On 04/05/2015 05:05 PM, Ralph Mowery wrote:

Depending on the soil, you might try this if you don't have too many to
drive.

Scoop out a hole about the size of a beer can, maybe only half as tall.
Then just push the rod down by hand as far as you can, which will probably
only a few inches. Then pull it up. Repeat and the rod should go down
another couple of inches. Keep doing this. Don't pull the rod all the way
, only up several inches. The deeper the hole, the more you can pull out
each time. When you get about half the rod down, pull it out and fill the
hole with water.

I thought this was a joke from a fellow at work. I just had to try it. I
put in 4 rods this way. On the second rod I clamped a pair of Vice Grips on
the rod to act as a handle.

If there are lots of rocks it won't work, but if you don't hit any rocks it
works very well.

I did this last year for a ground rod for an antenna I was putting up.
I was not at all expecting it to work, but it worked exactly as
described, and was a lot easier than dragging out the ladder to pound on
the wiggling end of a ground rod (a lot quicker, too).

Jon