Moving Crankup Towers

[James R. Hill]

I have a US Tower 89 heavy duty footer and fortunately for me I
live less than 20 miles from US Tower. Once the tower is nested
down (and the rotor/mast taken out of the top section) we lower
the tower onto a set of axle/wheels and roll the tower out to the
street.

Quite by accident one day I saw a truck that was being used to 
lift heavy pumps. I went over and asked if they could lift a 3000
pound weight and they said yes, with ease. I then told them of my
tower project and needed a truck to lift a tower off the set of 
wheels to maybe 5 feet off the ground then the tower company's
trailer would back into place and the tower would be lowered onto
the trailer. I found this arrangement to be cheaper than getting
a large tow truck over to do the same job.

One precaution that I am rather embarrased to mention: If you 
leave the rotor & mast in the top of the tower and then start 
lowering the tower into the horizontal position, once the tower
gets to about 50 degrees or so, the point where the raising fixture
attaches to the tower base will start to give. When this happens,
nothing can stop the tower from crashing to the ground except some
fast reacting to stop it. I know what I'm talking about because I've
seen this twice before. The 2nd time was at my house, the first time
was in Lou Tristao's back yard!

73/Ron, k6ozl