[TowerTalk] split tubing in base leg

[Peter Sundberg]

I had this happen to one of my towers (80' guyed at two levels) more than
20 years ago. I put a small weld at the two ends of the slit just to make
it stop increasing in length, never had a problem through the years. My
tower actually had slits in two legs.

Cure for me was to drill a hole in each leg, just at the base, to let water
out of the tower above the concrete foundation. The cause was indeed water
inside the tubing that froze to ice in the winter. I think many people have
this problem, they just don't know about it because they don't inspect
their towers very well. 

Despite what others might say, I can not see a big problem (yet) for a
tower guyed at 3 levels. The base in my opinion does nothing more than hold
the tower in place, it does not hold it in an upright position to any
extent as the guy wires are doing that. And if you wish you could reinforce
the piece that was slit by putting two halves of a tube that has the same
ID as the OD of the tower leg, and use some muffler clamps to pull it
tight. Make the reinforcement piece longer than the slit. I considered
doing that, but never got around to do it. Turns out it was not needed either.

73/Peter SM2CEW
http://web.telia.com/~u92010241/index.html



At 22:45 2005-07-29 , you wrote:
>I have a 95' Rohn 25 tower, guyed at 3 levels.  While
>mowing today I discovered a 1" slit, 1/16th wide, in
>one of the legs of the bottom section, about 28" above
>the 4'deep concrete base.
>Can this be salvaged?  Any ideas on what might have
>caused this?
>Thanks in advance for any advice.
>
>Fred
>N5WLA
>
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