[TowerTalk] Re: [Force 12 Talk] Rivets

[Roger Huntley]

Pete,
I just assembled a C31-XR and the element to boom connections consist of two
rivets and two bolts at each connection.  The C-3 that I am starting to
assemble has three holes at each element connector with only two rivets.  The
center hole on the element flange is not drilled through the boom.  I am
thinking about drilling the boom at that location and inserting a bolt through
similiar to what they did for the C31-XR.

What does surprise me is that the factory has not felt it necessary to respond
to all of the correspondence on this subject.  Are they trying to hide
something?  I would hope that is not the case because I have been very
impressed with the service and product until I started hearing about the
possible rivet problem.
73,
Roger Huntley, W7VV



Pete Smith wrote:

> At 08:34 PM 2/27/01 -0000, Tyler Stewart wrote:
> >Force 12 has had their problems with their larger antenna designs...
> >
> >Seems like almost all of the problems I've heard have related to large
> >element mountings to the boom.  I think perhaps I'll add a bolt or two to
> >the larger element brackets on mine before I put them up.  (I'm putting up
> >C49xr's and probably 340N's).
> >
> >It's also possible they've changed the mounting hardware/method on later
> >production runs.
> >
> >Perhaps Natan or Tom will comment...
>
> I hope they will, but in the meantime ...
>
> I recall that this came up a couple of years ago, and it finally became
> clear that the problem with the big boom rivets occurred with the beefed-up
> models (H or D?), because the rivets that were used on a relatively few
> antennas were too short and were not set properly when the booms (with
> their additional layers of material) were assembled.  I wish I could be a
> bit more specific, but the Force12talk archive is temporarily down -- I can
> see the messages indexed, but can't bring them up.
>
> I had a reflector come off my top C-3, but that was cockpit error on my
> part -- I used big metal tapping screws to reattach the element bracket
> after I had removed it during an abortive conversion to a C-4XL, and the
> screws weren't quite big enough to hold well.  When we reinstalled the
> reflector (which landed in a treetop from 97 feet -- talk about luck!) we
> used two plated Class 5 bolts through existing holes in the bracket, with
> Nylock nuts, and I KNOW it's not coming off again.
>
> 73, Pete N4ZR
> Contesting is!
>
> The World Contest Station Database
> is waiting for your input at
> http://www.qsl.net/n4zr
>
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