[TowerTalk] DROPPING A TOWER

[kq2m at kq2m.com]

Hi Bill,

One other thought.....

Before you bring anything down, I would climb to about 10' below the top 
set of guys (I'm assuming that you have them at either 120' or 130'), 
and attach a very heavy solid pull rope  long enough to reach the ground 
plus another 100' or so.

After you set everything else up (additional two tensioned guys ~ 70'), 
and guys made tighter on either side of the direction of the fall at 
each guy level, I would loosen the tower bolts in the bottom section of 
the tower to allow for more tower flexing and movement.  (do NOT remove 
the bolts! just loosen them as much as possible)

Then I would position a vehicle no less than 175' from the base of the 
tower (tower height + 30%) and tie the free end of the rope to the 
chassis of the vehicle (even better is to tie the rope to a trailer 
hitch if you have one) and then slowly drive forward in the direction 
that you want the tower to fall (direction of the lean) and pull the 
tower down.

Hopefully it will all proceed smoothly.

73

Bob, KQ2M



On 2024-09-21 11:57, kq2m at kq2m.com wrote:
> Hi Bill,
> 
> I would approach dropping your tower the same way that I would approach 
> chainsawing down an extremely heavy, very tall tree.
> 
> 1) First I would carefully assess the direction of the "lean" of the 
> tower.  Almost all towers lean in some direction, especially near the 
> top.  If the lean is pronounced then you want the tower to fall in this 
> direction, same as if you were chainsawing a tree to bring it down.  
> You want gravity to work FOR you not against you.
> 
> 2) Then I would climb to about the 70' level and I would attach to 
> temporary guys and tension them significantly to the two guy anchors on 
> either side of where you want the tower to fall.  (You want the tower 
> to fall in-between those two guy anchors) Then add tension to  the 
> original guy wires on either side of where you want the tower to fall.
> 
> Increase the tension on all the other guy wires (at the different 
> heights) on either side of the direction in which you want the tower to 
> fall.  But increase the tension the most on the TOP set of guys between 
> which direction you want the tower to fall.
> 
> Now you have 4 guy wires at significant tension in the middle of the 
> tower as well at ~ 40' and ~ 120' and you want the tower to be leaning 
> more noticeably in the original direction of the lean.
> 
> 3)   Now loosen the guy wires behind the tower in the direction 
> opposite to where you want the tower to fall. (If you want the tower to 
> fall to the NE, then loosen the SW guy wire.  Start with the TOP guy, 
> then loosen the middle guy and then the bottom guy.
> 
> 4) Wear a hardhat and move back from the base of the tower very 
> quickly.
> 
> 5) Now the tower should be starting to fall and if you did it right and 
> there are no other issues, the tower fall should take only ~ 5 seconds. 
>  LOL!
> 
> With trees of course you don't have back guys to consider so it is 
> simpler and more dangerous.  The tower should be much easier to deal 
> with.
> 
> Best of luck!
> 
> 73
> 
> 
> Bob, KQ2M
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 2024-09-21 09:19, cqtestk4xs--- via TowerTalk wrote:
>> In a few weeks I will be taking down a 136 ft Rohn 55 tower with its 
>> base set in concrete.  I won't be taking it down section by section, 
>> but rather dropping the whole thing.
>> I have some pre-conceived ides as to how to do it, but have never done 
>> it beiore.  No issues with power lines or neighbor's property...noner 
>> are an issue.  Lots of cleared space folr the tower to be dropped.
>> Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>> Bill K4XS/V31XX
> 
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