To hold Altitude Lounge to the ground we use pretty bomber ground anchors. The one thing to remember however is don’t think about what you can drive into the ground but rather what you can remove. We found these anchors and wished to secure them with 4 foot pieces of steel while leaving very little exposed stake.
I spent quite a few nights in bed trying to figure out how to remove the four foot stakes and after a week or two I came up with this:
Here are picture of the rebar puller I designed for our camp, Altitude Lounge. We pull many different lengths of rebar and concrete stakes. Some of them are smooth with only 1 inch extending above the ground. Take a look at the picts and I will try to describe how it works after.
You will need:
a piece of pipe
a couple of short pieces of heavy angle iron
A winch off a boat trailer (Harbor freight sells them cheap)
Someone that can weld
Overview
Base plate steel
Rebar adapter plate
Overall length
Main pipe
What you do is weld up the 3 pieces of steel as you see in the pictures. Then drill 3 holes in the rebar adapter plate equal to just slightly larger than the pieces of rebar or stakes you will be pulling. Then bolt the boat winch onto the main pipe.
To use the puller:
1) Slide the adapter plate onto the top of the rebar, you only need about 1/2 to grip it but more is better.
2) Take the hook from the boat winch and attach it to the middle hole of the plate unless it is being used, then choose one of the others
3) Line up the main pulling tube so the base plate is against the rebar and the main tube is parallel to the rebar in the ground. Make sure it is parallel as pulling off angle will bend your rebar
4) Crank handle and rebar should gently pull out.
5) If it is a very stubborn piece have one person maintain angle while one person cranks.
6) If it it really tight you can real a little webbing onto the reel and gently pry with the bar in short motions.
7 It should take about 10-20 seconds per 3-4 foot piece and your rebar should be perfectly straight.
8) If pulling the super large circus tent stakes, girth hitch webbing onto the main shaft and use the same process.