Wheel pole hole question

[Kveldbjorn]

Greetings,
I'm building a yurt from scratch, and have gotten so far as to have the wheel put together.

My questions, seeing as how "The complete yurt handbook" isn't as complete as it could be:
1. how deep do the holes for the roof poles need to be?
2. is 1inch diam sufficient, or would 1.5" be stronger/better?



I've used 2 layers of 45mm thick timber with 60mm width of the ring. Using 45x45mm for roof pole.

Thanks in advance for all advice.

[Bob Rowlands]

Do you live in a high wind area? A thicker ring is stronger. It will have more contact surface for the rafters to bear against. That contact surface resists the twisting force that occurs in extremely high winds, and can stop a roof inversion in really nasty conditions. I'd opt for 1.5" over 1" for those two reasons.

Additionally I'd consider making the tenon on the roof poles long enough to emerge through the ring holes a minimum of a couple inches. Over building that roof is gonna put a smile on your face when a real storm blows through, believe me.

Off topic, but solidly rope your yurt cover to the ground or platform. I lost an unanchored yurt I built from scratch in high winds. That'll never happen again.