Shear Vane

Our first generation shear vane, driven by and
torqued through the Wildcat hammer and rods has been a success. We sold several of them to those Wildcat users who saw that it was advantageous to directly measure soil shear strength of certain softer soils. These users have reported back on the successes and difficulties of their Wildcat shear vane testing.

From their experiences and our own testing we have now improved our original shear vane design and construction. This second generation shear vane is made from a single piece of steel, precisely machined to a symmetrical design so that a larger, less disturbed area of soil is sheared. The second generation shear vane now shears soil so that 110 times the torque wrench reading is the soils' calculated shear strength in psf. Although you can shear vane test soils of up to 8256 psf ultimate shear strength before reaching the limit of your 75 foot pound capacity torque wrench, high strength soils overpredict strength by shear vane testing.

Since we now have two different rod sets, the "original joint rods" and the "new joint rods", you must order the correct shear vane to fit onto your rods. If you use the original joint rods, the shear vane has a catalog number of P310/01J, and if you have the new joint rods, the shear vane has the catalog number P310/01JN. Both shear vanes have the same $215.00 price. We now sell vane and holder as one combined piece with catalog number P310/01J or P310/01JN.

The torque wrench is priced at $80.00. Our logging software, P102/02B, priced at $48.00, shows N-values and cohesive consistencies from the shear vane driving record. It also records shear torque and soil shear strength at tested elevations.

We believe that your purchase and use of the new shear vane and the torque wrench equipment will allow you to better measure the shear strengths of soft and medium soils. An investment of $343 for this equipment seems worthwhile, particularly because some saturated soils give misleadingly high strength data from dynamic cone penetration alone.