Guy wire question

[martin1]

I have 12 guy wires. 3 on each side but they are about 40cm (16") too short so I was planning to use a chain for the last part. So my question is can I use a common chain for all 3 wires or do I need 3 chains. One for each wire.

[TomW]

Martin;

Personally, I would not use a common chain because you cannot assure even tension. If each cable has its own turnbuckle then I think it would be OK. It kind of depends on the setup, too.

I decided to double up the lighter than I liked guys on my recent tube tower thats not raised yet.

Here you can see the tension evener black triangle things I used to keep the tension even across 2 cables to a common turnbuckle.

http://www.anotherpower.com/gallery/Tower-Site/100_1301

Otherwise it would be tough to get it right so the load is evenly distributed.

Thanks go to BruceDownunder for that idea!

Just what I am doing.

Tom

[martin1]

I will be using a turnbuckle for each wire. I already have them and I also have enough chains to do it as shown in picture 1. I'm just wondering if that's OK or do I have to buy more chains.

[TomW]

Martin;

I don't see any problems using a single chain to anchor all the turnbuckles to. As long as it can handle the load, of course. A single anchoring point [chain] seems to be the more elegant and neater solution to me.

I must include the disclaimer that I am no expert and am just passing on info gathered from others with much more hands on experience than I will probably ever have.

Maybe one of the more experienced tower raisers will toss in some info.

Good luck with it.

Tom

[wpowokal]

From my experience I have no problems with one chain, providing as Tom said it's strong enough.

The only advantage I see in individual chains is it would be more convenient when adjusting tension. One would be able to move the turnbuckle lower end down one link, when there is insuficient thread left, this beats re-doing the cable end. Having said that it would still work on a single chain but not quite as elegently.

I came by a large roll of "guy" wire that is not that flexable, it is normally used to brace power transmission poles, I plan to use chain/s on the anchor point if/when I use some of that resorce.

allan down under

[SparWeb]

I disagree.  When I look at the diagram it looks like you will be forever adjusting the tension in each cable, only to find it affects the others.  While it's not too hard to cope with two cables coming to the same point, once you add the third, it might be a royal pain.

The tension in the cables is normally maintained by a rigid position in space at anchor point.  Tighten one cable against a rigid anchor, and it won't affect the other cable because it didn't move (well, maybe the tower moved a bit - getting a pipe tower to look straight when you look straight up is an art)  A chain, as you suggest, is free to move around - it describes an arc around the anchor, and the balancing point is wherever it finds all 4 forces in equilibrium.  That's a lot of variables to adjust simultaneously.

For example, after you have the upper one all tightened up, you can find that tightening the lower one makes the top cable even tighter, and the middle one loosens.  So you back off the top one and then as you tighten up the middle one more you find that the top one loosened up even more...