I agree with Steve K7LXC. Sounds like its caught. The cables barely clear
the metal tower at times and either its caught or one of the pulleys is off
the track. I am on my third winch for my 71 footer. The first the drum
locked up and would not turn, the second locked up in the gears inside the
drum (both Fulton's 2500). The third came from US Tower and its much
heavier that the Fulton's. The drum is much larger in diameter so it comes
down and goes up faster.
Carefully check the tower and If you get a name of a local tower person use
him as crank ups are dangerous and not climbable. If it is the drum you
need the experts help to use a come along or similar to hold the tower while
you change the winch. With the TX series at least you only have the bottom
wire rope to deal with (each section of wire rope is separate). I use heavy
steel pins to hold the upper sections in place to do repairs and I have
replaced wire rope in an emergency twice with one come along lost.
73 Dave K4JRB
> > I went outside Wednesday evening to crank down my new
> > U.S. Tower 55 ft. tower because of the high winds. It
> > wouldn't crank down or up. Not an inch. I had
> > previously lowered and raised it on several occasions
> > without incident.
>
> Does the motor turn? Can you turn the big belt-driven pulley by hand?
> Will it turn by hand if you take the the belt off?
>
> > No motor drive here. Just the standard manual winch.
>
> Okay - so no positive pull-down. Your tower is bound up somewhere. The
> prognosis for getting it lowered is problematic and dangerous. The only
thing I
> can recommend is to get a boomtruck in there and tie some ropes to the top
so
> you can pull them to try to get the tower lowered. Sounds like it might be
> stuck there permanently.
>
> Cheers,
> Steve K7LXC
> TOWER TECH -
> Professional tower services for commercial and amateur
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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