driver so the shop bought us a 80v battery powered Makita demolition hammer with a ground rod driver attachment. No power and no ladders necessary and the thing is an absolute beast. Edited for clarity

I buy the guy on a line truck a case of beer

We use an 8lb husky sledge. They have a lifetime warranty and we break them nearly every 6 months. Make sure you get a pommel for the top of the rod so you don't smash your hands. Good luck my fellow ground driver, swing your hammer down with all your might!

If you're breaking them by missing, get a piece of 2 inch emt or whatever fits and beat it around the base of the head. Works great.

I have a personal post pounder, first time we had to do a ground rod my j man laughed at me, I knew so I brought it just in case. Told me I was dumb it was a waste of time. We had two ground rods to do so HE said let’s race, needless to say he’s an idiot and that day proved it again. Post pounders are a cheap and worthy investment and you can always find them at garage sales or market place.

Will most likely be adding one to the repertoire

Be careful. Know of two people that have pulled the pounder up too far and off the rod only to come back down putting the rod through or into their hand.

Doubling down on the be careful, especially with the spring loaded post hole driver. Heard from an old coworker about a former coworker of theirs that smacked himself in the face with it when it bounced back up. Also heard about the weld on the top of regular post drivers snapping off and almost sending a ground rod through someone’s head

Yeah I was building fence with one guy and he pulled up to far his arms went up but his body went down and somehow he hit himself in the head? No clue haha But yeah it’s like any tool you have to respect it and know how to use it.

Bosch electric jackhammer with driver bit.

We were at a site and the ground was so hard the 90lb pneumatic jackhammer was only getting them 3'-5' down, and we were trying to drive double 6' rods. We had to get a drilling crew out to bore down 13' so we could drop the rods down and fill with bentonite.

Joy's of ground rod driving

Doh my bad. But why use a sledgehammer. Do you use a star bit for anchors?

We take 1 1/2 inch gas pipe and weld a 10lb head on it so it’s hollow like a post driver.

Great idea!

I’ve seen it put the rod through hands 4-5 times in my 20 years. So pay attention and don’t pull off on the upstroke cuz the down can be brutal.

I assume you mean 4-5, but if it's only working without causing stigmata 20% of the time...go on shark tank.

Fixed it for you.

Milwaukee m18 sledge (chipping hammer) Sometimes it can’t break through a rock so I’ll use my 8lb sledge

I like using the newest first year apprentice. Not the best but the most entertaining.

Whichever one is in the apprentice's hands.

Whichever size the apprentice can fit his bony girl hands around?

Work harder, not smarter!

Sometimes you need a sledge. I have gone from sledge and sds plus. Splurged on a SDS max about 2 years ago thinking I could retire the sledge. And it's not true. Sometimes you still need the sledge to bust through rocks or whatever.

Word. I’d check out harbor freight. They have a nice selection of sledge hammers for really cheap. You get what you pay for but honestly harbor freight has stepped their game up in certain areas while keeping prices low.

A hammer drill works

Sometimes gotta switch to sledge to break whatever’s below the rod then back to drill

Because I’ve NEVER cut off a rod if it won’t go any further and move on to the next. Nope have never done that

Same🫣, especially I didn’t do it at a police station last week, I promise I didn’t

Pro tip, use the band saw and file down the edges then attach acorn, once it’s all in place smack the head with Kleins a few times to give it a certain look.

Yea I had to get the shine of the cut off so the inspector didn’t notice, not that I did that tho

Not always. I often have to switch back and forth between sledge and hammer drill to get the full length of rod in ground.

Milwaukee sds with a ground pounder bit on hammer. Works better than a sledge and I don’t get tired doing it.

The biggest one you can comfortably swing and reliably hit something with. Be it a baby 4lb hammer or a big boy 20lb sledge, just the biggest one you can get your hands on and be able to swing it for a few hours. Take that sledge and take out the Foreman's kneecaps so he gets you a hammer drill to drive the rod in with.

https://ddin.net/product/ground-rod-driver/

I use a tpost driver. Turn it upside down when the rod gets low enough.

Hydraulic ground rod driver

I have an 18lb husky sledgehammer and a sluggo. The lighter sledgehammers suck imo

Rotohammer with a cup bit .. just saying

A 70lb jack hammer will send a 10ft ground rod in 60 seconds. Time is money.

I have moved to a fence post driver from tractor supply for most of the work then I finish it off with a short handle sledge when the driver is bottomed out. I think the sledge is a 6 pounder

Use a hammer drill

Fence post driver, obviously hammer drill in the answer 99% of the time though.

Hammer drill with a cup ground rod bit

i made a slide hammer, we didn’t have no fancy hammer drill attachments. took a 20lb sledge head, welded a 1” gas pipe handle on to it, welded a 1-1/2” bolt into the other side of the hole, slide it on the rod and thump thump away. now my helpers drive the rods with that same slide sledge i made 40 years ago

The fence post driver at tractor supply. Thank me later. Edit: now that I'm all fancy commercial/industrial it's a water bottle and a hammer drill

Cmon man it’s 2024. Get a big sds roto hammer with a ground rod bit. I recently just drove like 10 for light poles in a couple hours. Full length

3lb drilling hammer if I forget the jackhammer. I've never been able to get a sds to drive one.

Our old monster Milwaukee hammer drill with it chucked on instead of a bit of

TE-60

If you don't have Rocky soil, use the water driving method, no sledge needed

Buzz a bevel on the end of the thing, and send it with my 2" SDS max lol my hammer is some no name blue handle 8lb thing that I found in a containment puddle years ago

3 lb mini

We have a jack hammer attached to a caterpillar for the tough stuff. Otherwise it’s just an sds for the easy stuff.

The hammer drill attachment is worth every penny.

Dewalt SDS Max with ground rod attachment

I was given a crosspeen hammer once by my super. I was an apprentice at the time and tried to goad the J-Man I was working with into dragging up because of it. That job was all sorts of fucked up XD Anyway, they make sds hammer drill attachments for this and I've driven rods through asphalt with ease with em. Another option is a ground rod driver or slide hammer.

The portaban sledge

A hammer drill

A jack hammer with a driving cup. It's amazing how well they work. I've driven a whole ground grid with double length rods in northern Alberta in November. I needed a ladder to get it onto the rod to start it.

20 oz

Hilti TE 72 w/ground rod driver bit. 30 seconds and you’re done.

A 2nd year apprentice works about right.

With a bum elbow, Sds with a ground rod attachment. If that fails, whoever is unlucky enough to be with me.

A sledge hammer head welded to a piece of pipe. Get the ground rod in as deep as you can with your hands and slide the handle over the top

My old boss always brought us out a 12 pounder on a 4 foot handle. We dubbed it the "War Hammer" It was unweildy as hell but you only need a few good swings and she was in 🤣

We’ve got a jack hammer. A coworker was hitting one so long it hit a rock, bent the rod continuously and poked back out from the ground.

35 pound knee wall jack hammer with a ground rod bit.

I use a hammer drill - haven’t manually pounded a rod in years

Large hammer drill with a cup bit

Back hoe and a ground plate work pretty good.

70lb jack hammer with ground rod bit. Ez money

An sds and a ground rod driving attachment.

No sledge? SDS hammer drill attachment son!

I have never used a sledge hammer to put in a ground rod. We only use large hammer drills. But if I had to it would be a 12 pounder

Sds drill set to chipper. I also have a ½" thick steel plate with a hole drilled into it so i don't have to reach all the way up, just put the ground rod in the hole and the sds on a notch it's made itself and it goes down faster than any sledge.

No love for SDS drill adapters?

Bosch RH1255VC

Chipping hammer and a generator if there is no power.

Have you ever tried just using water? Make a small hole, one scoop with a shovel and dump a gallon of water in it. Poke down in mud, pull back and repeat. It is shocking how quickly it goes down. Continue to fill hole with water as needed

Hell I just use my sds with a ground rod driver attachment. Work wonders.

You spelled Rotohammer w/rod driver attachment wrong.

I'm not an electrician but I saw a sparky using a Hilti impact tool.

I use the ground rod bit for my SDS or SDS Max

No rods. Canadian ground plate gang here.

Tell that cheap ass company to buy a sds max

Mines called “the apprentice” 🤣

A hammer drill

I use a 4ft drill to start the hole, then use pounder. Takes like 5 minutes. When I 1st started, my old boss would make me pound it in with a 4lbs sledgehammer that would take much, much longer and make you tired real fast.

Most of the ground rods I've installed were in eastern North Dakota, the topsoil is probably 20' deep on average around there and the rocks had to be imported from Minnesota. You could start the first 3 feet of a ground rod by hand. Then I moved to central Montana, and let me tell you, trenching in a ground ring is a valid option, considering also that the rocks around here are made of sand and act like insulators on a power pole.

Sds sized.

Jumbo Milwaukee rotohammer

Ugh did a substation with shitty soil had to drive 20' rods every 20' in a grid across the whole place, had a hydraulic hammer but lugging that 50lb bastard up a shaky unlevel ladder and holding out at arms length made for some loooong days and earplugs with muffs over em still wasn't enough to keep the tinnitus at bay...

There's a hammer drill attachment with your name on it https://www.amazon.ca/Werhoo-SDS-Max-T-Post-Driver/dp/B0BQ3BTYMV

Use a hammer drill. You're welcome.

Sds max with a driver attachment

The electric kind

Triple HHH sledge

I use a T-post driver. Whenever I get as far down as I can, I switch to a BFH.

SDS ground rod bit and a stepladder

single jack

Bosch 1 1/2” roto hammer w/ground rod socket. In my area, we have a few feet of sandy loam soil, then 2+ feet of hard pan. That’s a layer of dense clay. Kinda like new concrete. I know that in some areas it’s all soft soil, I’ve heard of guys just pushing a rod in by hand. And then there’s areas where there’s bedrock down a few feet. So how big a hammer? Depends on what you’re dealing with. When I use a sledge for whatever, 10 lbs is about right.

Hammer drill.

Usually we use a big Hilti or similar heavy hammer drill. There are attachments specifically designed for this purpose and widely available. If we don’t have the Hilti we have a 12# sledge with a pipe welded on for a handle - slide it over the rod like a t post and pound away as the ringing lulls you into deep reflection of your life choices that led you to this point.

I use a 35lb jackhammer with a rod driver. 1 1/8” bit.

All our vans have jackhammers with a post pounder attachment. https://www.acmetools.com/makita-70-lb-breaker-hammer-hm1810x3/088381075213.html?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw65-zBhBkEiwAjrqRMJCkxH3WyAZRr4Jm3SLG6UvO4EI1WPZvhRL1OCIopbh8vBJQXJEzmRoCfxMQAvD_BwE https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vulcan-1-1-8-in-x-6-in-Breaker-Ground-Rod-Driver-1804/202579212?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&pla&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADq61UcFvJBgZ0QyVM5yBCCJpMh9l&gclid=CjwKCAjw65-zBhBkEiwAjrqRMPQRv1orca3wxGKRknkdVsxs6sq2-TgAJghdG2nl9MP6x417-DkzgRoCU5kQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Hahaha, sledge hammer? https://www.hilti.ca/c/CLS_POWER_TOOL_INSERT_7126/CLS_CHISELS_ROD_DRIVERS_7126/r299

Someone else’s.

Here we can use ground plates for 200A services. I quickly realized I’d rather dig a hole than try to pound two ground rods in.

The SDS attachment they sell at depot

A gallon of water gets it done in soft soil in about 30 seconds.

Hammer drill!!

Milwaukee ground rod pounder

You guys are putting the whole ground?

We use a hilti 76 hammer drill with a cup attachment

The Hilti sledge for us old guys.

Gotta do a hilti where I'm at, it's all caliche out here. But if I wasn't out here, I would use a t post driver

I find the best size sledge is whatever my helper is holding at the time.

The biggest one ya got!!

My ex-company used SDS max Jack Hammer with an adapter just for hammering in rods

We have a ground rod pounder attachment for our hammer drill. I’ve never pounded a ground rod in by hand in my life.

I had to drive ground nests/rings around like 8 Xfmr pads at a water treatment plant just before I topped out. When the backfill is clay and gravel, you can either beat on a rod with a hammer and a sleeve til your tendons turn to jelly, or use a heavy SDS ground rod sleeve/ driver tool, or you just cut the excess off with your sawzall when the rod stops moving, and then cadweld it and bury it. (First make sure you’re not gonna get megged by the utility guys or the customer for the impedance of your ground system before you go that route, though 😉) E: 10-12# is enough for soft packed earth, though

I would never use a sledge since switching to hammer drills. We had a guy cut his thumb off a few years ago using a fence driver and ever since, its been mandatory that we only use our drills

We have a post hole driver filled with lead, works good

Depends on what size apprentice they give me that day

A hammer drill with a ground rod driver lol

Roto hammer variety.

The kind that somebody else uses to pound em

I use my sds drill in hammer mode with a ground rod driver bit. Takes maybe a minute to sink it all the way.

The one that fits on the front of the hammer drill.

I like the kind that snaps into my rotary hammer.

Water bottle. Drive it in in 2 minutes if you don't hit a rock

The one someone else uses

Whatever the biggest hammer my helper can swing is

Biggest one my aporentice can lift. I’ll be in the truck doing paperwork ;)

Hammer drill

Hammer drill 

Best size sledge is a big hammer drill.

I'd much rather do the "× amount of bare wire in a trench" method but if I have to . . . My corded hammerdrill.

Laughs in Floridian

Water bottle and gloves baby.

Some pipe welded onto a flat piece of metal I found .. that and a sledge

Milwaukee

Hammer drill

A 20 lb sledge is cool I suppose. But a power tool should be the preferred method

Lmmfao!! I live in interior Alaska and have to install them in the winter. Our ground is frozen 4' down. 90LB Wacker Jackhammer and or pre-drill with a 10' x 5/8" roto-hammer bit.

60v 2" SDS max with ground rod driver If unavailable sub it out More seriously a 25# fence post driver until it touches the ground then a 12# sledge the rest of the way Adding water helps a lot

We like the SDS Max hammer!

A big hammer drill with the ground rod attachment. I will bring my own if I have to

Rotohammer with no bit in it, slipped over the end of the rod. Goes in like nothin'.

Hilti

Backhoe bucket

Have you ever seen “The Trucker’s Friend”

None. I may not do this aspect of the work anymore, but if I were to work for a contractor that doesn’t have a ground rod driver and expects me to bang that shit in by hand that day will be my last. I’ll save that shit for people who don’t know any better.

Literally any sledge as long as I’m working on the coast and driving it into pure sand, one handed, with one hit, fighting off all the ladies with the other free hand, all the while thinking to myself…”This has got to be the most absolute dogshit grounding system I’ve ever installed.” So I just run a #4 to the ufer instead.

Linesman

Glacial till... I just grab the jackhammer every time.

Which ever one the apprentice is using...

I lucked out a whole ball and ended up getting to use plates in an area where the ground is like 50% rocks. I hadn't been looking forward to doing the ground rods *at all* - and i thought of ground plates while the trench was still open. It was pretty nice being able to just toss those babies in the trench and let them get backfilled.

My personal favorite hammer is a Bosch jack hammer with a ground rod driver.

Jackhammer and a 12 foot ladder. Won’t use no sledge after I started using a jack. Goes in like a hot knife through butter

Pour some water on the ground and jerk it off for the first six feet. 3lb mini-sledge for the last two feet. Don't let it get stuck, and move spots if it stops. Takes five minutes, low effort

you guys don’t use an sds with a ground rod driver?

5lb sledge extra short

Damn, I clicked on this to recommend a hammer drill😂😂

I just use a chipping hammer drill with the ground rod bit on hammer only mode?

We use an SDS plus Ground Rod driver bit for the hammer drill. No sledge necessary anymore and takes maybe 15 seconds depending on the ground.