[TowerTalk] Homebrew Towers & Liability

[Jonathan Kaplan]

At 07:53 AM 12/14/00 -0700, Wes & Linda wrote:
>At 09:05 PM 12/13/00 EST, K7LXC@aol.com wrote:
>[snip]
>
> >    What're you...nuts? Towers on the market have been designed by proper
> >engineers and built by journeymen workers. You think you can do that? HA!
> >
> >    A 'wooden' tower? Sheesh.
> >
> >Cheers,   Steve    K7LXC
> >Tower Tech
>
>Let me see.... I seem to recall someone posting photos of the crappy welds
>on freshly built Rohn tower sections that were being returned to Rohn for
>replacement.
>
>Were these the ones "built by journeymen workers" that you are referring to?
>
>Let me run this by you.  I number among my close friends (all of us retired
>from the same aerospace firm) a mechanical engineer with a Ph.D. from
>Stanford who now teaches at the U of AZ and a metallurgist with a master's
>degree.

snip

>If I determined a set of requirements and asked these folks to design and
>construct a tower and footing for me is it your position that it's going to
>be unsafe or fail?


My $0.02:

I am sure it would be physically safe, but you overlook safety of your bank 
account.
In this age of lawyers, we can't possibly think of all the ways to get 
sued! So unless
you carry a hefty product liability insurance policy, you'd be better off 
thinking of the
extra money paid to Rohn, U.S. Towers, etc, as buying into their policy. 
And then maybe
you could ask your welder friend to check the welds when the tower arrives. 
I think
you'd sleep better.

73

Jonathan KO6XS

P.S. On my second 55 ft US Tower in the backyard.  The first got bent by 
the wind.


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