Land anchor

Norda - Thanks for posting this! If you or any one else has any questions please let me know.

Verkstad - I know what you mean. I was really skeptical at first. Jason from Krazy Beaver sent us a couple when he saw a video of us using a normal long handled shovel to break into hard pack. He said this shovel will break through the hard pack way easier. I was like "ok, that was nice of him but... I'll try it now that I have one, but I am bringing my long handle because its gonna suck to use". It actually worked really well, now I am an unashamed believer. They are working on a long handled version now, and they are trying to get it out this year. The problem is shipping, a full size handle doubles or triples the cost of shipping. And he sells all his shovels with free shipping.
 

offero

Desert rat
Pledged a couple days ago... popped onto the forum to see if anyone else had posted about the deadman yet and BAM, here we are.

Seems like a cool product!
 

proper4wd

Expedition Leader
Interesting for the desert I guess. Useless anywhere with rocky, rooty, or clay soil. It could take all day to dig a hole big enough, just to earn ~2000lbs of anchoring strength.
 

Norda

New member
Interesting for the desert I guess. Useless anywhere with rocky, rooty, or clay soil. It could take all day to dig a hole big enough, just to earn ~2000lbs of anchoring strength.

Well just from how it looks, rocky: put it around the rocks, rooty: put it around the tree, clay: its heavier than dry sand so from their explanation it would not have to be as deep of a hole.

Besides if it takes all day to dig a hole, that is a different problem altogether.


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proper4wd

Expedition Leader
Well just from how it looks, rocky: put it around the rocks, rooty: put it around the tree, clay: its heavier than dry sand so from their explanation it would not have to be as deep of a hole.

Besides if it takes all day to dig a hole, that is a different problem altogether.

When was the last time you excavated a yard of virgin earth by hand? I'm not talking about your yard that is fill or topsoil.

There's a reason the videos they posted are in sand...
 
When was the last time you excavated a yard of virgin earth by hand? I'm not talking about your yard that is fill or topsoil.

There's a reason the videos they posted are in sand...

You have a good point, this device certainly doesn't take the digging out of the equation when you are in the middle of nowhere with no other anchor point options. We have done all of our testing in soft sand since, to us, it is the most difficult thing anchor to. Also we live in San Diego, we don't have the kind of terrain you are talking about. Any denser ground than soft sand will not require as deep of a hole though. We have dug it into the clay of a crust on top, slick mud underneath lake bed. We dug about 14" inches and buried the Deadman. We were able to achieve a load of 2700lbs before our grip gave out, it didn't budge.

The second video on the kickstarter page is going up a soft sandy hill with rocky hard pack at the top. We dug down about 18" for that video, once it got set it didn't move during the entire pull.

Digging a hole in any terrain would not be our first option. If we could grab a large rock or a tree, that would be what we would go for first. But if we don't have those options, at least we could still bury it.
 

Norda

New member
When was the last time you excavated a yard of virgin earth by hand? I'm not talking about your yard that is fill or topsoil.

There's a reason the videos they posted are in sand...

I understand what you are trying to say about the difficulty of digging in hard packed virgin earth. But if it is that solid of a surface than low range and decent tires is all you should need to traverse across it. I've never had to dig myself out of hard solid soil be cause there is sufficient traction to not get stuck in the first place. So difficult digging is fairly irrelevant.


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Norwood_d

New member
Hi! I'm Daniel, one of the guys behind the Deadman. Just an interesting note: we tested the old spare tire trick side by side the Deadman. We buried a stock spare (about 29") and it held to 2,500lb before it popped out of the hole. (Yes, we trenched the line, etc.) There was no sustained capacity once the soil gave way. The Deadman, buried to the same depth, not only held about 2x the weight (4,900lb), it also provided a sustained capacity of over 3,900lb while the soil around the Deadman gave way. So we've learned that we can recommend burying the Deadman at about 24" - far shallower than a typical off road tire would require - as that depth gave us 2,600lb capacity and 2,100lb sustained. If the situation requires, the Deadman can certainly be buried a little deeper, too - 36" gave us 7,100lb (6,100 sustained) in soft shifting sand.
 

Norwood_d

New member
I understand what you are trying to say about the difficulty of digging in hard packed virgin earth. But if it is that solid of a surface than low range and decent tires is all you should need to traverse across it. I've never had to dig myself out of hard solid soil be cause there is sufficient traction to not get stuck in the first place. So difficult digging is fairly irrelevant.


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Hi Norda, thanks so much for backing! Where we live, we regularly encounter steep soft hill climbs where there's nothing but hardpack up top. On our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe5sBEjW7vdff9fhVCBUPQw) there's a video of us climbing a hill using the Deadman in about 18" of hardpack. Once it settled in, it didn't go anywhere.

While this scenario may not be common everywhere, consider that sometimes the trail may be a softer constitution than some of the nearby soil. We've learned that the more dense hate soil, the better the Deadman holds and thus, the shallower hole we need to dig. So looking around for a more firm soil has several advantages (and may also protect the trail from a new pothole!).

Daniel
 
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Wilbah

Adventurer
I understand what you are trying to say about the difficulty of digging in hard packed virgin earth. But if it is that solid of a surface than low range and decent tires is all you should need to traverse across it. I've never had to dig myself out of hard solid soil be cause there is sufficient traction to not get stuck in the first place. So difficult digging is fairly irrelevant.


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Norda I'm not trying to be a d**k when I say this but have seen lots of times in Maine where an underground spring or seep makes one part of the road a total mud bog while 20 feet away is brutal tough to dig rocky soil. Not saying this product is perfect (no product is) and I also have no ties to them, but I like the concept. As always Ymmv. :)
 

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