As you can probably guess fro the title, I have dirt in the basket sleeves of some of the extra holes on my local couse in town. I've not had much luck trying to clean them out and thought I'd see what great ideas you all might have.

Obviously, not allowing it to happen is the best solution but I've got some ideas for the future once I get the cleaned out.

So you know...I cannot get a hose out there and I have no electrical outlets nearby. I'm hoping to rent or borrow a 1 3/4' augur/drill bit and try to drill the dirt out. Any other ideas?

Thanks in advance

-MAD MAX

This is more of a suggestion on how to keep alternate sleeves clean when not in use: I saw a course in Seattle WA that put small paint roller brushes in the sleeves to keep dirt and debris out. Seemed ingenious to me at the time.

Use a large size "screw type" drill bit...drill it in to the bottom and then pull it out.. do this a couple time and that should clean them out.

another alternative is water..but you would need to have a hose and water pressure to do this...turn the water on full blast...slowly force the hose into the sleeve and the discharing water will force the debris out of the hole.

We just had this exact problem,
We used a shop vac with a smaller hose duct taped on to the normal hose so it would fit in the sleeve. U just need somethin to loosen the dirt up like a piece of rebar, then vaccum it out...

As a course designer and a steel fabricator perhaps i can offer a solution once the sleeves are cleaned out...

i have fabricated a hot-dipped galvanized capped insert that slides into the existing sleeve. you can either just let the cap sit in the sleeve or if you're concerned that a troublemaker will remove the capped insert you can lock the insert to the sleeve thru a punched tab welded onto the insert that matches up with the locking tab on the sleeve. the capped inserts are about 4" long.....

here is a photo of the capped insert:

i'm too much of a technological moron to figure out how to attach a photo of the insert here on this post. if someone wants to tell me how to attach a .jpg file in a post i'll gladly post a photo...

dan doyle
warwck, ny

Post your photo on your website (or another like Yahoo) and link to its web address using the Image option.

Here's one solution.

go to McMaster.com search for

Expandable Tapered SBR Rubber Plugs

Just place one of these semiflexible plugs into your opening�when you tighten the wing nut, the sides expand to create a seal. They're made of polyisoprene and SBR (styrene butadiene rubber) with stainless steel hardware. Hardness is Shore A43. Temperature range is -80� to +180� F. Color is black.
Note: These plugs are not pressure rated.

Add a metal part to prevent these from being pushed down into the sleeve and you have a weathertight seal on your pole. Largest diameter is about 2.5 inches, so may be just smaller than is reasonable.