[TowerTalk] Moving the heavy tower

[Michael Ryan]

You might transport the tower on a BOAT TRAILER.  They have large tires, can
hold the weight and there are plenty of them around, most with 2" recvrs for
your more common trailer hitch.  My 72ft HyGain made the trip from north of
Orlando to near Bradenton that way no sweat. (Thanks Blake, N4GI for taking
it down and getting it ready to transport.)  It was lifted onto the boat
trailer by a tow truck.  - Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Jon Casamajor
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 9:55 PM
To: towertalk at contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Moving the heavy tower

wpjj at aol.com wrote:

> Jim, I had this same tower a few years ago and had to take it down. 

> Its HEAVY for sure.

Heavy as in how much?

> I think the best bet is to see if you can get a car carrier

>   

I'd much prefer a flat bed or low boy.

> with  a bed lift through the fence, maybe one more fence post would be 

> able to be  taken out?  Rollers of any kind in grass won't work, 

> unless it was a very  hard surface, the rollers would be buried from 

> the weight. You have an advantage

We've used tires on offset axles similar to what the power company uses to
haul power poles to good effect. If it's soft enough that they won't work
you won't get a truck in there either.

>  with the fold over, you could fold over to a height just enough so 

> car carrier  bed can back right underneath it at the proper angle and 

> have the winch on the  car carrier pull it up onto the bed, a few 

> rollers and off you go. Wish you  luck.

>  

>   

A couple of poles or tower sections on each side of what ever you use for a
carriage could be used as a lowering fixture, but I'd need to know just how
much this thing weighs. One ton, two tones, three?

 

Hi All,

This has been a fun thread to follow. There is really no solid answer on
handling a 1500-2000 lb tower. So much of it is empirical engineering that
has to fit the circumstances. Where is it, what has to be done to get it
down, how do I move it, how do I get it off the way I moved it, and how do I
move it once it is at my QTH come to mind.

I bought a used HDX 572 some years ago. It had a lay down strong back, so, I
laid it down onto a back hoe trailer. When I got it home, (60 miles) I hired
a fork lift to pick it up and drove the trailer out from under it. I then
had the operator put it on some 8" treated landscaping round poles that were
roughly aligned to the foundation that I hadn't poured yet.

I poured the foundation, 8'd x 5', 5' with a cage and set the T plate. When
I was ready to mount it, I used the lay down winch to pull the tower to the
T plate mount and used a large pry bar to get the alignment right then
pulled it into nest on the bracket. Piece of cake. It's never been dis
mounted in 21 years and has held up with a variety of loads very well. The
biggest mistake I made was pinning the mast to the rotor which caused some
damage at the top. I feel it is much easier to re-orient the stack than fix
the tower. Since I've done that, no worries, no damage and only one minor
azimuth correction. 

 

Regards,

Jon Casamajor

k6el at comcast.net

 

 

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