The comment about not raising and lowering too often hits me. I had always
thought that the crank-uo (and tiltover) tower was such so that it could be
done at will. I even read that one person cranked up at dusk and down when
finished!
To me why spend all that extra money and be not able to use the feature?
Chris opr Ve7HCB
At 12:38 PM 2001-11-22 -0500, K2we@aol.com wrote:
>Greetings,
>
> Been watching the comments on motorizing crank-up towers. I have a
> Tri-ex
>LM470D with electric motor and remote control. While I have installed a CCTV
>camera to which the antenna's and top 30' of tower, I have NEVER raised or
>lowered the tower without standing near the base and carefully watching the
>operation. I have had friends who always used the remote control and have
>snagged coax, rotor cables and even pulled the tower down and damaged it! The
>power of the electric motor coupled with all the pulleys is tremendous... It
>can bend your tower like a pretzel in a few moments. The forces on the pull
>down cables are very high.
>
>If you do install a motor to raise & lower your tower, Always watch the
>operation from a safe distance and be able to stop the operation at a moments
>notice.
>
>My LM-470D has been up for over 25 years. The secret is to limit the amount
>of raising & lowering. It puts tremendous force on the cables. I usually keep
>mine at around 65' which keeps about 5' overlapping in the top of the next
>section. I was told by a PE that for every foot you lower the tower into the
>next section, the load in SQ feet increases by 2 SQ feet. So if your tower is
>rated 15 SQ feet @ 70 Mph, keeping it at 65' will increase that to 25 SQ feet
>@ 70 Mph. The 5 feet will most likely not make any difference.
>
>When I leave on vacation or for any extended period, I usually drop the tower
>to 50' With about 9' in the top of each lower section, I'm very secure the
>tower will stand up the strongest winds we will get.
>
>Good Luck but be very careful.....
>
>73 Steve/K2WE
>
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>
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List Sponsored by AN Wireless: AN Wireless handles Rohn tower systems,
Trylon Titan towers, coax, hardline and more. Also check out our self
supporting towers up to 100 feet for under $1500!! http://www.anwireless.com
-----
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/towertalk
Submissions: towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests: towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
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