[TowerTalk] Manually crank down a motorized tower

[Dick Blumenstein]

Hello Bob-

I've got a 73' crank up tower and have thought about that, too.

I guess it depends on what failed. If the motor just died, you could, of 
course, clamp the coupling shaft and then replace the motor. If the 
control box failed, you could replace that. However, if the gear box 
failed and locked up and wouldn't rotate, then you would have a much 
larger issue assuming the tower is in the cranked up position. My 
initial thoughts would be to cinch another wire cable onto the wire 
cable going up the tower with multiple U-clamps and connect that wire 
cable to a come-a-long to the base of the tower and pull down on the 
tower cable. That would alleviate the tension on the motor/gear/drum 
assembly and allow you to fix/replace the gearing mechanism.

Dick, K0CAT

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Robert Harmon wrote on 3/20/2019 7:40 PM:
> I have a US Tower HDX589MDPL with the motorized drum.  I was wondering what I would do in the event that something failed in the control box and I needed to crank it down.
> The gearbox has a worm gear and I believe I could temporarily take off the chain and turn the gear box sprocket by hand.  I would have to turn it until the cows come home but I think I could crank it down.  Am I correct about this ?  Have any of you had to crank down your motorized tower by hand ?
>
> Bob
> K6UJ
>
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