Help ID my new tower...

[KK4JJF]

My TX-472 weighs about 1000#, plus the TRX80HD raising fixture, plus the 15' tall double-thickness mast, plus the HDR300 rotator... about 1200# or so. I put the haul job on http://www.uship.com/. It's like eBay except, the bids go DOWN. I paid about $1/mile. The seller had a forklift available for loading. I contracted a wrecker to pick it up off the haul trailer and drop it inside my front fence. I used homebrew trucks to move it into the back yard.

I'm not sure if I actually stated it. But I did buy the tower and transport it 100 miles home yesterday morning. My wife was my helper to load and unload the tower. This is the only good part about it being dissembled. However, she did struggle with the largest outer section! :-)

If I can get things sorted it will be a decent deal.

I paid just $370 for the tower. It was in good shape with almost no rust. Just a spot or two. Really really nice for an older Florida tower! See posted Pics! ^

To transport it I borrowed a truck from work, and a car trailer from my brother in law. Wifes labor was free more or less......Total transport cost for the 100 miles was $58 in gas. That's a huge shipping savings over new!

What it does need is cables, and new Fulton 2550 winch, An attacment plate for the winch, and a Base plate. Which I plan to have made by welder friends for cheaper than new. I also need to sort out why the Pulleys plates aren't quite mounting correctly.

In the end, I hope to have a older TX-455 tower (If that's what it is) ready to go for less than the shipping cost of a new tower. I know there will be additional costs, but a new tower would have that too (I.E. - tons of Concrete!)

[WA7PRC]

I know there will be additional costs, but a new tower would have that too (I.E. - tons of Concrete!)

Your next step is to buy and read Up The Tower by Steve Morris K7LXC. While not having specific information for your installation, it will give you insight into what possible problems and concerns you may have. IMO, it was enlightening and a good investment.

[WB2WIK]

I think $370 for a 3-section telescoping tower without the cabling or winch is a really bad deal, but then I'm comparing that to "around here" in Los Angeles, and not where you are.

My W-51, complete with winch, good cables, and fully operational ("ready to go"), along with a Tri-Ex base that had never been used, was $200 locally. It was about 20 years old and being sold by the widow of an active ham. All I had to do is trailer it over here, which was 7 miles. I used a boat trailer and that took an hour.

LOTS of deals like that around these parts; unfortunately, those deals are mostly because a ham died, regretfully. But there's no shortage of them.

[K9XR]

All You Hams in florida: Before you buy a tower make sure you have the endorsement of the "AWSOMEST" so you don't get a "Really Bad Deal". In case you don't know by now, he has done everything and he knows everything and he will give you an answer to any question even if he doesn't really know the answer. He will also give you an answer rather you asked him a question or not. Just remember, he is the AWSOMEST and he has lots of posts. I think that fact alone proves that he knows everything about everything.

I think $370 for a 3-section telescoping tower without the cabling or winch is a really bad deal, but then I'm comparing that to "around here" in Los Angeles, and not where you are.

My W-51, complete with winch, good cables, and fully operational ("ready to go"), along with a Tri-Ex base that had never been used, was $200 locally. It was about 20 years old and being sold by the widow of an active ham. All I had to do is trailer it over here, which was 7 miles. I used a boat trailer and that took an hour.

LOTS of deals like that around these parts; unfortunately, those deals are mostly because a ham died, regretfully. But there's no shortage of them.

[KK4JJF]

I think $370 for a 3-section telescoping tower without the cabling or winch is a really bad deal, but then I'm comparing that to "around here" in Los Angeles, and not where you are.

My W-51, complete with winch, good cables, and fully operational ("ready to go"), along with a Tri-Ex base that had never been used, was $200 locally. It was about 20 years old and being sold by the widow of an active ham. All I had to do is trailer it over here, which was 7 miles. I used a boat trailer and that took an hour.

LOTS of deals like that around these parts; unfortunately, those deals are mostly because a ham died, regretfully. But there's no shortage of them.

It was an excellent deal for around here. Next best deal was a smaller light duty crank up with 7" center section that needed a winch, cables, and was covered in rust. $700. This after a 3 month local search .

[KK4JJF]

For example:

Jacksonville crank up towers - http://jacksonville.craigslist.org/s...wer&catAbb=sss

[WB2WIK]

It was an excellent deal for around here. Next best deal was a smaller light duty crank up with 7" center section that needed a winch, cables, and was covered in rust. $700. This after a 3 month local search .

Wow! Guess it depends where you are, for sure.

Here, unfortunately, we have a lot of Silent Keys coming up and a lot of them had towers that need to be "gone" because the surviving families don't want them. If you're willing to take a tower down and can verify to the family you can do it safely, a lot of these towers are free.

Of course, four of the companies that manufacture(d) extendable towers were/are also located here pretty locally to me. Tri-Ex (now Tashjian) and U.S. Tower are still here, doing that. Previously, Tristao and Wilson were also. Towers are abundant!

[KK4JJF]

Bryan, I sent you a private message!

Back to the plates.
I found something interesting. Specifically regarding the larger plate for the outer section. This is the one that the mounting area on one side of the plate almost looks deliberately bent compared to the smaller plate.

Again the pic:

IMG_0877.JPG

Here's what I found!
If I orient the pulley plate to the tower for "best fit" the plate mounts with the V facing out. This puts both the pulley cables to the "outside" of the tower, and didn't seem right to me. My understanding of the cable routing is that one cable should hang inside of the tower on it's way to the connection point at the bottom of the next inner section.

Still with me?

So I hold the plate against the tower, lay on the ground, and contemplate what the hell is going on. Then I see something!

I see a severe wear mark against one the inner gussets right where you would expect it to be if you bolted the plate up as I had it, and the "forced" one of the cables over so that it hanged inside the section. I happened to see another wear mark on the plate under the pulley that lines up with "terrible alignment".

Wow, what a confusing history, It's as if someone bent the plate (which would take an Godly force) so that they could mount this plate backwards, and cause a severe cable alignment issue! The cut into the gusset is so deep that it may have been installed wrong from the beginning? I wonder if the plate came bolted on from the factory or if the owner did it?

Why would someone do that? I guess I may never know. Holding the plate in the other direction, it looks like the issues may be resolved if the plate was bent to match the smaller one.

I'm going to slide all the sections back together first to better visualize if the rebending will fix all alignment issues!

This is a lot figure out for a newbie that hasn't even been on the air yet!

[WA7PRC]

Bryan, I sent you a private message!

Files sent.

[WA4OTD]

Great stuff JJF! You are doing some good investigative work.