Howdy, TowerTalkians --
As far as I know, there's no spec for greasing the legs of a crank-up
tower; I've never seen one anyway.
The legs come greased from the factory as it's put there to facilitate
sliding the tower sections back and forth during assembly. The tower's laying
horizontally and it's much easier to slide with some sort of lubricant. US
Tower
used to use a real sticky grease but some years ago they changed to wax -
it's slippery and not nearly as messy.
Whatever there is doesn't last very long and it wasn't intended as a
longterm leg lubricant. And even if there was something that needed to be done,
how would you apply it?!?
Here are the important points about crank-ups and PM.
1. Use a real cable lubricant on the cables - NOT grease! Cable lubricant
wicks into the cables and doesn't leave a sticky coating on the outside that
can catch particles and other crap from the air. Greasing the cables traps
moisture in the cable and does attract lots of gunk. (A good product is
PreLube6 -
recommended by wire rope manufacturers - and is available from
www.championradio.com.)
2. Grease the pillow blocks and thrust bearing if they have Zerk grease
fittings.
3. Exercise your cables periodically. Run the tower up and down once in a
while to work the cables.
4. Don't leave it parked at the same spot(s) all the time. If you do, the
cable will probably take a set where it goes over a pulley.
And don't worry if your cables are a couple of years old. US Tower says
to replace the cables every 3 years. It's called a 'weasel clause' folks. That
is, if something happens to your tower and you didn't follow their
admonishment they can weasel out of any responsibility or liability. There are
3 reasons
why you'd want to replace the cables:
1. If there is serious rust. Not surface rust but real degradation.
2. If the cable is damaged. Kinks or flat spots are the indicators here.
The flat spots can develop when the cables are always at the same spot where
there's a pulley or similar.
3. If there are excessive broken strands. The industry standard is
something like six broken strands.
If you don't have any of those conditions, YOU DON'T NEED TO REPLACE THE
CABLES! I've worked on dozens of crank-up towers over the years and have yet
to see one that really had to have the cables replaced.
So ends the lesson on crank-ups.
Oh, I almost forgot. If you're going to climb them when they're extended,
safety the legs/sections so they can't move down. A U-bolt around a leg where
the bottom of a section is works really well. Also putting some pipe or 2x4
thru the tower rungs works also.
Cheers,
Steve K7LXC
TOWER TECH -
Professional tower services for commercial and amateur
Cell: 206-890-4188
_______________________________________________
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.
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|