Rotary Hammer for driving rebar?

First of all love the site and the videos.  First time posting but been watching/viewing for quite a while.

I’m looking at getting a SDS MAX rotary hammer to primarily drive rebar/ground rods into the ground.

would something like a DeWalt D25601k be able to handle this or would I need something with more impact energy or even a demo hammer?  

The ground is pretty rocky/hard around here.

Thanks in advance.

That may be a little undersized for driving rebar into rocky soil. I don’t think it has the weight behind it to do it efficiently.

Like Ricky mentioned its kind of soil dependent. You might be able to get away with a smaller one in sandy loam soils but hard clay you need a beast. You do have a 90 day no hassle return on Dewalt tools.

can someone explain this to me?

Why do you need such a big rotary hammer drill for clay/rocky ground, when we happily use smaller tools (and even cordless) to drill into concrete?

I would tackle this with my m18 fuel hammer drill 

Grounding rods are 8 feet long http://www.homedepot.com/p/ERITECH-1-2-in-x-8-ft-Copper-Ground-Rod-611380UPC/202195737

DR99 wrote:

Grounding rods are 8 feet long http://www.homedepot.com/p/ERITECH-1-2-in-x-8-ft-Copper-Ground-Rod-611380UPC/202195737

Some are longer depending on your jurisdiction. City of Houston requires 10′ long >8′ in the ground.

It’s a matter of efficiency mostly. You could use the old hose method and word the rod into the ground with a hammer little by little, but a power tools makes the job faster with less effort.

You can build a house with hammer, nails and a hand saw, but do you really want to?

I use a bosch 11316Eva and an sds Max ground rod attachment. Makes driving ground rods a breeze. I bought it to install some ground rods in a lab where swinging a hammer wasn’t an option. Since then it is just another great attachment to my demo hammer. Even if you hit roots or thin rock it will blast right through.

DR99 wrote:

Grounding rods are 8 feet long http://www.homedepot.com/p/ERITECH-1-2-in-x-8-ft-Copper-Ground-Rod-611380UPC/202195737

ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

well its a bit disappointing that a rotary hammer probably won’t handle it, as a rotary hammer is cheaper than a demo hammer and I’d probably have additional uses for a rotary hammer where the demo hammer would pretty much just be for driving rods.

I use a hilti awr3000 for any large amount of concrete

I use my bosch 11316 for most small concrete demo applications. Although it is impressive the power it has. Along with my ground rod attachment, i have a clay spade, a tamper attachment, a floor scraper attachment, and a bunch of chisels and point bits. Don’t know how I ever worked without it.

I have a hilti te16 for drilling small holes. I use my handheld coring drill or my drill press mounted coring rig for any holes larger the 1 1/8″

To answer your question. If I was to buy one, it would be the bosch demo hammer Rent a jack hammer when the projects is to big for the demo hammer. I/ my guys are hard on my bosch and 3yrs later, I have not had a single problem. I would buy another in a heartbeat.