[TowerTalk] Champion and Trylon Towers

[K7LXC@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/1/01 10:03:56 AM Pacific Daylight Time, wz7i@arrl.net 
writes:

> There might be two disadvantages.  The first is that the braces slant so 
>  that some people dislike climbing the angled braces.  This never bothered 
>  me if I wore a stiff soled shoe to climb.  

    The best way to climb this tower is 'on the nose'. That is, you grab the 
leg with your hands and put your feet on the downwards sloping diagonals and 
start on up. The diagonals perfectly perfectly spaced steps. This is the same 
way you climb AB-105 or similar towers that have all diagonals. 

>  The second is that the tower is 
>  bolted together and I suppose one should be alert for a bolt that could 
>  loosen because of flexing but I never saw that.  I did have a little 
>  trouble torquing the bolts correctly when I assembled it because the 
>  galvanizing "lubricated" the bolt enough that I would sometimes snap the 
>  bolt in half. 

    Hmm, too much torque, perhaps? Some of the little ones are easy to snap 
but that just means you're tightening them too much. I don't remember what 
the torque specs are but I'll try to find out and let you know. 

>  The tower is usually shipped on a large 8 foot pallet but I 
>  think you can get it broken down to the individual components for shipping 
>  overseas.

    It comes either completely disassembled or with the sections assembled. 
The price is the same and either way it comes on an 8-foot pallet. In both 
cases you and the truck driver can unload a tower in about 15 minutes.
>  
>  I assembled the tower with a gin pole and it went up in two or three hours 
>  but if I were doing it again, I would assemble it on the ground, insert 
the 
>  mast and rotor, and hire a boom truck to set it on the base.
>  
    There are crane construction photos at <A 
HREF="http://www.championradio.com/cgi-bin/WebStore/web_store.cgi?page=towers-

titan-amateur.html&category=yes&cart_id=8704223_19664">
http://www.championradio.com/cgi-bin/WebStore/web_store.cgi?page=towers-titan-

amateur.html&category=yes&cart_id=8704223_19664</A> at the link at the bottom 
of the page. (Sorry the url is so long - it has to do with our secure 
shopping cart.)

    Another method I would use before using a ginpole is to assemble it 
one-piece-at-a-time, erector set style. It takes 2 guys on the tower but you 
can do a 56-footer in a day and you don't have to assemble the sections on 
the ground. 

>  What you get is a strong tower with the capacity to put up a large beam in 
>  a self-supporting tower.  The lack of guys was the determining factor for 
>  my wife. 

    These Trylon Titan towers are one of the best bargains in ham radio - 
96-feet for less than $2000.00. A 100-foot self-supporter from Rohn, 
(SSV/RTP) will run about $5500.00. 

    My $1.98 worth.

Cheers,   Steve    K7LXC
Champion Radio Products