[TowerTalk] Raising a tiltup tower (longish)

[Kevin Normoyle]

Got a Tri-Ex W-51. Used obviously. Apparently the owner
had gotten a new base from Tri-Ex to go with it, but never used it.
Good for me. Nice deal.

Tri-Ex directions (had a copy) said "be sure to check that base/tower mounting hole alignment
wasn't disturbed in shipping".

I didn't have the 3/4" bolts yet, so basically just held them together,
eyeballed it and said, "Yeah it looks aligned".

(old timers can chuckle "obviously first tower newbie at this point :) and they'be
be right!). 

In my mind I also thought "heck how could it get bent in shipping, with 2" steel bar a
nd 1" rebar".

Didn't really think thru the possiblity that the base (new) was not built with
the tower (used). 

dug hole, tied rebar, pumped concrete. replaced cable, winch. cleaned up pulleys.
added a pull-down cable. pressure wash tower, cold galvanizing. coax arms. conduit. 
Built a raising fixture. Whew!

And how come we don't hear more about the secret weapon for hard digging: jackhammer
with a clay spade! Works great.

I'm a winching and swaging fool now.

(hey if anyone wants to get a only-used-indoors-in-good-shape
DL B2500 winch for $75, the place I got mine has one more..)

Up she goes. 
All seems good....until vertical:

Two issues I've not seen raised here:

(oh ...note: I'm doing all this as a one man operation)

How do people keep the tower from tilting over too far? I used wood blocks underneath
to prevent "too far". But the first attempt was just no good. Needed precision alignment 
of the holes. Ended up putting a scissor jack in place for the 3'rd leg to pivot unto, then I could
lower the 3rd leg precisely with the scissor jack (scissor jack because it had lowest profile).

It was just too unstable around the (not-yet-fully-bolted) veritical position to control otherwise.

So then I notice, when I'm using the top holes on the base legs, that hey, this
is way off. Bolts won't go thru. Depressed.

Think about it. Measure. Turns out the 3rd leg is actually curved. 1/8" difference or more between
veritical on top and bottom holes. Figured I must have eyeballed the lower holes. Lower, change
holes, Raise. Better. Jack works great for aligning. One bolt in.

But. 2nd bolt not. ...hmmm...stress. Finally used a pointed steel bar thru the remaining 
base/tower hole, and some muscle and leverage. Seemed to shake/align everything well 
enough to get the last bolt in after removing the bar. heck, the pointed steel bar (footing
stake from the concrete pour seems like a perfect tool for the job of a quick bit of steel
thru the hole)

ok ok.. I admit it was my wife that told me to use the bar..while I was contemplating
more drastic actions.... Which I dutifully ignored for a while...but it worked.
wife: 1237+1. me: 17

Everything ended up great.

So questions:

-obviously I should have matched up tower/base with the bolts before installation.

-what do other people do to prevent it from tilting over too far? (besides 4 guys grabbing it)

-any horror stories about "oh no, the holes are off" and how you resolve it?

-I also noticed that the tower was slightly off vertical after getting the last bolt in and
tightening it. Loosened the bolts, and pulled on it with my raising fixture and retightened
bolts and now nice and vertical (according to my lever).

Do people just tilt these towers up and down all the time with one man operations and
slap the bolts in and it's all perfectly vertical? I was surprised I'd not seen mention
of the details on this. Is it just that everyone else's holes are perfectly aligned?

Oh: and in replacing the cables, I was surprised to not find more mention of what
kind of swages to use. (used nickel plated copper). Quite a lot of variance in prices
on the swaging tool. Found a cheap one at online airplane supply house.

also on the pulleys: they seemed to be the ball bearing hubs. I would think that
with the low revolutions, that the more expensive ball bearing hubs are actually less
good than those without. (straight brass hubs)

just my wonderings thru the project.

-kevin
KE6RAD

-kevin