[TowerTalk] ma550 guying

[jim Jarvis]

Ignoring, for the moment, the prime directive,  let's look at what  
you're doing if you
guy a crankup tower.

The lateral forces on the tower, which cause it to flex and shed  
load, are transferred to
the guys, and to the vertical structure itself.   With a crankup,  
that means to the hoist cable!
The cable is not specified for anything more than lifting the weight  
of the tube, with some
safety margin.

Thus, adding guys to the ma550, or any similar light duty tower, will  
NOT increase its load
capacity, or its safety, but will reduce it.

Now, if you upgraded the winch cable, carefully calculating the  
downforce resulting from the
increased load area you plan, and the increased wind zone withstand  
which the zoning requires,
you COULD add capacity to the structure.    But in that case, be  
prepared to present an engineering
wet seal to your zoning people to justify the structural decisions.

It's a whole lot easier and cheaper to follow the prime directive,  
don't you think?

N2EA

Jim Jarvis, MBA
President-Executive Coach
The Morse Group, LLC
732 548 5573 office
908 410 9130 cell

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Achieving Results in a Changing World
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