[TowerTalk] US Tower Raising Fixture Question

[Al Williams]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Pat Chiles" <chilesp at adelphia.net>
To: <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 5:49 AM
Subject: [TowerTalk] US Tower Raising Fixture Question


I took delivery of my new tower yesterday and with the help of Pete,
N4ZR, and a neighbor who owns a front loader I now have it standing on
the pad and plumbed up.

Cranking this tower (HDX 555) from horizontal to vertical was
unexpectedly very hard.  The only additional weight was a 140 lb mast
snuggled inside the tower.  I could only do about 10 complete rotations
and then had to take a break and I am a fairly big boy and in fair
shape.

My question is what have others done to lessen this burden?  Is there a
better winch or rigging scheme to gain mechanical advantage?  My tower
has two side-by-side pulleys on the tower, but only one is used.  The
raising fixture only has one pulley.  The cable goes over the pulley at
the raising fixture, around one of the pulleys at the tower, and back to
the raising fixture where it is terminated on a bolt.  We have it rigged
per the instructions.

Pat, K8PC
_______________________________________________

I have three experiences to share:

First, a used motorized hdx572 with an unidentified tilt raising
fixture, is easy to crank up.  It has two pulleys on both the tilt
fixture and on the tower.  It  uses a Fulton K2550 winch.

Second, a new motorized LM470 with its tilt raising fixture, was very
hard to crankup--just as you described having to rest frequently.  It
came with a Fulton k1550 winch which I replaced with a   Fulton k2550
winch.  This made cranking it up easier but I wasn't satisfied.  This
system
had one pulley at the raising fixture (no mechanical ) and one pulley on
the tilt fixture.  I added a second pulley on the raising fixture and
new
tilt cable.  This made the cranking easier and is what I am now using,
Also, when laying the tower back to horizontal, the k1550 winch
complained very loudly.  I wondered if the neighbors would soon be
coming over to investigate.  Replacing the k1550 winch with the k2550
completely eliminated the winch noise.

Third, a second new motorized LM470 with its tilt raising fixture came
with a Fulton k2550 winch because I had specified so.  I replaced the
cable sling piece used on the tower for tilting up with a U shaped
bracket made by a local machine shop and sized to hold two pulleys.  I
also modified the tilt raising fixture to hold two pulleys.  This
combination makes it very, very easy to tilt up.  However the cable only
moves a short distance for each winch handle revolution.  I probably put
more work into moving my arm around and around than I do applying to the
tower!  I solved that by using my 1/2 inch electric drill.  Now, if I
could just lessen the pressure on the drill switch.....

Both LM470's were purchased new from FirstCall and the Mfr who went out
of business.  Both towers/raising fixtures had mounting holes so out of
alignment that they had to be reamed out up to 3/8 inch--some on one
side of the hole and some on the other side of the hole.
The holes at the top of the tilt fixture were even much more out
alignment.  Because of these problems (and others, such as there being
no pulley mechanical advantage) I elected not to using the holes at the
top of the tower for tilting the tower.  My modification does require
that the tower leg which is bent at the bottom of the leg and used as a
guide climb over the U bracket or cable sling whenever the tower
height is cranked most of the way down.  But there is enough slop
between the bent tower leg and the next inside tower leg that it is no a
problem.

hope this helps

k7puc
hope this helps