[TowerTalk] Question about lowering a Fold-Over tower

[Wayne Kline]

eice fori... interesting Video of the fellow on the fold up ladder  on the falling derrick.. is not  field day fun ? I have two 100' towers both with 50'  of rohn 25 2 90 deg . and use it as the falling derrick . works well.  But that's a 50% split and the tower guys 4 ways to control side to side movement. But if were telling Horror stories. About 25 years ago I answered an ADD in the Yellow sheets fro 80' ft of Rohn 45. it was west of Binghamton 30 or so miles.. So we set a date for me to get there, WOW what a trip in the back lands !! I got to the log cabin along this River( Susquehanna I think) and was about 1 hour late. I back my trailer in the lane and got out , Just  then a women told me There down by the river taking down your Tower.. WOW.. Must have loaned a jin pole from some one Hummm did not need mine. So I grabbed my Climbing belt, my 1/2 and 9/16 wrenches and sockets. popped them plus some other tower stuff and headed into the direction of of the River. Just as I rounded a grove of pines I looked in Horror to see Three grown MEN on on a small low boy international with a  rope attached to the tower at the 40' level ( first layer of 3 way guying. the other at the 80' level) One Older type was on the  tractor, one other fellow  was  30 to 40 ft from me Leaning at a 45 deg angle holding  the  disconnected equalizer plat and two level of guys and the Third was just  snapping the last guy with a bolt cutter  near the tractor.NOooooooooo  I was yelling  and the fellow on the tractor started to creep towards  the base and the fellow  closet to me yanking on the tower... what direction y do you think this thing is coming down. Yes  My way.. As i dropped my bucket of tools and spun and ran. the last thing i glimpse was the tractor sliding on it's side and picking up speed as it left  bounced in my general direction. After the big THUD and dust settled. there were three grown  not in shock buy laughing like a bunch of kids who just pulled a prank.    Needless to say the 60% of the  was JUNK   I salvaged two  sections and a peice for a concrete stub.  This tower was part of a Flood system that monitored the river height with a floating bobber on a rod in the concrete pit  and relayed it with a pair of  stationmaster antenna  to some state of gov agency   Some  scary experience for sure. They  were not up set at all. spent most of the time uprighting the Lowboy  and cutting up the junk tower with my saws all. PS they gave me the pieces I salvaged :) Wayne W3EA