A Bizarre Idea ?

The Old Ruminator

Well-known member
Whilst going shopping today I was thinking about tractor tyres. I wondered if placed one upon another in a hole and back filled they would make a good entrance shaft. Has anyone tried this or can think of the pros and cons ?

 

PeteHall

Moderator
Supplied with free ladder  (y)

You'd probably want to bolt them together and also drill some drain holes so they don't all fill with water.

I've got no evidence to support it, but my gut feeling is that they would be strong enough...
 

tomferry

Well-known member
I like the sounds of this , the back roads around here are sadly full of them from fly tipping and would give them a good use ! we use them on are farm for various things and they take for ever to start perishing and weaken .

I would also support they could hold up of bolted together , I don?t have no proof but have rested Landrover engines on large tyres before and they didn?t crush , you could also insert polystyrene behind them for the anti crush protection ? Not sure if it would work on tyres but for my garage pit it worked very nice !
 

Speleofish

Active member
I was thinking of using them in my garden (probably backfilled with rammed soil) to make a surface above flood level for a summerhouse. Does anyone have any experience of this sort of thing? Would they be strong enough?
 

sinker

New member
PeteHall said:
Supplied with free ladder  (y)

You'd probably want to bolt them together and also drill some drain holes so they don't all fill with water.

I've got no evidence to support it, but my gut feeling is that they would be strong enough...

Yep, agree; brilliant idea! maybe run holes through them, lined up, and thread them all together with blue polyprop rope?

Nice one  :clap:

 

tomferry

Well-known member
Speleofish said:
I was thinking of using them in my garden (probably backfilled with rammed soil) to make a surface above flood level for a summerhouse. Does anyone have any experience of this sort of thing? Would they be strong enough?

To get a bit more of a understanding does your garden flood and your looking at making a raised base for a summer house ?

If so normally I would say insert rsj?s into the ground concerete them in standing upright to the desired height , once these have set bolt your wooden frame work to them , your main thing in this Desgin you need constant air flow even when it?s flooded to stop the rising moisture I would attach visqueen underneath the base of the summer house also before attaching it to the frame so it never rots out,  any holes from attaching seal them .

Remember use the 3,4,5 (y)
 

Speleofish

Active member
The bit of garden in question floods to around a metre deep (relatively fast-flowing) most years. If I was sensible, I'd leave it alone entirely. However, it also has the best evening sun and good views....
 

tomferry

Well-known member
With the rsj?s it would be possible to do it yes as long as you dig them in deep enough , your best bet would be to buy 2nd hand ones on eBay collect them yourself and dig each one in as far as possible doesn?t matter how long it takes the deeper the better .

The 3,4,5 is a setting out method to make sure your base will be perfect for the summer house .

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=345+method+of+setting+out&client=safari&source=hp&ei=rOObYLbsBo6UlwTw-YbQDQ&oq=&gs_lcp=ChFtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1ocBABGAAyAggpMgUIKRCgATICCCkyAggpMgIIKTILCCkQxwEQrwEQkwIyBAgpEAoyBQgpEKABMgIIKTIFCCkQoAEyAggpMgIIKTIECCkQDTICCCkyAggpMggIABDqAhCPATIICAAQ6gIQjwEyCAgAEOoCEI8BMggIABDqAhCPATIICAAQ6gIQjwEyCAgAEOoCEI8BMggIABDqAhCPATIICAAQ6gIQjwEyCAgAEOoCEI8BMggIABDqAhCPATIICAAQ6gIQjwEyCAgAEOoCEI8BMggIABDqAhCPATIICAAQ6gIQjwEyCAgAEOoCEI8BUABYAGDEEWgBcAB4AIABAIgBAJIBAJgBALABHg&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-hp
 

The Old Ruminator

Well-known member
I was thinking cost and weight.

Concrete pipes can be bought as seconds but tend to weigh a lot. I guess it depends on where you want to transport them. You would need a big machine to place them in a hole

Ecolite do oblong access shafts in plastic but that works out at ?30 per 150mm depth.

If not too narrow the "Twinwall" plastic pipes at 600mm and 6m long comes close to ?400.

We had free concrete pipes for Vurley at 1m wide but they were in the next field. For Balch I managed to get 2m of the "Twinwall" pipe for nothing by asking on a building site. It occurred to me on the way to Asda that tractor tyres are usually dumped though various sites via Google can give you alternative uses for them.

How Much Does A Tractor Tyre Weigh? Most rear tyres on a farm tractor will weigh between 200 to 400 pounds (90 to 181 kg).

 

tomferry

Well-known member
All the farms I have been on have barns full of tractor tyres it might be worth finding local farmers and asking them I am sure they will give you them , now days they pay to get rid of them they get recycled into play ground matting , farmers never like spending money as they are all skint I get told  :confused:

Best bet is to source a trailer so they can load them up onto it get a engine hoist on the trailer and of load them with that so their on their side ready to roll into their new home  (y)
 

Fred

Member
This was used at a dig in the Forest of Dean apparently see http://www.fodccag.org.uk/registry/sitedetails.php?id=173 ,  Kiln Piece Hole. The entry here states "A gated shaft lined with lorry tyres descends to a concrete reinforced section".

It's not somewhere I've been so don't know how many tyres were used, or if/how they were connected. Joe Duxbury is with the Gloucester and might be able to furnish some further info if he sees this.
 

TheBitterEnd

Well-known member
My hunch is that it would depend on how granular the back fill is. If evenly back filled with sand/gravel then they would probably work but if back filled with rocks I guess the are likely to collapse inwards over time.
 
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