I paid three grand for the LM470 crank up, tilt over with a raising
fixture, BUT I had a chance to inspect it on site. Whether the price was
high or low, at 1.5 miles and a willing contractor to remove and haul it
in his spare time was worth a good thousand dollars, or more The tower
was in good shape, apparently with little use and only about a mile and
a half from me. OTOH it was missing a few things.
The "problem" which I had seen, was they had built onto the house after
the tower was installed and the raising fixture could no longer be used
to lower the tower. OTOH it could be tilted over with a flat side
down. My contractor had a good size tilt bed double axle.trailer that
would easily handle the 1300# and length. He also had a good size fork
lift with big tires. Those big tires saved the day! The forks were
wide and on a heavy bar that let him align them with the flat metal
bands on the bottom section.We also put 2 X 10s under the side rail for
more than the width of the forks to prevent any bending
We had a LOT of rain and although that back yard was sandy, it was soft.
Even those big tires sunk in, but he was able to lift the tower enough
to clear the tilt fixture by less than 2 inches. He told me later that
he thought if he had to reposition one more time he wouldn't have been
able to clear the base.
That would have meant a crane that could ave lifted the entire tower,
base, and raising fixture as one, BUT the house was 100 yards from the
road with a very soft front yard. It's doubtful they could have gotten
a crane close enough to make the lift and would have completely ruined
the front yard
He loaded it on the trailer and brought it here where we laid it on
blocks. I think he charged me $100 for the whole works.Weather and
health conspired to make it over a year before the tower was up. The
bank owned the property with a sale closing just a few days away, they
wanted that tower out of there.
So Make sure you can inspect the tower before committing to any thing.
Crank-ups are far more vulnerable than the old self supporting, or guyed
towers. There are pulleys, cables, winches, motors, control boxes,
wiring, and limit switches, not to forget that a small bend or broken
piece can render the whole thing inoperable
Then, don't forget to read the specs for the tower. Will it lift and
hold what you want it to with a bit of capacity to spare.?
Grant makes some very good points.
BTW One of those BIG trailers would be unlikely to make it down the
street. Big stuff, like heavy machine tools that come freight, I have
delivered to the local airport with prior approval. The really big stuff
like my old Bridgeport mill get delivered to a local freight depot where
they transfer the cargo to a big tilt bed truck that can make it all the
way to the big shop door. I don't remember the cost from the yard in
Detroit, but it wasn't much as it was piggy backed on a load of new
equipment coming this way. IIRC The local Depot charged me $80, but due
to a bad experience they refuse to haul towers. They refused to explain
beyond "bad experience".
Often Fairly big, new towers are delivered in two stages like that so it
pays to check and know your options. Prices, like used tower vary a
lot. If you catch them at a slack time, in a good mood, after a hassle
with a difficult customer, or how diplomatically you explain the special
handling requirements. Many take offense at a customer telling them how
to do something.
73,
Roger (K8RI)
On 2/17/2016 Wednesday 2:37 PM, Grant Saviers wrote:
Used prices are all over the map - from "free, you take it down and
away, and btw it is hidden in the rear of the house and needs a crane
to remove it", to estate sales $500 to $1000 for a 54' or 70' manual
crankup, to $5k+ for motorized like a UST 589, accessible and on the
ground. Then, how do you pick it up and move it? Is it 500# or
3000#? What equipment can you rent, borrow, and will work on the
site? Who can operate the equipment safely and rig the tower for
travel? Then questions about what needs fixed - frozen bearings in
the sheaves (I paid $30 ea on ebay for NOS as no longer made), new
cables needed, new winch, might need regalvanized, is there a base
with it ($500 if still made plus shipping), is the manufacturing
outfit still in business and will they supply wet stamp drawings if a
permit is needed, will a local weld shop make a base, etc?
All of this adds up, so sometimes cheap is not inexpensive. However,
there are often very good deals if you have the resources to manage
the logistics and know what problems need solved.
Remember also, that a new tower arrives on a long haul flatbed truck
which you must unload, so those challenges are the same for "new".
Grant KZ1W
On 2/17/2016 7:58 AM, dw wrote:
Whats a common selling price for a used crank up or tilt over tower?
On Tue, Feb 16, 2016, at 01:28 PM, Ken K6MR wrote:
I bought a used TH354 as my first tower in 1967. This was one of a
series
of guyed crankups that Tri-Ex made in the 60s and a little into the
1970s. The series was the T, TH, H, and HS, in heights from 37 feet
(-237) to 122 feet (-7122). Each version used combinations of the same
tower sections depending on how tall and what section widths you
wanted.
I was in the tower business in the early 1970s and saw a number of
them.
They were much cheaper than the self supporting models. But not
nearly as
strong.
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
--
73
Roger (K8RI)
---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
TowerTalk mailing list
TowerTalk@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
|