I also have a crank up/tilt-over from EZ-Way Towers. It is the Model RBX-50
which extends to 52 feet (with a 10ft. galvanized mast) and supports a 40 sq
ft. wind load if guyed at 110 mph. ( I'm dubious about the rating but that's
what the claim was). Mine has the Wonder Post tiltover post BUT rather than
just postholed into the ground my post was imbedded to 13 feet and just
under 3 cu. yds of concrete poured, plus it is guyed. This past January I
also replaced my cable even though the original galvanized cable still
looked good -- and what had been 1/8" 7x7 bundled cable was increased to the
same 3/16" 7x19 in stainless steel. This increased the tensile strength
considerably to somewhere near 4400lbs. The replacement was cheap too! Cost
was a miniscule .21/ft so I could recable the entire tower with better than
original for about $35. I got my cable from http://versales.com/ which
specializes in industrial marine, desert specialty, mountain climb rigging
and other wire rope specialty products. Great bunch to work with. One thing
about the old EZ-Way towers was the brake mechanism it had was fairly
substantial. Mine uses a spring return on it so if you are lowering the
tower you must be pulling on the brake release lanyard or it will snap back
into place and stop the tower. When the winds blow here in Florida's Gulf
of Mexico coast (hurricanes, etc.) the tower comes down within 20 minutes
and when tilted over stands a mere 10' off the ground parallel. Oddly, the
brochure for this tower shows it capable of what was called a 'half-tilt'
mode but anyone who's ever cranked one over knows the incredible tension
that crank-over pulley and cable is under at that point, not to mention the
lever effect 25' of tower half tilted must have on the base fixture. I DO
NOT recommend this as even a remotely good idea.
Bill KC9CS
-- Original Message -----
From: "K6RB" <k6rb@baymoon.com>
To: <Towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2002 12:03 pm
Subject: Re: [Towertalk] CRANK UP TOWERS
> I have an old Tri-Ex tower (W-51) that was put up in August 1984 and on
> which I have changed the cables only once - a month ago! It survived about
> half a dozen storms of 80 mph peak winds, and the cable never failed. It
had
> a 10 foot galvanized mast and a KLM KT 34-XA on it until last August. It
now
> carries a 20 foot chromoloy mast and stacked Force 12 antennas. I replaced
> the original cables with new 3/16 , 7x19 cables and plan to replace them
> more frequently with the greater load the tower now carries. In the past I
> left it at full height unless there was a storm forecast or strong winds
> that were evident. Now, I keep it up when I know I'll be using the station
> frequently, but retract it when it will be unused for long periods.
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