Ya call that a ground rod?

[AHI in AR]

I've come across my share of grounding rods (OK...electrodes for you perfectionists) that have been obviously cut short. When you can see the saw blade marks, or excessive rust on top of a newer rod, it's a dead giveaway. We do have generally rocky soil around here and it can be a bear to get a rod all the way down. Not surprisingly, altered rods are common.

But this takes the cake. I always grab the clamp to check whether the connections are tight. At least half aren't. When I checked this, there was a really excessive amount of play in the rod itself. So I did what we all would do and gave it a gentle tug. It came right out of the ground. The entire length was just a hair under 17"! The "buried" section was about 6"... and that was mostly through gravel, not even actual soil.

Quality work.

The only more egregious thing I've found in a grounding system was the brilliant lightning rod installer who deliberately clamped his conductor to the gas line...[:-dunce]

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[Jeremy]

Makes ya feel good about muni inspectors doesn't it?