[TowerTalk] Concrete in the ground! But...

[Jim Miller]

Hard to imagine the exact size of the rod and if it will be possible to bend
it "by hand" but, bending the rod is the first thing that comes to mind and
I cannot see any reason that would degrade anything in any way.  You may
want to reapply paint to the outside of the bend area at least to insure the
coating didn't crack to allow the start of corrosion or rust.

What I would do though, is to support the rod along it's main length with a
pipe or another rod or angle iron firmly attached (chained, duct taped
heavily, clamped, etc.) to the rod you are about to bend to insure that it
bends at the point of entry to the concrete anchor where you want it instead
of being gently bent into a spring along it's full length (which would
create a hole to be continuously opened up along the length of the rod from
the surface down to the anchor with varying tension and movement).

Just thoughts,
Jim KG0KP

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dick Green WC1M" <wc1m at msn.com>
To: <john at kk9a.com>; <TOWERTALK at contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 9:36 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Concrete in the ground! But...


> If the consensus is to bend the rod, then I'll try it by hand first. As
for
> the angle, we had a heck of a time lowering the downhill anchor much below
> 45 degrees. I think if we'd gone to spec, 42 degrees, the equalizer plate
> would have ended up several inches below ground! Since that one came out
at
> 45 degrees, we made the others the same.
>
> Due to the steep slope of my hill, I couldn't make all three guys at all
> three anchors match the Rohn specs for guy angles. The bottom guys on the
> downhill anchor and the steepest uphill anchor are about 5 degrees off
from
> Rohn spec and about 10 degrees off from each other. In addition, I had to
> place the anchors further out than Rohn spec to provide clearance for the
> middle SteppIR. In the end, I made the angles for the top guys match each
> other, figuring that was most important. The bottom angle for the top guys
> came out at 45.9 degrees, so I figured a 45 degree rod angle would be OK.
>
> 73, Dick WC1M
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: john at kk9a.com [mailto:john at kk9a.com]
> > Sent: Saturday, September 23, 2006 9:33 AM
> > To: TOWERTALK at contesting.com
> > Cc: wc1m at msn.com
> > Subject: [TowerTalk] Concrete in the ground! But...
> >
> > GAC3455 anchor rods are not that heavy.  If it were me, I
> > would just bend the rod to the correct position by pushing on
> > it.  Also the anchor rods
> > should be less than 45 degrees, more likely 41 degrees.   If I recall
> > correctly, you only need about 5 yards of concrete for your
> > system, however the extra doesn't hurt anything except your wallet.
> >
> > GL,
> > John KK9A
> >
> >
> >
> > To: "Tower" <towertalk at contesting.com>
> > Subject: [TowerTalk] Concrete in the ground! But...
> > From: "Dick Green WC1M" <wc1m at msn.com>
> > Reply-to: wc1m at msn.com
> > Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2006 01:16:29 -0400
> > List-post: <mailto:towertalk at contesting.com>
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > At long last, the concrete is in the ground for my 110' Rohn
> > 55 tower! Whew, that was a lot of work. And a lot of concrete
> > -- 8 yards. I went with 4d anchor specs, which doubles the
> > hole size. Even then, we had some problems digging "small"
> > holes with an excavator and ran into some ledge and big
> > boulders. Took a lot of concrete to fix that. Some photos and
> > more details are posted on my website, www.wc1m.com, under
> > Big Tower Project.
> >
> > Here's the "But...". The base is level. All the anchors are
> > at 45 degrees and the equalizer plates are level. Two of the
> > anchors are pointing at the pier pin exactly on the compass
> > heading I had planned. But somehow one guy anchor is off
> > about five degrees or so in azimuth, so it doesn't point
> > directly at the pier pin. In fact, it points several feet to
> > one side of it.
> >
> > I'm pretty sure we had it right before the pour. It's
> > possible the rod shifted during the pour, but I checked it
> > several times and thought it was aimed OK. The last time I
> > checked it there was so much concrete in the hole I didn't
> > think the rod could move anymore. One possibility is that the
> > weight of the bucket loader we used to shuttle concrete to
> > the holes slightly shifted the ground around the anchor,
> > moving the whole section of earth and the anchor rod with it
> > (the bucket loader was positioned between the rod and tower,
> > fairly close to the rod.) Maybe the shift happened after I
> > checked the rod, when he dumped the last load of concrete. At
> > any rate, I didn't discover the angle error until the
> > concrete had set enough to prevent movement.
> >
> > For those of you wondering why the groove in the side of the
> > hole didn't hold the rod in place, this anchor is uphill from
> > the base. Consequently, the rod extends further above the
> > surface than it would on level ground, and only a very
> > shallow groove was needed to set the angle. Besides, if I'm
> > right about the effect of the bucket loader, a deeper groove
> > wouldn't have helped. BTW, the uphill rod in question is not
> > the one shown on my website.
> > That one is OK. I'll post pictures of the rod in question
> > tomorrow if I get a chance.
> >
> > So, my question is... will 5-10 degrees of error in azimuth
> > cause problems?
> > There's at least a yard and a half of concrete in that
> > 6'x3'x4' hole, maybe more. I don't think the slab is going
> > anywhere. Seems to me the anchor rod might bend a little. But
> > the GAC3455 rods are very beefy. Even if it bent a little, I
> > can't imagine it would be weakened enough to break. I'm using
> > 1/2"x12" eye-jaw turnbuckles. Could they be bent or damaged
> > by the angle error? Is this a problem, or am I just worrying
> > over nothing? Seems to me there's not a heck of lot I can do
> > about it at this point!
> >
> > 73, Dick WC1M
> >
> >
> >
>
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