We Were Told To NEVER Do This | Burying A Shipping Container 

Thanks for watching! What color do you think we should paint the container?

Might consider drilling and tapping some grease zerks into your hinges so they don't rust and freeze up over winter super cool setup 👍🙂

The conex needs to be off the ground (railroad ties) and your perf pipe needed to be bedded in Gravel with landscape fabric covering it with more Gravel on top. A retaining wall for the hillside is a must as well. Shipping containers have all their strength at the corners. The skin isn't structural

If you are going to adjust your solar panels more than just "summer" and "winter", you could paint marks on your cable for every 10 degrees. That way if you want to adjust your angle you can just look up the ideal angle and move panels accordingly. It also allows 1 person to adjust array, you can just remove the bolts turn the winch to proper position and reinsert the bolts.

The main reason the holes go down is because water will gather at the bottom of the pipe first. If you installed with the holes up then the ditch would need to flood to the top of the pipe before the water would drain. Water chooses the path of least resistance so with the holes down the water will find them easier and can be managed away from the container faster. Something to consider, if it's not too late, is to coat the outside with some sort of undercoating, preferably the spray kind. You won't necessarily need truck bed spray liner but it would last far longer than regular undercoating. The longer you can keep the steel from rusting the longer you container will remain under ground...

With the weight hanging from one side of the container, my biggest concern would be a strong wind lifting up and sideways on the whole array and container and tipping it over toward the array. It seems that pre-measured posts to connect the bottom of the beams to cemented in ground mounts (one set of posts and ground mounts for each angle) would provide a support far enough outboard to absorb that rotational moment. I know the container is very heavy, and will be even heavier with the batteries in it, but that is one huge sail you are mounting on it. Alternately, you could run cables from the top corners of the container uphill to steel posts drilled and epoxied into the exposed tops of a couple boulders to keep the container from being able to tip, or do both to stabilize both the container and the sail.

We have completely buried them at our Camp Sites but we first covered the whole container with Tar to seal up any unseen cracks they may let moisture in. One has been in the ground since 1971 and still works fine.

Camo out the container and panel supports in a pattern that will match the surrounding forrest. Great job on the build. Drill the pivots the install grease fittings for long term ease of movement. 1/4-28 tap for threads. Use your jack hammer to install the pins in the ground.

Great job guys! I would be very careful moving that high pressure gas bottle around without the cap installed. Especially laying on its side. If it had rolled out of the cart and broken the valve off, you would be surprised at how far the missile could travel.

Throughout all the episodes I was always impressed by the deep consideration and planning. I understand the time crunch but when you started this project I felt you started cutting too many corners. My biggest concern is that there is no foundation for the container. Yes, batteries and everything in the container will add weight but it would have been prudent to place the container on solid corner foundations and weld the container to the foundation. You can still drill some holes and pour concrete in the front to bury steel beams vertically that will support the container. Otherwise when you will have high winds and solar panel sails you will have the container moving. I like the hinged idea but please consider reinforcement of the wall, maybe from the inside where the hinges line up. One more corner cutting I saw when you welded the HF winch to the wall. These container walls are not that sturdy having all the forces on this one point of contact. You pinned the extending struts on the top but still this wrench will need also reinforcement from inside. Also the extending struts will need reinforcement on the wall. Containers leak from the bottom up when you bury them. Luckily you "did not bury" them but it would have been better to have drain channels underneath towards the downhill side. Sorry for this, I usually refrain from commenting as its always easy from the comfort of the home office to see details. But I felt compelled to do this as you always impressed me with your attention to the level of detail. I just build a 45 ft car port of a container and can attest that these are not that sturdy to bending forces. Keep up the good work! I love your channel and your 'off grid way of life'. Cant wait for the dozer work.

Usually it’s considered dangerous to bury shipping containers because they aren’t built to handle side loads and are really only designed to handle loads along the rim of their ceilings and on their floors. It’s very possible that after some time the walls cave in because of the weight of the dirt pushing into the side. Especially with extra weight like water/snow/frost.

That comment about welding galvanized is 100% correct. Fumes are extremely toxic!

If you want your french drain not to plug up, you gotta put some landscape fabric around it to keep mud from infiltrating. Or you can clean out the pipe periodically, which should be easy in your circumstance with the exposed straight ends. Also, rust is more complicated than you might expect. Things rust when exposed to both water and air, and how fast they rust isn't something you can easily guess just by looking. Not all water is the same, and some kinds of it lead to more rust than others.

Power supply taking shape nicely! Might want to stack large rock beside the container's downhill side do that the fill on the uphill side doesn't push it sideways. Get more telescoping square tubing on the 4 corners of the array panel so it's much more rigid in the storms. You'll want that for the winter snow loading also. I know that you've got more welding and other work to do for this project, but great so far!

Loved the shot of Boone and Bailey sleeping in the back of the car. 🥰 My understanding of weathering steel (COR-TEN) is that it requires the alternating wet/dry cycle to form the resistant barrier. Burying it eliminates the cycle and it ends up rusting "normally." I'd have used a thicker mastic-type coating rather than the paint and done something to protect the coating before backfilling to reduce scratches from penetrating the coating. Another thought would have been to put stone and drainage under the container to help with things drying out.

great video thank you! the holes face down on drain pipe for at least two reasons. one is the dirt is less likely to get inside the pipe with the holes down. facing the holes down also allows the water to enter the pipe at a lower level than it would if the holes were facing up. the drain pipe is not supposed to catch water as it comes down it's supposed to allow water to flow out as the water table rises up from Below.

Absolutely amazing woman. I can only wish my wife was as supportive and helpful.

I would paint the container to match your building. Have you considered an anchor system? I would put some big rocks in the front after you paint the container.

You have a good woman that can help you and knows what's she's doing that's good that it doesn't all fall on you good job guys

Watching you guys is great! Riley your mind is the part I enjoy and Together you two compliment each other so much. Love your can do positive energy. All I wish is there were more videos 😂I know it’s too time consuming. Enjoy!

I think you should have poured concrete footing under the container so when the ground gets wet there will be no container shift.

I love that you guys are prepared to discover a mistake years from now. I have a bunch of firsts on my off grid property that you just can’t find in RU-vid University. Like you I figure you give your best thought and effort and hope it works. I have designed tilting panels raised off the roof of our barn to cater from snow depth. We had the barn structure engineered to withstand massive forces from snow, panel framing weight, lateral and updraft wind lift from the panels. This allowed us to have the panels out of main view like you guys have. Most say it wont work but the engineers signed it off so we are giving it a go! My water collection design was a first for the company that installed it so we’ll be watching that and expect some modifications also. Many have said I should be YouTubing my project but I know the effort that takes and what I’m most impressed about you guys is the effort you put in to document every project. I just could not find the time of effort to so that! Very impressive!

It was all great. Love it! The only thing is saw that was concerning was the thickness of your drainage pipe. Too thin of a schedule pipe for the load without a bedding for protection. Im confident it crushed with the first rock. The good news is with the grades in the area, standing water wont be a concern. Ive worked dirt for 50+ yrs.

I think it should be a camp of all the surrouding colors.

when drilling with a hole saw in metal, cut a piece of sponge and insert inside the saw. put oil in the sponge to lubricate and help cool the saw. Great vids!!

The man hammers like lightning, never strikes twice in the same place..... lol I resemble this remark!

Brilliant flexible/pivoting solar array framing system, though I'd be concerned about your solar array (once the panels are installed) turning into a sail in strong winds. Also, your container is probably at some point going to take some side damage from a lateral load, most likely from water, I would imagine (think rapid snow melt or really heavy rains). Your drain may not be able to keep up. The reason you shouldn't bury shipping containers is they're not designed to take lateral loads, they're designed to take vertical loads, but I'm sure you know this already. If burying one, you should really reinforce the interior walls with some framing

Thanks :) I knew a guy hid a container in a cave, he did it at night and covered the front with rocks. Made a nice home and I don't think he ever got discovered

For French drains the holes in the perf pipe go up. For septics the holes go down. You should also use geotec fiber on top

I know a guy who has 37 buried , we painted them with a latex paint , pooured 4" of concrete on sides and inches under , , we placed railroad tracks every 2' on top and poured 2" of concrete then covered with 2" of sand

The more we watched, the more we got scared for you. One again, you didn't remove any millscale from your gussets or other metal. (Look up millscale to see why it is very important and what it is.) Basically your welds are can be bad and weak, you cannot get good peniteation with unckean surfaces and millscale plus contamination. Clean surfaces are needed for strong elds and good metal fusion. Which makes a good, safe, and strong weld possible. Maybe watch some 'How to Weld and Clean Metal Videos' by real welders? It may look okay, but your smartest move is grinding off all your dirty or contaminated welds, then recleaning the metal and rewelding it the correct way. You save no time skipping metal prep, if your welds are not strong, clean, and actually have fusion. It also looks like you spot-welded over and over trying to make it look like a TIG weld? If? That is the case, that is also not a strong penitrating weld, because thicker metals will not get hot enough. On thin sheet metal it is used to prevent too much heat from warping the light guage metal panels. But on thick metal it is pointless. You want the heat to fully melt both sudes of the weld metal to create good fusion and a quality weld that will hold. A way to test your existing welds, is try to pull some apart, or cut a small section to see if penetration was achieved. Safety Tip: moving a compressed gas cylinder without the protective cap in a sketchy plastic trailer on uneven grade down hill, YIKES! Lucky that didn't fall, break the valves off, and then shoot like a torpedo right through your wife or you. Yes they really can do that. I wish I had a possitive comment, but you are dangerous and ill trained to be doing things like welding heavy metal objects anywhere. Please take the time to educate yourself on proper welding and metal preparation, the use, storage and transportation safely of explosive gasses. I will hope everyone's advise and suggestions are taken into account for your sakes. Good luck.

I liked how you test at the snow load Super cool idea

Now you need a gigantic broom / windshield wiper mechanism to sweep the snow off of it in the winter time . Super cool and resourceful set up you guys are building keep up the good work 😎

Thank you again. You should make it so you can add some tie out cables to help stabilize it when it gets windy. Have another great day.

You have plenty of input and suggestions regarding your work, I don't think you need any more. Without a doubt, one of my favorite episodes. Riley's brilliant engineering mind and Courtney's continued support, welding skills, excavator skills, editing skills and... You guys are fire!

Owsome. Super idea for swinging the panels. Cheers. 🍺&🍷

Spray paint marks on your cables and supports for summer (yellow) and winter(blue) to reduce the guesswork. You could take it a step further and adjust it 30/31 days. You would need six colors or marks to mark the progressions between summer and winter solstices. If it gets too top-heavy, use the hole saw and cut 3" disks out of the top, spacing the holes out like an aircraft spar. Then add the disks to the bottom. Each 3" disk should be 3/4 to 1 lb.

Your enthusiasm for projects is a big part of your success. Great progress.

I hope you guys are aware that welding galvanized steel releases some REALLY dangerous fumes. A little late for the episode but something to remember next time

Thanks for sharing another interesting project. Great creative design and excellent fabrication skills. Regarding burring shipping containers. I remember seeing a video on a community that created tornado shelters doing this. They lined up the containers with the doors facing each other, just far enough apart to allow the doors to open. Then they covered the sides and back with dirt and grass to help hold the dirt in place. Voila quick and solid protection. I believe that was Greenburg Kansas' FEMA trailer park after the devastating F5 tornado that scoured much off the own out of existence. I know you guys are pretty good with safety, but I see Riley loves his hiking style boots. He should seriously consider getting some safety shoes. They are now offered in similar style boots so they are much more comfortable than boots of the past. Just dropping a descent sized wrench can crush a toe. It's worth the $100 to $150. They are also generally electrically insulated and fire resistant. The first feature probably saved my life when I turned the breaker off in the house after I moved in and needed to fix a socket. When re-stripping a wire I got a serious tingle. Turned out some idiot had connected this circuit in a loop to 2 circuit breakers. I had manually traced the wire from the breaker so I was certain the correct breaker was off. After that I also got in inductive power indicator. Hold it near the holes in the outlet of electrical wire and it will beep if it's hot. Cheap and even easier than using a multi meter. Thanks again for the great videos and I look forward to seeing your solar system progress

I think the biggest problem that you would have when you bury a container is if you put too much load on the top of your container. We had a 40 footer at work for a field office and one of the job site material handlers used a fork lift to set a pallet loaded with a full reel of heavy electrical cable on the roof. It was easily over 1000 lbs and the roof caved in about 12 inches. When the pallet was lifted back off, the roof partially rebounded, but was still deformed.

Off grid is awesome. Love you guys.

How will the solar array work with 5’ of snow on the ground? Love your videos!! Jim

I have that same welder, (multimatic 220 multi-process) it’s amazing being versatile. Welding tip get Lincoln “inner-shield” flux core wire then no need to tow gas bottle around, only down fall is spool size is either 5lb or 60lb spools unless you can find the 20-30 lb spools to fit in your machine. My wife and I love the show, keep up the great content!

This is a great idea, but I really would anchor the container more. Drill down through each corner into the bedrock and anchor with concrete and anchor bolts. Otherwise fantastic!

Congrats Guy's on building ur solar panels support. paint it green.

Great progress! I was a little concerned to see the last few seconds of the video where you are hauling the gas cylinder in the trailer with out the cylinder cap on. If it slipped out the trailer, the valve could get knocked off followed by a dangerous accident.

Big sail, and North Idaho occasionally gets BIG WIND….. So, MANY bracings, and get those heavy batteries inside for ballast!

awesome! I think I would drill some pins into the ground at the bottom in case there is erosion or an evil spirit.

Hi I am a South African and have enjoyed your channel my God bless you your wife and child

Love Your videos!!! Concerned about those freak wind storms that once in a while blow through.

Miller is a great little machine. Good choice. I’m impressed with y’all’s ambitions and team work. A man and a woman can do anything as a team. My wife has proven this to me many times. She is awesome. Good luck to you both.

Need to build a cart trailer to hold all your welding gear and materials needed for projects and keep that tank upright. That will make all future projects so much easier since everything will be together. You can back it in the shop when not using it outside. If you are only moving the solar panel rack twice a year, might consider some rachet straps for extra support for the wind that will try and move the whole panel system. I think 2 on top and 2 on bottom should do the trick. Cheap and easy too.

so i just wanted to thank you , you two have given me hours of distraction and fun as im lying down for hours and hours everyday. 2 years ago i was just like you going and moving all the time then i injured my back lifting granite countertops, as we cut them from the slab. 2 failed surgeries later and about all i can do is watch you do fun stuff, i love it!!!!!

I think the problems with burying shipping containers are more when they completely under ground, not just used as a retaining wall like yours. Ive seen a few of them crushed like a tin can when put underground without adequate bracing.

Great video Riley and Courtney

Paint it green camouflaged so blends in

French drains should be wrapped in cloth to keep them clear of dirt. Some also use about a foot diameter of clean gravel around the pipes which is Also wrapped in ground cloth. So first the cloth lines the trench then a. Couple of inches of washed gravel

Outstanding job!!!! I am SOOO Jelise of you.

Ralston Oklahoma has a single school building that held elementary thru highschool. The school at the time only had middle school attending it but the state is know for tornados and the kids didn't have a good Storm shelter. So we buried a conex container under ground. After closing off any openings that could allow water in. Then we installed under ground electric, attached some vent pipes with fans along with heat and Air . Along with a short wave am/fm radio . It's been 70% buried for over 10 years and no issues with rust or water entry.

Just a little techy idea. I have a 12 vdc reversible ATV style winch I use to raise and lower my ham radio tower and it has a remote fob. It might even reach from your house and you could adjust the panel angle remotely for max output

Studied this decades ago. Corrosion underground is much higher than on surface or in water. The soil conducts electricity continually through any buried conductive material. Your best bet would be to weld a cable connected to some zinc anodes to act as sacrifice. This they do on ships. Still, if you bury fully, you're fighting an uphill battle. The city of Richmond had one of the first electrical streetcar systems in the world back in 18 something or other. They grounded the streetcars to the cast iron sewer system. Ate up the whole sewer system in like 5 years. Had to replace the whole thing. Of course theirs was a active system, yours is passive, i just thought it was an interesting point to the 'what could go wrong' mentality.

There's a guy here in CA that has been living in two buried sea cans for about 35 years.... Key is they are totally buried with a concrete slab poured over the top. I would say that 1/2 burying one side is just fine.

I would paint it metallic silver to reflect the light for the solar panels to get the maximum output

Ice, snow and expanding the fill. I live in the sub-tropics. I see how mild weather pushes rock apart into sheets and chunks in my locale. The V shape of the backfill is like a wedge. A simple machine. How hard is the winter freeze-thaw going to push the container away from the hill?

Thanks again for sharing your lives with us and letting us in on your adventures. No, not sketchy at all...😁

Look at snow roof silicone roof sealer. Your at a place where a ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Stuff is great

Holes up to allow water to enter and solid side down to carry water away.

Wow! What an awesome project!

Awesome solution. Covers the roof, always under tension so no springs needed for adjusting, and uses off the shelf standard hardware making it more affordable. Seeing as the back of the solar panels collect light the color should have highest reflective quality to reflect sunlight, so a very light color like white or silver. From an aesthetics perspective green or brown, from an energy efficiency perspective white.

We have a container cut 8ft. Off made a storm cellar out of it gug down couple feet covered it with bout 8 feet of dirt been that way for 13 years never had any problems. Thanks for sharing great video have fun

Love the Ecoflow battery thingy and wow enough juice to run the AC for 8 hours, yes please I'll have on of them. Loving your clips too.

Paint the remainder white to help reflect the sun causing less interior heat.

You could install an actuator and light level tracking so it stays at the optimal angle throughout the day / season. Simple and pretty cheap to do.

I do appreciate the shared work effort. You give DIY a whole new definition. Well Done.

Hole saw tip as soon as your saw touchs your work, you have the circle scribed. Take and drill and drill two holes the width of the kerf about 180 degrees apart threw the steel. This relieves the chips alot faster with less effort.

Well, You made that look easy!!

Something you could do to make a huge difference in the temperature inside of the container is to put about a 4-inch layer of dirt on top to help insulate using 2x6s to make a border on top.

I used a simple water level to get my solar array grid laid out.. With the top line of posts level, the bottom line of posts level, and a fixed distance between rows, it all came out perfectly planar. My water level cost me under $5. It's a bit surprising, but adjusting the angle four times per year is just barely better than adjusting it twice per year. When to adjust it you ask? Vernal and autumnal equinoxes. AKA 3/22 and 9/22. Or on the 21st. It's a leap year thing. Of course, yours is so easy to adjust you could add a simple shadow indicator and adjust that winch every day at noon. Do you ever get wind coming down the slope? If so, I would dig some holes a few yards downslope from the container corners, pour in some concrete footings with a steel piece sticking out the top. Then weld a steel beam from both end corners to the steel pieces on the footings. This would make it MUCH more resistant to flipping over in wind or slipping away from the buried edge.

I've been off grid for 3 years, what I've found is even with the panels optimised for winter Sun (UK 🇬🇧) we have excess power in the summer, it's feast or famine.

Great video and good call on the holes down!! We did a french drain along our steel building and we initially put them UP! Had to dig them up and turn them over.

This is the best solar setup I have ever seen. Great Job.

its new experience u guys trying something I'm learning too by watching, I only wish u had done that grey rust paint thingy before the backfill

As far as the drain goes..... The holes go down for the water to drain from the pipe. It also needs holes in the top to allow water to enter the pipe.

I'm just jealous of your welding skills, Courtney!

The winch was very clever. Good job you guys.

Sgm retire have used many conexs for storage. Remember the hold heart and need ventilation. Also the steel holds the cold. Neither are good for batteries. Barring the conex may help. Insulation and ventilation may help.

Amazing you’re so lucky to have each same mind set

Ambition Strikes: This will provide way more power than we need. Also Ambition Strikes: we must do this really complicated thing to make sure we maximize the sun angle. ✅

A few years ago I worked for a business that sold food storage and preparedness products, (2000). We sold product to a girls ranch, they had several containers buried. But, they had them with the back into the hill, also the terrain was very rocky and clay so it couldn’t move because of saturation. So good luck!

I have been binging on your channel. Great video! I have had good luck driving pins in rocky soil using a Bosch electric jack hammer. I assume someone makes this tool, but I couldn't find one at the time I needed it, so I made it. One end fits the chuck of the jack hammer, the other goes over the end of the pin. I have driven Nmbr 8 rebar (1" diameter) using this method. It won't go through a really big rock, but it will pound through smaller rock like you placed for your base. Be well & Best regards!

Use the backside of your excavator bucket to drive the stakes into the ground.

I probably missed a lot of videos of why you had to bury a container, for solar storage. I am curious why you had to bury that container, and I applaud you for putting in the drains! Most people would not think ahead about drainage, you DID!

That worked out great !!! Nice work

Very nice! Using the container box and it’s structural points on the outside to mount the solar array was thinking outside the box. Well done!

"Little by little, piece by piece"......until I am complete! Love it!!! And with your continuing projects, you are celebrating Christmas year round!!! And I'm sold on ecoflow products now.

Really, really, really big project..... smiles 😊☺️☺️☺️

Drilling holes for RE bars will stop corntainer moving over time. Rock drilled out is best way, good luck :-)

saw a vid where they flip the container up side down because the floor could hold weight without modification if you fully bury it.. the way you hinge the center of your array is exactly how i designed mine. happy to see it actually works :) now am thinking of adding a motor to adjust the angle. easier to get snow off if you can increase the angle temporarily and let gravity do most of the work.

If you choose a matching house color, that would be a good choice! Ron PTL USA