[TowerTalk] recabling of US Towers MA550MDP

[Stephen Reichlyn]

I have recently posted several requests regarding re-cabling of  an 
MA550MDP tubular motorized crank-up tower.

There is very little information around so I'm going to try my best to 
carefully write up this project as I do it so that at least anecdotal 
information will be available to the next guy.

US Tower has been helpful......up to a point. I have been dealing with 
'David' in US Tower's customer service. He has sold me a new set of cables 
and several pulley sheaves. Unfortunately, he was unwilling to give me a 
full re-cabling diagram but did send over a hand-drawn view of the motor 
cabling. I also received a recabling drawing from one of the guys on this 
group but it was for a non-motorized MA850 but was very valuable.

My cable snapped due to a badly worn out pulley sheave on top of the lowest 
(of  3) tubes. My tower is about 15 years old and uses several 1-3/4 inch 
sheaves which are not used in current UST MA-series towers (they use 3 1/2 
inch and 2 1/2 inch sheaves). US Tower was unable to offer them, only 
offering to make (and sell me) a new pulley collar with the larger pulley.

For those of you contemplating renewing the pulley system (highly 
recommended) on your MA-series tower before re-cabling, I finally found the 
proper pulley sheaves at Applied Industrial Technologies in Brewton, AL. 
(Thanks to the guys at Heights Towers who pointed me there). Jim at Applied 
(334-867-7762, 334-867-5751 fax) found me exactly what I needed, including 
a ball-bearing lubricated inner bearing on each sheave for the unheard-of 
price of about $8/sheave vs. the US Tower price (if available), which is 
much, much higher.

I'll keep you posted as I progress with the recabling. Please let me know 
(as I'm certain that you will) if any of you think that this info is 
inappropriate for the group and I will post privately to those interested.

73,
Steve AA4V

please note: I have no connection to Applied Industrial Technology, just a 
very satisfied customer......

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