[TowerTalk] Ginpole for 20 foot sections

[Steve Maki]

"Stan Stockton" <k5go@alltel.net> wrote:

>About a decade ago I acquired a little broadcast tower and am now wanting to
>put it up.  There are eight sections, 20 foot long each, about 18 inches on
>a side, solid rod legs about 1.5 inches in diameter, and each section weighs
>420 pounds.  Any ideas on the construction of a gin pole that would handle
>this thing would be appreciated.

As you can guess, because you've handled the sections (too many
times probably :-)), this stuff will require a good stout gin
pole.

50' of Rohn 45 makes a nice gin pole for handling 20' sections
of the 400lb-600lb variety. The 50' gin pole is lashed to the tower
with say 27'-30' below, and 20'-23' above the top. That way, it's
easy to pull the gin pole up into place with no tendency to flip
over.

It can be lashed to the tower with strong rope; because the two
lash points are 30' apart, a little slop is not fatal to the
operation. Make sure that there is a little offset built into
the lashing system. For instance, you might attach a horizontal
2"x2" angle to the gin pole at each of the two lash points

It's best to have two independant pulleys and winches - one for
the top of the gin pole, and one for the top of the tower (to
pull the gin pole up into place).

That said, I think you would be better off assembling it on the
ground and having a crane pop it up, assuming a crane can get
into the area. If everything was ready, a half day total of
crane time should do it. Around here, that would be $1000 or
so.

73,
--
Steve K8LX

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