[TowerTalk] Gin Poles

[Michael Goins]

Many clubs also have them, so they are around to borrow. Check around you -
you might be surprised.

mike
k5wmg

2008/10/3 Gary Jones <garyejones at cmaaccess.com>

> The truth of the matter is that there is $200.00 worth of metal in the Rohn
> gin pole. However, if you do it right (in building it yourself), it is
> going
> to cost a lot more than that for the professional machining and fabrication
> work to get one made locally right. When I first began tower work 30 years
> ago, I built a gin pole from a heavy wall piece of aluminum pipe, u-bolts,
> and a heavy farm pulley simply hooked over the top of the pipe. My first
> version did not stand off the leg of the tower because it was u-bolted to
> the tower leg. The pulley did not stand off the top of the pole either
> since
> it was simply hooked over the top. What I discovered was that it was very
> difficult to attach the gin pole quickly onto the tower and it was a maybe
> 15 minute job to get it attached, get the bolts torque down and ready to
> go,
> and then I discovered that because there was no clearance between pole and
> tower leg, that it was nearly impossible to get the new tower leg to slide
> over the top of the lower tower section (the gin pole was clamped to). It
> could be done, but it was time consuming. And it was impossible to get any
> screws through the legs to bolt down the new section. Then it would take 20
> minutes to disconnect the gin pole, hang it off the side of the tower,
> place
> the tower leg bolts, and move it up to the next level. Finally, I ran into
> a
> situation where there was a lot of side torque on my home brew gin pole,
> and
> I bent the heavy duty EMT off to about a 45 degree angle before I got the
> situation under control. The next week, I purchased a commercial gin pole.
> I
> considered it a "life investment: (I would use it for the rest of my life).
> The single biggest factor with my commercial gin pole is that I can slap it
> into position in 30" and it holds itself while I torque down the wing nut
> bolts  and it is ready to use in less than a minutes (and can be done with
> one hand)…. When you are up 120 feet, that means a lot.
>
>
>
> The Rohn gin pole is very expensive, but worth it. Ten – Ten Corporation (I
> can't remember their logo X-II? or something) makes a kit that is good if
> you can find the right quality of tubing to put between the clamp and the
> pully assembly.
>
>
>
>              Gary      W5FI
>
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