Storm Damage - Wind and hail - very lucky with megatree

AussiePhil

Dedicated elf
Administrator
Joined
Jun 20, 2009
Messages
1,606
Location
Canberra, ACT, Australia
It has been easy over the years to say "i'm sheltered from the big winds and all is ok" and we have survived some big storms over the years.

My megatrees have always been sunk about 1M into the ground with a solid concrete in place tube for the pole that is broader at the base than at ground level
The poles are one piece 60mm x 3mm wall Aluminium 6.5M long that have the star attached above that.

On Monday 3rd 2022 the local region got hit by a massive storm with high winds, rain and hail.
The wind was blow directly up the street "left to right" in the photo below, this is from the south though most high wind stuff doesn't come directly up the street.
We have family members about 4k away that are still without power due to fallen trees and are likely to be 6 days without power.

Looking out my front door.... the large (300yr old) gum tree to the left lost a few big branches and was lucky not to go through a roof.
P1030046.jpg

The Megatree was not in a good shape, however it did remain standing.
The ring at the bottom is 25mm Gal steel pipe anchored star pickets at six point in the ground.
you can see the pickets on the wind side got lifted out of the ground but i'm convinced the three on the other side being pushed down helped things.
The main 60mm pipe bent above the control boxes.
One of the welds snapped on the star and the whole thing was distorted.
It did not fall on the cars.

P1030047.jpg

Pulled all the strings off and was left with a lovely bent pole
P1030054.jpg

The topper was fine and survived the storm but didn't fair so well when we took the pole out of the ground and let it fall the ground.

We did end up with a large new skylight in the back patio..... lucky none of us were under it when it collapsed from the weight of the hail and water.
P1030049.jpg

The Megatree was at least built with storms in mind and didn't break or fully fall.

Cheers
Phil
 

uncledan

Senior elf
Generous elf
Joined
Dec 27, 2014
Messages
545
Location
Buellton California
Man.. that was close to being on top of your car.. Glad it stayed up and nobody got hurt. No guy wires that I can see? Aluminum would the last thing I would think to use for a Mega Tree pole. Glad no major damage or injuries. Could've been much worse.
 

battle79

Full time elf
Joined
Dec 8, 2012
Messages
465
Location
Chirnside Park, Victoria, AU
And that's why my 8mtr mast is 100mm x 100mm, 4 or 5mm (can't remember) gal square tube. That thing will stand long after every strand has been ripped off it by a storm.

Glad the cars survived Phil. Hopefully not too many other lighting casualties.

Regards,
Rowan
 

WhiskeyTango

New elf
Joined
Jan 3, 2022
Messages
1
I‘m planning to build a tree this year and looking at options including researching pole sizing. A standard 6m flagpole is 80mm x 2mm aluminium and good for a 1.7m2 flag (note the flag Area is not sail area) so a 60x3 tube looks undersized without any guy wires. Is your pole socketed into the ground? Or is it put over a spigot in the ground?
 

Indigogyre

Journeyman Elf
Generous elf
Joined
Jun 26, 2021
Messages
420
Glad the only thing lost was the pole and there wasn't more damage done. I almost left the guy wires off my megatree but 2 days before I put it up a huge wind storm came through and knocked over a 30 year old willow in my yard. That was enough to make me rethink the plan and I put them in. Glad I did because we've had some follow up wind storms and my tree is fine.

Dean
 

Dreamin

Full time elf
Joined
Dec 28, 2016
Messages
382
Location
Sunshine Coast
Glad your ok, that's the main point. Storms are not fun.
With the mega tree I always lower mine in high winds (it's on a winch like LDL's design) and tie up the strands to the pole so hopefully it doesn't act like a sail. Your's looks fixed though. Maybe time for an upgrade. The winch makes life so much more easy putting it up.
 

AussiePhil

Dedicated elf
Administrator
Joined
Jun 20, 2009
Messages
1,606
Location
Canberra, ACT, Australia
I‘m planning to build a tree this year and looking at options including researching pole sizing. A standard 6m flagpole is 80mm x 2mm aluminium and good for a 1.7m2 flag (note the flag Area is not sail area) so a 60x3 tube looks undersized without any guy wires. Is your pole socketed into the ground? Or is it put over a spigot in the ground?
It's socketed, about 1M/ 3ft into the ground, it slides into a pvc pipe that is concreted at least 4 foot deep. the bend starts above the mount point for the controller boxes.
This tells me that the inground socketed section is fine.
Quite a few people have missed the point that each vertical is an individual guy wire itself, the design needs no further guys wires.

What it does need is that the ring mount points into the ground need to be concreted like the center socket. The failure point is the star pickets pulling up from the ground allowing the pole to be bent.

Cheers
Phil
 

AussiePhil

Dedicated elf
Administrator
Joined
Jun 20, 2009
Messages
1,606
Location
Canberra, ACT, Australia
Glad your ok, that's the main point. Storms are not fun.
With the mega tree I always lower mine in high winds (it's on a winch like LDL's design) and tie up the strands to the pole so hopefully it doesn't act like a sail. Your's looks fixed though. Maybe time for an upgrade. The winch makes life so much more easy putting it up.
Done a winch setup before and have moved fully away from it for a number of reasons, at least one being the sheer weight of the current string setups make winching it up impossible without using a powered winch.

Cheers
Phil
 
Top