lattice towers???

[breezyears]

Hello all,
 I was wondering if anyone knows the names of a couple of different lattice tower manufacturers?
I purchased a 30 footer of a fellow down the street, and would like to see if I can find out who makes it, so I can find some load ratings. I have looked on-line and am only able to find enormous towers.
 I can tell you that the tower I purchased is triangular and is about 24 inches at the base, and tapers to about 10 inches at the top.

[Mary B]

Look inside the legs, if the section say BX1, BX2, etc it is rohn BX series and is very light duty TV tower. I have seen TV antennas bring it down in a high wind. Do NOT put a wind gen on it.

[thirteen]

Look around  your area and see if there are any other towers made the same way. There maybe a name on one of those towers. Just a thought. 13

[SparWeb]

Possibly Rohn or Delhi, but who can say?
They put lots of datasheets on their websites so you should be able to look through them and figure it out - or at least know what it isn't.

I have analyzed a number of free-standing lattice towers for a ~3KW, 14-ft diameter turbine that I want to build.  I always found them lacking, even though they had 36" space between legs at the base.  Sure if I compromise, and use only 50 feet (but I already have a 45-ft tower) or put guy wires on (but my mono-pole tower already has guy wires) then I can make the math work out fine.  But there would be no point of putting a big turbine on a short tower, as you know.  Every time, I find that the legs are not sturdy enough for the gyroscopic effects of the turbine yawing, if I count the thrust force on the blades and there is a weight of ice at the same time.  The bent-angle legs will buckle and collapse.

If the legs of your tower are tubes, not angles, then it's worth pursuing a litter farther; you may have something.

But as said already, anything that looks like a TV antenna tower is not fit for a wind turbine.  They make great anemometer / weather station masts through!  If you want to use it for that I can tell you a little more.

[Mary B]

Delhi numbered the sections the same as Rohn BXn n being the section number from 1-8. Very common light duty tower, I just gave some away because it was to light to hold the ham antenna I want to put up.

[breezyears]

Its a dmxhd. I looked it up HD stands for heavy duty. Their are five sections @ 8 feet. I will be adding guy wires to it. if I decide to put a turbine on it. I have to disassemble it and get it home first. 40 feet doesn't look that high from the ground, but when I got up their... holy @#$%. I had to go up with a torch in order to get the bolts out, cleaned, then put back in. I will be going back to do the actual disassembly later this week with the help of a gin pole.

[Mary B]

Delhi light duty tower, equivalent to a Rohn HDBX 40 They will not handle guying, and they will not handle twisting. Check it over well for popped rivets on the x bracing.

[breezyears]

Delhi sells the brackets to guy the tower. Do they just sell them as a gimmick?
I'm surprised that know one has asked what type of genny I was thinking of putting on the tower. It would be a Hugh Piggott 10 footer.
 Would a standard tubular TV tower that was guyed be a better option?
http://www.wade-antenna.com/Wade/DMX.pdf

[klsmurf]

This is from the PDF. Don't think your 10' would be up very long.

DELHI TOWERS
DMX Tower Load Limits

DMXHD Heavy Duty Towers are designed to support up to 9 square
feet (0.84 m projected wind area)

[Mary B]

Delhi went out of business rather quickly and sold the design to Rohn who flat out says do not guy it. The tower isn't heavy enough to handle the extra down forces on the legs. I saw a lot of these twisted off at roof level by winds coming over the house. All they had on top were light TV antennas and a 1 sq foot business band antenna

[breezyears]

I have a new plan.
 The reason I want to use a lattice tower is. I don't have the room to tilt up a guyed pole. so I think that I can erect a pole in the center of the lattice tower, and use the tower as a ladder to attach guys to the pole. I only paid $50 for the tower so I think it will be perfect for this.
 Has anyone done something like this? I cant see their being any issues with this, seeing how the tower is acting strictly as a ladder with no load on it at all.

[Mary B]

long as no force is put on the tower, climbing those is VERY uncomfortable with the X bracing, been there done that.

[Frank S]

I have a couple of questions that I hope you have already thought out
First off you as much as said that you are very limited for space and cannot tilt up a pole. That being the case how are you planning on erecting a pole then using the lattice as a ladder?
  Are you planning on standing several short sections of pipe within the lattice and doing a simultaneous lift and erection as you go up ?
  If so your tower sections being 8ft and pipe being 21 ft this makes for a trickey build to say the least.
 if you are planing on erecting the lattice work then standing the pipe along side. Proly a much safer and easier way of doing it the lattice needs to be guyed at least temporarily for safeties sake then it could be used to haul up the sections of pipe
 Even though the lattice tower is not suitable for use as a turbine tower you could construct a telescopic center pole in it with a short 3 ft jib to serve as a crane as long as the lattice would be guyed from the very top and bottom of the top section then about middle way up the tower this would serve well enough for lifting the pipe sections of the turbine tower and the turbine itself  even if you had to do it peace meal 
 Lets say your turbine tower turned out to be 50 ft  your lattice tower is only 40 ft your telescopic jib would have a 10 ft sleeve made into the top section which would stick up less than 2 ft this could be a 3 inch pipe the telescopic jib column would be 2-1/2 inch pipe
 I wouldn't want to lift more than 200 lbs at a time  and only a few inches out from the center, even with the lattice tower guyed as I described previously

[breezyears]

my plan is to pour a concrete pad for both the lattice tower, and the pole. The lattice tower will be hinged from the slab, and I will have a nest for the pole to rest in on the pad in the center of the tower. The pole I have is 4 inch irrigation pipe... two lengths at 20 feet each. These will be coupled with a 3 foot split section of the same type of irrigation pipe. I will be putting a stout pole on the top of the pole for the turbine. I will lay the pole in the tower and raise the hole issue with a tractor and a couple of buddies. Once the tower is up it will be secured. The tower will now be safe enough for me to climb. The pole will be set in its nest, and guy wires will be run threw the tower to their anchor points. This is now a guyed monopole with a ladder around it.
 I will put the turbine on its stub with a gin pole.
If I feel that the tower wont be strong enough for me and the turbine I will temporarily guy it. But I don't think it will be necessary, I have been up the tower a few times now and its quite ridged.  MAN... AM I CRAZY

[SparWeb]

my plan...

 

Please don't.

MAN... AM I CRAZY

Maybe, but thankfully I wiggled my fingers out of the strait-jacket to type a warning to you.

[Frank S]

if I've got your plan straight you will actually only be using the lattice tower as a means of reaching the turbine while it is mounted on top of the guyed mono pole.
 the ladder ides has its merits as long as you can #1 secure the turbine blades so they cannot turn or  move at all while you are on the tower. #2 you use a double hook safety climbing harness #3 at no time can the guys ever come in contact with the lattice in any wind
 #4 you do not try to carry any part or tools as you are climbing but raise every thing via a cable or suitable rope tackle or winch . then you are probably on tract
 Most accidents on towers happen from 2 things trying to carry things as one is climbing or sudden movements.
  When I was a teenager I used to service water windmills with an older cousin of mine many of them had broken safety brakes was why we were contacted for repairs. even in seemingly calm winds the fan could suddenly swing round and start spinning  I would carry up a pair of BOLA rigs attached to along rope then stop just below the bottom of the fan tie myself off and toss the BOLA over the fan then pull it tight and tie it off only after the second BOLA had tangled in the fan from the opposite side would we climb to the top to begin repairs .
 One time while servicing a 17ft dia fan on a 60 ft tower a rouge gust of wind caused the fan to twist around with 4 snag lines holding it  and knocked Daryl off his footing had he not been roped to the tower he would have surely been seriously injured or worse
 A bola is a throwing weapon with 2 usually 3 weighted balls attached to  separate lanyards with a long rope attached to their central connection point  very effective for capturing windmill fans as well
 You will find that among this bunch safety is the top priority when it comes to flying a turbine of any size

[breezyears]

Yes, the lattice tower is only for attaching the guys to the pole, and to mount the turbine. I do have a good safety harness. I will climb the tower and hoist up a gin pole. Attach the gin pole. And have a friend on the ground hoist the turbine to me for mounting, followed by the tail.
 I have 250 feet of quarter inch aircraft cable that I got for $20 This should be plenty strong for the guys. The guy anchors will be 10 inch concrete tubes 4 feet deep. U shaped re-bar will be set in the concrete the full depth.
 For a tower that is 40 feet, this should be plenty.

[Bruce S]

Pardon the new tangent 
I believe Frank S summed it up nicely . We tend do go overboard "some would think" on safety. But stafety means no accident and more fun.
I'm nearly convinced that a new FAQ should be started that deals specificlly with safety with subsections for not only each type, but also differences with due respect to country specific when necessary.
Little things like cone shaped concert instead of standard for footings, or grounding are often overlooked but shouldn't be.
Cheers
Bruce S