Info on using extension tower

[oldculett]

Has anyone used this type of tower? I don't know what it was used for to start with. It is approx.. 10' sections that extends up with a cable winch total of 7 sections, The corner pipes are 3/4” fairly heavy pipe.  I was going to put guywires at the top of each section. the generator is a 10' Piggott type. Thank you for any help.

[TomW]

I would guess it is an antenna tower like for TV or CB or Ham gear. They were quite common in the 70's and I worked on a good few of them in the day.

I wonder how much weight it can "crank up"? Some were a bit hard to crank up with a big antenna alone and they were not that heavy.

definitely need guys for a turbine.

And a solid, deep base.

Tom

[gsw999]

loooks like a pretty good tower, how does the locking mechanism work? will you be using any extra support like welding?

Never used a tower like this but it looks pretty cool.

[tanner0441]

Hi

Another use for those towers was portable lighting, some were trailer mounted with a generator and they were used to light up major road works.  Depending on the generator they could have several KW of lighting fittings on the top.  Some relied on the cable to keep them up without locking, they were well galvanised and made to last.


Brian.

[oldculett]

Yes the cable holds the sections up. I was planing to make the bottom section tilt, for easy access to the turbine. The guys would slacken as it cranked down, except the bottom ones I would to let loose one of those to tilt it. I have played with it some and I believe it will crank up without much trouble.

[letERblow]

 Don't forget that the crank up cable will have to support the weight of the tower + turbine and the downward forces the guy wires impart on it while they are resisting the horizontal forces of the wind loading.

[tanner0441]

Hi

There was also at least one version of the later ones that had a series of concentric rams that could be operated from a compressed air source. I have seen those run from a CO2 cylinder, open the valve and up it went, as long as the rams didn't leak they would stop up for ever, plus once the rams were under pressure it gave the tower extra rigidity. There was a company in the Midlands (UK) that did them from 30ft to 90ft.


Brian.