[TowerTalk] Trylon 72' Tower

[Byron Tatum]

Hello-
   I have the heaviest version of the Trylon "Titan" 72' self supporting tower. It has been up about 9 years approx. About 3 years ago this tower experienced winds of about 100 MPH, as my location was in the eyewall of Hurricane Ike for about an hour.
   The tower only had a stacked pair of M2 432-13WL yagis on it at the time. It damaged the yagis severely and put a slight (permanent) bend in the 2" OD x 6061-T6 mast.
   However, my concern is that we noticed, right after the storm had passed, that the tower had a noticeable "lean", in the upper third or so. toward the east. The strongest winds during the eye were from the west. It is hard to tell exactly, but when sighting up either of the legs on the east side (it is leaning slightly to the east)  it appears there is a change in the direction of legs about 30' up. However, what bothers me is that it appears there is a steady curving going up either leg on east side, making me think the tower suffered a bend.
  Right after the storm I removed the yagi remnants and rotator, secured the mast and left it until I had time to try and correct it.
  A friend of mine told me that what I needed to do was to examine the bolted leg junctions and see where the west-side leg pulled upward, with east side legs moving downward. Then, loosen the west-side leg bolts and pull that side back downward, which should fix the problem. I have examined the bolted leg junctions but really cannot tell if there was any movement.
  I thought I would ask: Would it be more likely that the bolted leg junctions changed (due to uplift on upwind side and compression on downwind side) or did the tower just get bent? 
    Thanks, Byron WA5THJ