[TowerTalk] Re: Fiberglass Guy Rod

[tgstewart@pepco.com]

Ty,

I think you are wrong on the storing of the material if it is made by
Polygon.  They told me 100% that storing it coiled up has absolutely no
effect on it because their material is 100% cured (or something similar to
that).  Maybe that was a problem with some manufacturers or an old wife's
tail.

Mike W9RE


Well, maybe they've "fixed" their product, but I can tell you from personal
experience :( that when I got mine, they ended up replacing almost all of
it (thousands of feet!) because I left it in coils for several summer
months and when I went to use it, it had fractures and breaks all over the
place.  Maybe it'll survive in cold WX that way, but I would never ever
chance it again.  It was a real mess for me since I had organized a group
buy on the material and already distributed it to the buyers when the
problem was discovered.  I sent samples back to Polygon and eventually got
them to replace a lot of the order, but it cost me several hundred dollars
in phone calls, shipping, etc, not to mention almost a year of delay for
everyone concerned.  Luckily Polygon finally agreed to replace the bad
coils for free, or I could have been out several thousand dollars of my own
money (My group order was for almost 25,000 feet!)  Also note that the
coiled diameters were 6 and 8 feet, ie. the bends werent all that sharp for
a 3/8" diameter rod!

It's risky business, because a lot of times you arent going to be able to
see the smaller imperfections in the glass.  With mine being black, the
slightly fractured areas showed up as lighter radial lines, usually with a
very slight bump in the surface.  If you ordered white, you might miss it.

I know they talked about changing their resin after I had my bad experience
several years ago, but I still would not trust it.
Leaving fiberglass rod coiled puts a huge strain on the resin bonding the
fibers.   Glass fibers are very strong in tension but very poor in
compression.  What happens when you bend fiberglass is that the inside
radius fibers of the bend are forced into compression by the tension being
applied by the fibers on the outer radius.  Since the tensile strength is
much higher than the compressive strength, the inside radius of the bend is
the first to go.  If the resin gives at all, the inside radius fibers will
start to buckle and fail, leaving fewer and fewer fibers to left until the
whole thing will just snap.

All I know for sure is that I will never take that chance again!

73, Ty K3MM


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