[TowerTalk] Preformed Guy Grips

[Wyllma Wall]

Hi All,
I guess I am lost. I have used the wrong guy grips for about 25 years.
They were free. After normal stretching occurred no problems. Tower was
Rohn 25g at a height of 145'. Stacked Quads and terrible storms. here.
                                                          Bill Wall
KC4UZ

Stan or Patricia Griffiths wrote:

> 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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