[TowerTalk] Terry's Tiltover

[Clay Autery]

Key word: overloaded.

Any tower can fail if it is overloaded.
Any tower may fail if it is forced to perform outside its specified 
engineering limits.

72 feet is 12 feet more than my tower and I have no experience with one 
that tall.  Deal is... you don't put more on them that the manufacturer 
says you can put on them.
Even steel towers require periodic checks and services to remain functional.

For me... at 60 feet (limited to 65' by local regs without a fight), 
there is no better solution. Especially since "She who will be obeyed" 
dictates that I not climb towers.  :)

I get the "nervous" thing...  I was nervous the first time I saw my 
tower coming down with a huge SteppIR, et al. at the top with the 
tilt-plate.....  rapidly replaced by amazement at how sturdy it is in 
the horizontal position.  I will still support it when down at the 40-50 
foot point just to stop it from laterally moving when working at the 
top, but it's not required.

Bottom Line: Design your tower with some headroom in the capacity for 
the tasks it is required to perform....

Tall heavy stuff is NOT the place to be a cheap b at sterd HAM. <big grin>

73,
Clay


On 10/25/2017 8:34 AM, Steve Maki wrote:
> Many years ago I had a couple customers with 72' aluminum Acme screw 
> towers.
>
> They always made me nervous as I let them down. NOT because I was 
> worried about the screw failing, but that the tower itself would fail 
> when close to horizontal. Both towers were at least a little 
> overloaded, and who could know whether all of the structural members 
> were still at new strength?
>
> One might surmise that if it stays up in big wind it can handle the 
> foldover procedure...but I've seen more than a few overloaded aluminum 
> towers that were fine in big winds until one day they were not.
>
> -Steve K8LX