[TowerTalk] Lube of a crank-up tower question

[K7LXC@aol.com]

Howdy, TowerTalkians --

    As far as I know, there's no spec for greasing the legs of a crank-up 
tower; I've never seen one anyway.

    The legs come greased from the factory as it's put there to facilitate 
sliding the tower sections back and forth during assembly. The tower's laying 
horizontally and it's much easier to slide with some sort of lubricant. US Tower 
used to use a real sticky grease but some years ago they changed to wax - 
it's slippery and not nearly as messy.

    Whatever there is doesn't last very long and it wasn't intended as a 
longterm leg lubricant. And even if there was something that needed to be done, 
how would you apply it?!?

    Here are the important points about crank-ups and PM.

1.    Use a real cable lubricant on the cables - NOT grease! Cable lubricant 
wicks into the cables and doesn't leave a sticky coating on the outside that 
can catch particles and other crap from the air. Greasing the cables traps 
moisture in the cable and does attract lots of gunk. (A good product is PreLube6 - 
recommended by wire rope manufacturers - and is available from 
www.championradio.com.)

2.    Grease the pillow blocks and thrust bearing if they have Zerk grease 
fittings. 

3.    Exercise your cables periodically. Run the tower up and down once in a 
while to work the cables. 

4.    Don't leave it parked at the same spot(s) all the time. If you do, the 
cable will probably take a set where it goes over a pulley. 

    And don't worry if your cables are a couple of years old. US Tower says 
to replace the cables every 3 years. It's called a 'weasel clause' folks. That 
is, if something happens to your tower and you didn't follow their 
admonishment they can weasel out of any responsibility or liability. There are 3 reasons 
why you'd want to replace the cables:

1.    If there is serious rust. Not surface rust but real degradation. 

2.    If the cable is damaged. Kinks or flat spots are the indicators here. 
The flat spots can develop when  the cables are always at the same spot where 
there's a pulley or similar. 

3.    If there are excessive broken strands. The industry standard is 
something like six broken strands.

    If you don't have any of those conditions, YOU DON'T NEED TO REPLACE THE 
CABLES! I've worked on dozens of crank-up towers over the years and have yet 
to see one that really had to have the cables replaced.

    So ends the lesson on crank-ups.

    Oh, I almost forgot. If you're going to climb them when they're extended, 
safety the legs/sections so they can't move down. A U-bolt around a leg where 
the bottom of a section is works really well. Also putting some pipe or 2x4 
thru the tower rungs works also. 

Cheers,
Steve    K7LXC
TOWER TECH -
Professional tower services for commercial and amateur
Cell: 206-890-4188