[TowerTalk] Erecting tower sections solo

[Steve Maki]

Fortunately for me I've never needed to work solo, but if I did, I'd be 
thinking along these lines (if the load is more than you can comfortably 
handle with brute force):

Pull your load almost up to where you need it, tie it off.

Climb tower with a cable puller (come-along) and *rope grab*. A rope 
grab is commonly used by tower climbers as part of a temporary fall 
arrest system on towers with no permanent safety climb system. Of course 
you will need a rope grab sized for your rope. In the safety industry 
rope grabs are usually sized for 5/8" rope, but for this purpose will 
work well on 1/2" rope. For 3/8" I believe there are various devices 
(not necessarily from the safety industry) that will work, but not sure 
where to find them.

At the tower top attach your rope grab to the *down* rope. Hook one end 
of the come-along to the rope grab, the other end to a tower horizontal, 
and click away to position the load.

-Steve K8LX


On 12/2/2015 4:22 PM, Zivney, Terry wrote:

> I seem to recall a thread a long time ago about how Bill, KM9P, put up his towers without any assistance.  But, except for posting where he
> stated he did so, I cannot find any details about how he did it.
> In particular, once the tower section is hauled up with the gin pole
> how is the tower section moved up and down as needed to seat it
> on the existing tower?