[TowerTalk] tower specs/not wind loads

[A.J. Farmer (AJ3U)]

On 1/23/06, Steve Shelton <Steve at bnjcomp.com> wrote:
> Hi, I am fairly new to towers and I have tried to research information
> on rohn's 25, 45 and 55 towers.  I have found quite a bit of information
> on these towers but not the exact answers that I am looking.  One of my
> questions is what is the maximum safe height on these three towers
> without guying?  How much weight can they handle guyed or unguyed? The
> reason I ask is that I do a lot of tower climbing and often run into a
> rohn 25 that is not guyed.  Most are only 40' but some as high as 80'
> and without guy wires these towers do a lot of swaying.  I would feel
> more comfortable on these particular towers if I knew for sure that an
> extra 200lbs harnessed to the side of this tower is not going to be the
> stick that broke that camels back.  Thank you for any information that
> you have.

C'mon fellas - none of you answered this guy's question but instead
hijacked the thread and started on about other things not even related
to his question...

Steve, my understanding is that the maximum freestanding height of
Rohn 25G is 30 to 40 feet.  I would assume that this limit allows for
an average (200lb?) climber doing maintenance, but I have always
wondered the same thing.  I don't know about 45G and 55G, but I do
know that they were designed as guyed towers, not freestanding. 
Everyone talks about wind load, but what about the load of somebody is
hanging off the side near the top?  How does that compare?  I don't
have the engineering experience to do this calculation.  Perhaps
someone on this list knows how to do this?  If so, then that load can
be compared "apples to apples" with a wind load, right?    Some hard
numbers sure would make me feel better about being up there...  I have
a 30 foot freestanding 25G tower and it makes me nervous when it sways
when I'm on top.  I can't imagine being up 80 feet unguyed...  You are
a brave man, indeed!

--
A.J. Farmer, AJ3U
http://www.aj3u.com