On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 7:00 PM, Allan Duncan <amd2345@fastmail.com.au> wrote:
An engineering problem to exercise the intellect:

I have a water pump powered by an air cooled diesel, all mounted in a
frame which in turn sits on two skids parallel to the crankshaft.  Air
cooled diesels are noisy and leap up and down, a lot, and the pump likes
to wander around.


Air or water cooled the lower RPM of a stationary diesel is a problem in both cases
 
I wish to make an earthen pad to sit this on, but I would prefer not to
tether it to stakes with bungee cords, as keeping a stake in the ground
without the use of a concrete pad is iffy.

Not really, we secured a 1920's single cylinder water cooled (convection with a header tank no water pump for cooling) donkey engine weighing 180+ kgs with stakes and running at 200 RPM and only firing every second revolution it was pretty thumpy.

You need to angle the stakes at 45 degrees from the corners both on the horizontal and vertical planes.

So from the top your stakes at the corners would run under the corners all pointing to the middle and then from the side they also slope down under the engine

TOP  VIEW
\          /
 \        /
  \      /
  /      \
 /        \
/          \

SIDE VIEW
\                /
 \              /
  \            /  
   \          /

Dont use bungee strap but something less elasric like nylon ratchet tie straps, ideally the anchor points on the frame are higher then the top of the stakes thereby pulling the frame and engine/pump down to the ground.
We used chains and 4 inch pipe for the donkey but the principle is the same, just scale hardware to suit your needs 

So, what profile should this pad have, bath tub or mound?

I think mound is the likely answer, but before I move the dirt I thought
I'd throw it open for debate whilst I try searching on line for it.
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Mark "Pockets" Clohesy
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