[TowerTalk] Repairing 25G in situ

[lew]

butwheat wrote:

>The bottom two sections of one of my 25G towers has elongated the bolt holes
>to the extent that timberrrrrr is at risk.
>
>I'm tempted to have a local shop cut a steel tube  whose ID matches the OD
>of the legs lengthwise so I can strap it and bolt it to the existing loose
>joints on the outside to keep the ol' buger up.
>
>Thoughts? There's nothing up there but some small V/UHF beams, a discone on
>a sidearm, an inverted vee HF wire offa the other end of the side arm, and a
>small rotor.
>
>Oh, it's about 50' AGL.
>
>
>  
>
Yo,
      That tower is unsafe and needs to be dropped. Too much movement 
has stressed the joints between sections and makes it very dangerous.
A rogue, tall Maple tree attacked the 60' Philly guy on a 120' tower of 
Rohn 25 this past winter during one of the wind storms. It busted the 
Philly and put a serious wow in the tower elongating the bolt holes. It 
was like shooting a favorite terminal dog to drop that tower with a 50' 
beam on top but the possibility of having it come down on a family 
member, or bust something else up was just too great. Don't try to fix 
it- it's toast/finished/done just waiting to wreak havoc.
     Do yourself and family a favor: don't climb it. Drop it or have 
somebody do it who knows how to drop it safely. Then have yourself a 
do-over and put up a 100 footer after you figure out why the bolt holes 
got elongated.
     73 and I  remain,
     Lew    W7EW/W7AT