[TowerTalk] Tail Twister Question

[Earl Morse]

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Is it safe to operate the TX2 while it is laying on its side ?

I don't find anything in the manual EXCEPT for this step in the CHECK OUT section:

D. With the rotator sitting in the upright position
and connected to the control unit by the 8-
wire cable, plug the control unit power cord
into a receptacle.


That statement raised my caution flags.? The rotor is mounted in the tower and the tower is tilted down to horizontal.? I'd like to run it briefly to check things out before I hand crank it vertical.

-Mike-
WA6ZTY


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The T2X and HamIV rotors will function horizontally on a bench all day long.  However, maybe not so with a load on them.  The two bearing sets inside the rotor are set to handle a vertical downward load that puts them in compression.  However, I would think that you could have bearing issues if a lateral load was working against those bearings.  Aside from the water intrusion of this rotor on its side I wouldn't use it horizontally unless the pipe you were turning was already supported by bearings.

The specs on this rotor show a 15 sq ft windload with the rotor mounted inside the tower.  That gets derated by half if the rotor is mounted on the top of the tower or on the mast with the optional bottom mast mount.  More evidence that it doesn't like a lateral load.

Earl
N8SS