Byron-
Seeing a steady curve, if that curve wasn't there before Hurricane Ike,
suggests the steel bent. You could have a structural engineer examine it
and tell you if it is safe to use as-is.
73,
Steve
N6SJ
-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Byron
Tatum
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2014 2:58 PM
To: TowerTalk@contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Trylon 72' Tower
Hello-
I have the heaviest version of the Trylon "Titan" 72' self supporting
tower. It has been up about 9 years approx. About 3 years ago this tower
experienced winds of about 100 MPH, as my location was in the eyewall of
Hurricane Ike for about an hour.
The tower only had a stacked pair of M2 432-13WL yagis on it at the time.
It damaged the yagis severely and put a slight (permanent) bend in the 2" OD
x 6061-T6 mast.
However, my concern is that we noticed, right after the storm had passed,
that the tower had a noticeable "lean", in the upper third or so. toward the
east. The strongest winds during the eye were from the west. It is hard to
tell exactly, but when sighting up either of the legs on the east side (it
is leaning slightly to the east) it appears there is a change in the
direction of legs about 30' up. However, what bothers me is that it appears
there is a steady curving going up either leg on east side, making me think
the tower suffered a bend.
Right after the storm I removed the yagi remnants and rotator, secured the
mast and left it until I had time to try and correct it.
A friend of mine told me that what I needed to do was to examine the
bolted leg junctions and see where the west-side leg pulled upward, with
east side legs moving downward. Then, loosen the west-side leg bolts and
pull that side back downward, which should fix the problem. I have examined
the bolted leg junctions but really cannot tell if there was any movement.
I thought I would ask: Would it be more likely that the bolted leg
junctions changed (due to uplift on upwind side and compression on downwind
side) or did the tower just get bent?
Thanks, Byron WA5THJ
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