[TowerTalk] questions on the use of a man-bucket and guy tensioning 5/16" EHS

[StellarCAT]

Hello,

This is directed at those that have had direct experience with the use of a crane and a man bucket. 
My antenna/tower project, at least the major part of it (one of the two towers) is finally getting close to being done. I’ve ordered the crane for the end of next week ... so I can get a man bucket for an additional $150. There are 6 large yagis to be installed – well 5 and a rotary dipole for 80/75 which is also BIG in that regard ... there’s currently 74’ of tower up on the K0XG rotating base and 2 rings ... I’ve built another 60’ of tower with the second ring on it ... that will go up first and the top section of guys installed. 

then I have 14’ of tower that will already have mounted on it (I hope) the rotary dipole at the top and a 5 element 50’ boom 20 mounted just above the leg of the tower (R55). That whole assembly will go up as one and thus 2 antennas will be finished once this is bolted in to place. 

Then there are 4 yagis to go up along the height of the tower from 124’ down to 45’. I had planned on just having a guy on the tower stuff (no choice there of course) ... and then have him climb down the tower as we go from the top down with the 4 remaining antennas 124’, 90’, 75’, 45’. This means I’ll have to lash up the antenna on the ground to the crane hook and then of course the crane will raise it up to him where he can hopefully bolt it in place (2 plates on the boom already in place for the boom to tower mount). 

But the guy that is doing the climbing is saying the man bucket will make putting the antennas up easier. Having never used one I’m writing to get the comments of those that have used one. 

How is the antenna ‘held’ to the man bucket? And whatever that is does that get in the way of mounting the antenna when at the tower. I.e. you have the side rails of the man bucket that would be ‘hitting’ the tower – will the antenna ‘move in” to position and still be SAFELY held until bolted in place? 

Is it really any faster? 

I assume it could be considered safer as the guy would be in the man bucket and not climbing the tower but obviously one expects whomever that is to be careful and always be strapped in when climbing ... 

thoughts please? 

And on another note: the top guys are 5/16” mixed with 11200# philly (50%) ... how much tension do you need to pull out of the ‘free’ cable before attaching it to the turnbuckle? I’m worried about not pulling enough and having to redo the big grip ... on the bottom set of guys (the bottom 2 sets are 1/4”) I managed to do just that – I pulled too much and had to redo the big grip. Of course on the 5/16” the worry is more that I won’t pull enough and will run out of turnbuckle adjustment space. Put another way: how fast does the tension go up as one adjusts the turnbuckle? If the turnbuckle has 12” range – will that pull up even a relatively loose guy to full tension of 1100# before running out of adjustment room? 

Gary
K9RX