[TowerTalk] How do you move a gin pole *safely* up the tower?

[Dick Green WC1M]

It sounds like you're not collapsing the gin pole (bringing the head down to
the clamp) when you are trying to move it. That definitely makes it much
harder to attach the clamp.

I tried it a couple of different ways:

1. Leaving the rope tied to the section you just raised, climb down to the
clamp, loosen the pole set screw and let the pole slide down to the clamp.
Tie the rope around the head so that it can't slide through. Remove the
clamp from the tower and let the gin pole dangle from the rope. Climb back
up to the top of the section you just installed and use the rope to haul the
clamp/head up to your level. Attach the clamp to the tower, untie the rope
from the head of the gin pole, loosen the set screw, extend the gin pole,
and tighten the set screw.

The hard part of this method is lifting the pole up to your level. If you
use a separate pulley and rope it will be a lot easier (can be done by the
ground crew), but that involves more climbing and rigging.

2. Leaving the rope tied to the section you just raised, tie the rope around
the head of the pole so the rope can't slide through. Climb down to the
clamp and remove it from the tower. The pole will be dangling from the top
of the section you just installed. Slide the clamp up the pole as you climb
back up to the head. This will require loosening the set screw to slide the
clamp and tightening the set screw so you can let go to climb. When you get
there, attach the clamp to the tower, untie the rope from the head, extend
the gin pole, and tighten the set screw.

The hard part of this method is having to clip and unclip yourself to the
tower in order to free a hand to loosen the set screw, slide it up, and
tighten the set screw. You also have to be careful not to drop the clamp or
it will fall all the way to the ground. I attached a safety line to the
clamp to prevent this.

I'd be interested to hear how the pros do this. I consider it probably the
hardest part of stacking a tower.

73, Dick WC1M 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: R Atkins [mailto:rusty_atkins at yahoo.com]
> Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 7:18 PM
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] How do you move a gin pole *safely* up the tower?
> 
> Hey all! Things all going rather well, we are up to 35 feet so far.
> other than a few mis-starts, all is good except for one thing... How do
> you get the gin pole *safely* up to the next level? It seems like
> ideally they would have two clamps (I don't know if that's right or
> not)... but this one doesn't.
> 
> When I get it up to where I need to mount it, it becomes *very*
> unwieldy. The leverage 8-10 feet up makes it nearly impossible to keep
> vertical with one hand while I try to clamp it to the tower leg with my
> other hand.
> 
> If you can help.. please reply directly as we are stacking
> sections/building the tower as I write this.
> 
> Thanks!
> Rusty
> K0FE
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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