[TowerTalk] Tilting Down a US Tower HDX-589

[Larry Loen]

I believe I use a "bottle jack" as well.  The model I bought had a minimum
distance that was too big, so a buddy of mine cut off a fixture I didn't
need.

In many respects, getting it moving from "rest" is the hardest part of the
whole job of getting the tower down.  One also has to be careful when you
finally get done cranking it back up.  Mine tends to move around a bit
after it falls that last inch or three.  If my finger is in the wrong
place,  I suspect I might lose it.

To get it started from vertical, everything I do is on the "side" of the
antenna, usually leveraged against the part that holds the winch.  I have
not found doing stuff at the bottom to be very effective.


Larry WO7R

On Mon, Feb 23, 2015 at 5:26 PM, Gary Saboe <gerald at saboe.net> wrote:

> A toe jack/lift functions well for this purpose. I use a welded toe jack
> bracket (PD Machine 978-273-4841) that slips over a 4-ton bottle jack to
> lift my UST HDX772 MDPL. Toe jack has "L" shaped bracket that slips over
> the
> 4-ton bottle jack providing a 2" wide by 2-1/4" long projecting lift
> surface
> made from 1/2" thick steel to slip under the back leg of the tower. Jack
> provides 7" of travel. Bought it when PD Machine was selling them on eBay
> --
> seems it was pretty inexpensive -- about $80-90 delivered with a 4-ton
> bottle jack.  There are others for sale on Amazon as well.
>
> Gary, NØGS
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of
> jdlambrightatty at gmail.com
> Sent: Monday, February 23, 2015 5:36 PM
> To: towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Tilting Down a US Tower HDX-589
>
> I have a motorized raising fixture for my US Tower HDX-589MDPL , and just
> last week I successfully raised it to the vertical position for the first
> time.  Everything went very smoothly and effortlessly with the 1 HP motor
> and 50:1 ratio Hub City worm gear drive. Raising takes about 4 minutes. I
> haven't installed my antennas, rotator etc. yet.
>
> My question is what is the best way to get the tower moving from the
> vertical position when I want to lower it to horizontal again? It weighs
> about 2,500 lbs and is sitting very plumb on its base. Of course once it's
> leaned a bit,  the motorized fixture will easily lower it. There's no way
> you can just push it even with some slack in the aircraft cable.
>
> I suspect someone on the list has a simple solution.
>
> J D Lambright
> Montgomery County Attorney
> 936-539-7930
>
> Sent from my iPhone
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