[AT] In the right place at the right time :)

Cecil E Monson cmonson at hvc.rr.com
Mon Apr 12 04:00:47 PDT 2004


> The guy that put ours up in the 70s used a jib crane he made from a
> piece of pipe maybe 2" in diameter and 10' long. About 3' up he welded
> a piece of steel maybe 8" long on each side of the pipe. They had a hole
> in each one so the he could slide a bolt through to make it hang away 
> from the tower. On the top he welded an pulley on it and used a nylon
> piece of rope to pull the sections up. It worked VERY well and was 
> safe to use. He just tied the rope off climbed up the section that the
> crane was on and put the one on that hanging. Make sense?
> 
> Rob 


	Beginning around 1983, I was able to convince Town Councilmen that
it was practical to use water tanks as a support for Rohn 40 towers that
were held with steel brackets that were welded directly to the side of these
tanks. My tower man used this system on all of those I put up. He started with
the base, set a 10' section of tower on it, welded the first bracket to the
tank and bolted it to the tower. He then climbed the section and welded a
second bracket to the tank and secured the tower section to it. He  used a 10'
piece of pipe made just as you describe to lift each section into place. That
section was then set on top of the one welded to the tower and he repeated the
process by fastening the two sections together and welding as he climbed. He
said the 10' section of pipe was about all he could handle by hand as he went
up but was safe to use if he was careful. We used this process to successfully
attach to water tanks as high as 80 feet. Heavier towers that are usuallly
guyed use heavier cranes that work their way up the towers a section at a time
but the principle is the same.

	He said a light guyed tower could be put up the same way - by climbing
and swinging a section at a time up with a jib crane. A guyed tower could very
likely be taken down the same way. But having said that, we were very leery of
old rusty towers put up by others and when we had to take them down - one in
Louisiana was a 400 footer - we just cut the guy wires and let them fall.
Towers can become too dangerous to climb without looking too dangerous. The
system Jerry Rhodes uses to take down these towers will work very well but
the tower should be carefully inspected before and during the climb to attach
the rope. Keep in mind that what can happen is if a guy wire is loose or comes
loose the tower can bend at that point and collapse straight downward without
warning. Carefully check the guys before and during the climb to attach the
rope and you should be OK.

Cecil
-- 
The nicest thing about telling the truth is you never have to wonder
what you said.

Cecil E Monson
Lucille Hand-Monson
Mountainville, New York   Just a little east of the North Pole

Allis Chalmers tractors and equipment

Free advice




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