[TowerTalk] Cable for a US Tower HDX 555 Tower

[Doug Rehman]

> It has been my understanding that the size of the cable is 
> determined by the size of the pulley??
> 
> k7puc 

That's an interesting question. Somewhere in the archives is a tale from
someone who replaced 3/16" wire rope with 1/4" wire rope and had a failure
within a couple years. In researching his failure, he found that 1/4" is
supposed to have a 4" or 5" (actually 4.5" I think) minimum pulley size- his
pulleys were less. I don't recall if he used 7x19 wire rope or not, but
lesser ropes (ie: 6x19 or other "coarser" wire ropes) require substantially
larger pulleys than 7x19.

I researched it on the web a little while ago and found his statements about
pulley size were correct. 

Interestingly, my Tri-EX LM-354HDSP came with 1/4" wire rope on pulleys that
are too small for it (under the specified size for 1/4" wire rope). Tashjian
Towers (current manufacturer) advertises the current production LM-354HDSP
uses 3/16" wire rope. I also see that Tashjian Towers offers 1/4" stainless
steel wire rope for some of it's towers as an upgrade from 3/16" galvanized.

Doug
K4DDR