[TowerTalk] Tower raising with a crane

Scott R Detloff sdetloff@metlife.com
Wed, 16 Sep 1998 10:37:58 -0400




The rest of my tower sections came in yesterday. On Sunday we
are going to raise one R55 and one R45 tower up to 80' using a
small crane.  The plan is to do each of the two towers in two "picks"
of 40' at a time and be placed on a pier pin.  Guy points will be just
below
the top of each 40' section.  A local ham has the crane and I will be
billed a VERY LOW per-job rate for as long as it takes.  I'm going to
be using this as my learning experience before the 160 footer cames
in and I am spending $125/hr.

I'm looking for advice from any one who has done this, or can give
me any pointers.  A few things that I have thought of are:

1.)  The top of each tower pick should be at the pier pin.   That way
the crane just needs to lift with the winch as the bottom of the tower
gets more horizontal and vertical.  The bottom of each 40' will be
capped so dirt doesn't enter when it drags across the ground and
starts to lift.

2.)  A sling made of 5/16" EHS cable will lift the sections.  All sections
will be "greased" for easy assembly.

3.) The tower will go up with the guy wires attached.  One of the sets of
guy wires that will end up on the far side will need to pass over the set
below it.  A rope will be attached to the end of it to make it easier to
move around.

4.)  The tower only needs to be climbed after the the guy wires are
pre-tensioned to remove the sling.  Final tensioning plubinging can
be accomplished while I'm on the tower, and one persone each at
a guy anchor point.

Any other ideas/ thoughts before we raise it this weekend?


73...Scott K8DX



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