[TowerTalk] Broken 3/8" Turnbuckle

[Steven London]

I was recently surprised to find a broken 3/8" turnbuckle on one of my lower 
guy wires.  The turnbuckle was the standard drop-forged 3/8" turnbuckle 
commonly available from a large national distributor in W5 land.  I'm not 
sure if it was purchased with an order 16 years ago or 7 years ago.  It 
broke on the screw threads on the ground-ward side.  There was no visible 
rust on the outside surface, and it has been used in Colorado's dry climate, 
and never in direct contact with the ground.  The break was about 3 inches 
above the ground, which means that there were times that it was snowcovered.

Questions for the experts:

1) Should I treat this as a warning and replace all 16 turnbuckles ?

or

2) Should I treat this as a freak occurance and replace only the broken 
turnbuckle ?

P.S.  There was no tower disaster thanks to the safety loop strung through 
the turnbuckle.

73,
Steve, N2IC/0
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