[TowerTalk] WT-51 remote/winch

Thu Jul 10 09:44:34 EDT 2008

Thanks for all the inputs/suggestions.  They are much appreciated.

I already have emailed Karl about motorizing the WT-51, but have not yet heard back from him.

I am still trying to develop a concept for a positive pulldown mechanism with electric winch.  However, I am also planning to add some extra safety features (based on everyone's safety concerns expressed), such as power interlock and cameras and lights to ensure that I can see the sections as they come down remotely.

Once I develop a concept and validate that it works, I will share it on TowerTalk.

I am also still looking for a good schematic for a remote control unit, with relays, time delays, etc. which can be activated remotely with a couple control wires.  If anyone has a good schematic (with parts list), it would save me some time.

-Thanks,
Bill, N6DAG

Bill:

When I bought my W-51 in 1992 from TriEX I asked their
then sales mgr. Mike Feryan, who I ran into at Dayton
this year, about motorizing it.  He said that tower
was never designed to be motorized.  If I find his
business card, he works for another company now since
TriEx itself went out of business, I'll give you his
e-mail address.  Or better yet, if you'll e-mail Karl
Tashjian at Tashjian Towers (contact e-mail should be
on their website) he can tell you exactly.  Karl was
the Califnrnia engineer who was one of the designers
of the W-51 and his "wet stamp" is on the engineer
drawings I received when I bought by W51 in 1992. 
Karl now ha "sort of" revived the old TriEx line of
towers.

Tom, WW5L

--- NPAlex at aol.com wrote:

> Bill,
> The cautions that you have received are very real
> potential problems when  
> motorizing a crank-up tower.  Although I have not
> worked with the Tri-Ex WT  
> series, I have motorized, and remote controlled
> several Tri-EX LM-470 towers,  
> and currently have a US Tower HD-589 that has the
> remote feature.
>  
> The RMC-1000 controller is a US Tower item, and is
> nothing more than a  
> grouping of switches and indicator lights for power
> on, Remote/Local, Tower UP  and 
> Tower Down.  It does not supply power to operate the
> winch motor, but  does 
> control a remote relay that does activate the remote
> control box at the  tower. 
>  That box contains relays for UP and DWN (reverses
> the motor  rotation), two 
> time delay relays to prevent switching direction too
> quickly (if  you don't 
> delay, the motor keeps going in the same direction).
> and also  interfaces with 
> UP and DWN limit switches.
>  
> One key issue is the winch type and drum size.  The
> type should be  worm gear 
> driven, a ratio of about 40:1, The drum size in the
> 3 to 4 inch  diameter, 
> and the length must be capable of hold all the cable
> in ONE single  layer.  You 
> can not jumble wind cable when using a positive pull
> down  cable.  You do need 
> a long eyebolt with a very heavy coil spring of at 
> least 8 to 10 inches long 
> (a 51 foot tower may get away with less).  This 
> spring maintains positive 
> tension on the down cable, and compensates for the 
> normal stretch or give in 
> the cables.
>  
> The amount of UP cable that spool onto the drum is a
> function of the lift  
> cable design - Late model LM-470 towers this cable
> went to the top of the base  
> section, down to the bottom of the first moveable
> section, and then back to 
> the  top of the base section.  This is a two to one
> mechanical advantage, and  
> the amount of cable winding onto the drum is double
> the length that the first  
> section moves.
>  
> 
> From: "Bill Kerns" <bill at billkerns.com>
> Subject: [TowerTalk]  Tri-Ex WT-51 Electric Winch
> with Pulldown
> Mechanism  and    RMC-1000
> To:  <towertalk at contesting.com>
> Message-ID:  <000001c8e09e$e2570ef0$ac00a8c0 at Bill>
> Content-Type:  text/plain;    charset="us-ascii"
> 
> I recently purchased a  used Tri-Ex WT-51 tower with
> manual winch.
> 
> I want to install an electric  winch on the tower to
> allow me to raise and
> lower it.
> 
> Since the tower  will be located remotely from the
> house (about 200-300
> feet), I'd also like  to figure out a way to raise
> and lower it remotely.
> 
> 
> I have also found  a used RMC-1000 remote controller
> and am considering using
> it in conjunction  with an electric winch.
> 
> However, I have heard that there is a pulldown 
> safety issue involved with
> this tower.  So I need to have a way to pull  down
> the top antenna tower
> sections, as the tower is being lowered, to ensure 
> that it does not get hung
> up on the way down.  My understanding is that  the
> WT-51 top sections may
> sometimes bind on the way down, so having this 
> second cable pulldown
> mechanism will prevent that.
> 
> I am considering a  single winch with 2 cables wound
> in opposite directions,
> so that as one cable  winds up, the other cable
> unwinds.  Then I need to add
> some pulleys to  route the second cable through the
> middle of tower up to the
> top section, so  that when the tower is lowered,
> this cable will pull down
> the top section as  the other cable releases. 
> However, someone said that
> this might be  problematic, since the 2 different
> cables may not wind/unwind
> at the same  rate, so I also will need a spring
> mechanism to take up the
> slack as the  cable winds/unwinds.
> 
> I would appreciate whatever advice anyone could 
> provide to help with this
> installation- such as recommended electric winch 
> model part numbers,
> suggested ideas for using RMC-1000 or similar remote
>  system, pulley layout,
> etc.  I also wonder what the maximum distance is 
> that the RMC-1000 will
> operate remotely, since there will be 200-300 foot 
> separation between the
> house and antenna tower.
> 
> I am also looking for  a softcopy of the RMC-1000
> schematic and manual, if
> anyone has  one.
> 
> -Thanks,
> 
> Bill, N6DAG
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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