Hey Ray, Multi-House Question

[TheSmiths]

I ran across a post of yours from 2014 showing two Watersedge houses mounted to a dual hub on a single pole. I recently purchased a similar aluminum hub (6005T5 gauge 1/8" thick aluminum) and am trying to use it for two modified Trio M12Ks. Since I'm already out the money for this rack and I like to tinker anyway I have a few questions...

• Did you add the diagonal bracing to yours or did it come that way?

• Have you had any problems with it such as corrosion pitting on the underside of the houses where they touch the wood, metal fatigue on any of the pieces, bending from the weight of the houses, etc.?

• Have you made any further adjustments since 2014?

• Are you still using a rope & pulley?



I've been debating between a complete rebuild (just using the carriage) or reinforcing what was provided. I'm leaning towards reinforcing by:

• running an aluminum brace diagonally from the angle to the carriage (both left & right sides) and attaching with stainless steel bolts

• bridging the tops of the two pieces of angle (the area where you used wood) using either a wide piece of aluminum running parallel across the top or several aluminum strips running perpendicular (again attached with stainless steel bolts).



I haven't gotten as far as to how to mount the houses to the apparatus yet.



Thoughts are appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Note: bolts have not been tightened & lift panel is temporarily at bottom for ease of storage.

[~Ray~Gingerich]

The house pictured is model MHPV, no longer sold but it looks simular to your model. It came with the diagonal bracing and 4 gourd arms.Yes, I would install bracing on yours from your hub to the angle iron supports, it looks like you can install a block of wood between the angle arms just like I did. There's no problem with corrosion. The blocks are permanently fastened to bottom of house, then the block and house assembly is fastened to rack supports with 2" deck screws driven into the blocks at an angle. In the fall all I have to do is undo the deck screws and lift it off to store for the winter. The horizontals you see are 3/8" dia electric fence posts , the original porch rails are removed. The only problem, the houses are tall, I had to bend the perch rods a little to make it fit. If you're using the MK12 that should not be a problem. I have 2 more racks with MK12 trios installed using the wood blocks. One is installed on a single angle iron arm using wood blocks in a different way. The other bracing you see at the top are bamboo stakes to put a little distance between the owl guards and the house. The rope and pulley system works great, I can raise and lower the rack fast and easy, it's no problem to hold the weight due to the 4 part pulley system.
Ray

[TheSmiths]

Thank you for the info. We don't have storage space so our houses and gourds remain outside during the winter. I might look into a deck box for our gourds. I don't know why I'm just thinking of that.

Does the single bolt that holds the house to the wood ever work itself loose during bad storms?

[~Ray~Gingerich]

Thank you for the info. We don't have storage space so our houses and gourds remain outside during the winter. I might look into a deck box for our gourds. I don't know why I'm just thinking of that.

Does the single bolt that holds the house to the wood ever work itself loose during bad storms?

Not sure what you mean by the single bolt? I think maybe what you are seeing is actually the hole I drilled thru the wood to fit the little section of pipe stub on the original house mount. I drilled 2 small holes in the pipe stub and secured to the block with deck screws, also 2 screws into the floor lip at the the end of the block. We get some strong storms and its held up good so far.