[TowerTalk] Deviation from plumb

[john at kk9a.com]

Correct!  I use tapered pier pin bases on all of my towers.

John KK9A



Donald Chester k4kyv at hotmail.com

> Ed Earthlink sawyered at earthlink.net wrote:

> You can “make it plumb” with tensioning the guys but honestly is taking a
> few inches off the top necessarily helping the strength if it is stressing
> the base to get there?

That's precisely why the typical hammy hambone method of partly burying the
bottom section of a guyed tower in the concrete base pier is poor engineering.
The proper way is to attach a base plate to the bottom of the tower section,
and set a pier pin in the concrete. The tower  rests on the concrete  
pier with the
pin sticking up through the hole in the base plate.  The tower base  
isn't going
anywhere, but this allows the tower some leeway to sway and perhaps even twist
during heavy wind events and allows for some plumbing adjustment,
without stressing the tower not only at the base, but throughout the  
entire structure.

Burying in concrete may be OK for towers up to 60 ft or so, but beyond
that the pier pin method should always be used.

Don k4kyv