[TowerTalk] Preformed Guy Grips

[Stan or Patricia Griffiths]

In an effort to better serve one of my customers who wanted
to use 1/4" EHS guy cable and Preformed Guy Grips, I decided
to research and supply the materials to him.  As a Rohn
Dealer, I knew I could buy all of that stuff directly from
Rohn but I thought there must be a better (cheaper) way
since the cost of shipping steel from Indiana to Oregon is
NOT inexpensive.

As a first step, I went to a local supplier of power utility
hardware and bought a 500 foot roll of 1/4" EHS and a bunch
of Preformed Guy Grips that are used routinely by the power
companies.  The grips were model GDE 1104 and made by
Preformed Line Products Company.  I later heard, (I think on
this reflector), that the Guy Grips recommended for tower
use are NOT THE SAME as those used by the power companies.
I also noticed that those sold by Rohn for tower use are
called "Big Grips" and are quite a LOT more expensive than
the ones I bought at the power ultility supply house.
(Approximately 3 times as expensive.)

To get the "real story", I called the Preformed Line
Products Company on the phone and talked directly to one of
their applications engineers.  He informed me that there is,
indeed, a difference between the model GDE 1104 used by
power companies and the "Big Grip" model BG 2144 made
specifically for tower use.  He  told me that to use the
power utility grips in a tower application would be a
"misuse of the product".  He also told me that he was more
than a little disturbed by the fact that the seller of the
power utility grips sold me that product for a tower
application when I very clearly told the supplier what the
application was.  In fact, there is a catalog specifically
for Preformed Line Products for use on towers which he was
willing to send me.  I got it a few days later and read it
from cover to cover.

I called the power utility supplier who sold me the "wrong
grips" and they did not really admit to any wrong doing, but
they were willing to credit my account and take the GDE 1104
grips back into stock.  They did not carry the BG 2144 Big
Grips and were not really interested in ordering them for me
so, again, I called Preformed Line Products and they were
willing to sell them to me directly in muliples of 50 which
is how many are in one box.  They were also willing to sell
me the End Sleeves in any quantity I needed.  The bad news
is that the BG 2144 Big Grips obtained directly from the
manufacturer were still going to cost me double what I
originally paid for the GDE 1104 power utility grips.  I
ordered 50 BG 2144 and 50 End Sleeves for them from the
Preformed Line Products  Company.

When they got here, I carefully compared the the BG 2144 to
one of the power utility GDE 1104 grips.  There is almost NO
difference, except the price.  The GDE 1104 has about 18" of
contact length with the EHS and 8 wraps whereas the BG 2144
Big Grip has about 19 1/2" of contact length with the EHS
and 8 1/2 wraps.  Both grips are made to use with the same
1/4" EHS cable.  I had also heard that the shorter GDE 1104
power utility grip was actually STRONGER than the EHS cable
and the cable always snapped before the grip did in any pull
tests conducted.  Naturally, I wondered why it made any
sense to buy yet a marginally stronger grip for TWICE the
money when the GDE 1104 utility grips were already stronger
than the EHS cable they are used on.  Once again, I called
the Preformed Line Products Company to ask them for an
explanation.  Here is what they told me:

1.  The cost difference of double can be explained by the
manufacturing quantities.  They make MILLIONS of the GDE
1104 and maybe only 10% as many of the BG 2144.

2.  The reason they recommend a stronger grip for towers
than they do for utility applications, when the untility
grip is ALREADY stronger than the cable, is because the
SAFETY FACTORS required by the tower industry are larger
than the safety factors required by the power utility
industry.

So there you have it.  I thought it was kind of an
interesting story.  If it were MY tower, I would use the
half-price GDE 1104's which are still stronger than 1/4" EHS
and save some money.  For my customers, I will give them the
whole story and supply whichever ones they want at an
appropriate price difference.

Stan  w7ni@teleport.com




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