[TowerTalk] Trylon Titan questions

[K7LXC@aol.com]

In a message dated 09/02/2000 6:15:04 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
zippy@sunsetd.com writes:

> I've been considering a Trylon T-500 56' tower for a mountain-top repeater
>  site where my lease is a bit too small for a guyed tower.  I do have a few
>  questions though that I've noticed haven't come up much in the past Trylon
>  discussions:
>  
>   - Antenna mounting - Obviously most HAM's use a rotator and mast for big
>     beams, but does anyone have any thoughts on side-mounting VHF whips and
>     similar antennas?  

    Sure - go for it. 

    (Full disclosure - Champion Radio is a Trylon dealer.)

>  This was easy on Rohn towers, just grab a few pieces
>     of angle iron and some U-bolts and you have a side-mount, but this is a
>     bit more complicated with the angle-steel legs and the tapered shape of
>     the tower.  Anyone have any thoughts here?

    The legs have plenty of holes - unoccupied and otherwise - so you can 
bolt your angle right to the tower. An 8-foot section tapers 3-inches so you 
won't be too far out of plumb; not enough that it'll make any difference 
anyway. 
>  
>   - Attaching coax - On Rohn towers I've just tie-wrapped coax to the legs.
>     But with the shape of the Trylon legs, this wouldn't seem to be as
>     affective unless you run the coax up the outside of the leg or have
>     really big coax bundles that fit on the inside of the leg.  Do people
>     run them up the center of a face, or is there an easier way to run
>     coax up the inside of the tower?
>  
    Why can't you tie wrap/tape cables to the legs? They're 60 degree angle 
and not round but you can still anchor stuff to them.

    Running cables is a big pain in the butt IMO but it is very helpful if 
you're in a lightning area since the tower will act as a Faraday shield. 

>   - Climbing - Okay, this one has come up a little bit in the discussions.
>     Does anyone have any comment on climbing the upper sections?  

    Sure - go for it. 

>  Looking
>     at the section drawings, I see the cross-braces on the small upper
>     sections of the Titan towers have a really steep slant.  

    They're really not that steep. They're a little better than Rohn BX 
sections.

>  Is this quite difficult to climb?  

    Nope. The way you climb this tower (and similar configured towers like 
AB-105) is on the nose. That is, you grab the leg with your hands and then 
put your feet one on each side of the leg. The slanting diagonals are spaced 
almost perfectly for use as steps. Climbing up the face doesn't give you the 
ease and security that climbing the nose does. If there's any moisture at all 
on the diagonals while you're climbing up the face, there's a good chance 
your feet could slip. You can climb the leg in the pouring rain if you need 
to with no problem. 

> I've also seen reference in one message that there
>     are extra holes in the Titan legs that look like they may be for
>     horizontal steps.  I ran across a picture of one Ham's Trylon tower
>     that seems to have some horizontal steps installed:
>  
>  http://webhome.idirect.com/~ve3kh/6_frame1.jpg

    Yes, you can add horizontal steps on the upper sections and there are 
plenty of holes available. 
>  
>     The top half of the portion of the tower visible in this picture seems
>     to have something like this.  Does Trylon sell step kits or is this
>     likely something this tower owner fabricated out of some angle iron?

    You're on your own but all you need are pieces of galvanized angle iron 
and a drill. If you can't find galvanized, then you can spray paint them with 
cold galv. 
>  
>   - Lifting - When lifting with a crane from the top end, are these
>     towers beefy enough to not risk failure or bending in the middle of
>     the tower while tipping it up to vertical?
>  
    You would typically pick it up somewhere around the 2/3 - 3/4 height. 
They are plenty strong but doing 2 or so picks with smaller segments works 
too. Check out the crane installation pictures of KA9FOX's Trylon Titan tower 
at http://www.championradio.com. Lots of other installation photos too. 

>   - Rock bolts - I've noticed Trylon has rock bolts available.  Has anyone
>     used these?  My site is on solid bedrock, and the option I've been
>     considering so far has been to arrange for a hole to be blasted in
>     the rock, or spend a lot of time with a jackhammer (it's soft enough
>     to chip off with a shovel, kinda like a dense pummice/sandstone mix).

    If it really is solid rock, rock bolts or similar are great. You need a 
rock drill to get the holes installed - you can rent one at any rental yard. 
After the holes are in, you can either use rock expansion bolts or anchor 
bolts that are epoxied in. I'd go the epoxied route - it's done everyday in 
commercial installations. BTW, Trylon has what they call 'foot weldments' and 
they are basically the feet that attach the anchor bolts to the bottom of the 
tower legs. The weldments and anchor bolts come as a set. 
>  
>   - General dislikes - Does anyone not like their Trylon Titan tower?
>  
    Hard to dislike when they're less than half the price of a similar 
commercial grade Rohn SSV. There are approximately 12,000 of these installed 
around the world. 

Cheers,   Steve    K7LXC
Champion Radio Products

--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/towertalk
Submissions:              towertalk@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  towertalk-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-towertalk@contesting.com