Unorthodox tower support

[imsmooth]

I have a lot of tall trees in my residential area.  I will never get 300' from trees or above them unless the tower is over 100' tall.  However, there are some clear areas with some lower trees that are about 20-30' tall.  Could I take sched 40 or 80 steel 2-2.5" pipe and have the first 24' supported by these trees.  I can wrap cord or steel wires around the tree so the section is secure.  I can plant about 5' of the pipe into the ground.  All I need to do is then secure the upper section.  What do you all think?  Ok or bad idea?

jk

[TomW]

 im;

Well, my first thought is "maybe, but".

The but part is, depending on where you tie off to the trees, they may sway all over the place. Girdling a tree with a cable will probably kill it, also, if that matters. You could bolt through it, I spose to avoid girdling it.

At the base of the tree it will be relatively strong and rigid so it might work. Personally, I wouldn't but others here have done similar things in the past.

I get a fair % of my wind from the East and my 60 foot tower only clears those by 10 feet and are within 50 feet. Open, clean air obviously is best but you may be pleasantly surprised by what works good enough if a compromise is necessary.

Good Luck with it!

Cheers.

TomW

[electrondady1]

imsmooth ,

first of all, are the trees evergreen or deciduous ?

don't rap the tree with anything as that will kill the top or lead to other problems .

last year i needed a tree surgeon to to come in and tune up a 90 ft white ash

it was growing from two points, one vertical and one horizontal at about 30 ft.

the horizontal section was so heavy it was starting to split the tree.

i had him cut the horizontal section off which in itself was about 18"in dia.

as an extra i had the guy drill a 1 5/8" hole through the main trunk at 50 ft.

i got him to insert a 1 1/2 " high tensile strength threaded rod .

it's caulked and bolted in tight on both sides.

on the end of the rod is a stainless steel pulley and rope reaching the ground

i intend to use this as a way to hoist a vawt up into the wind .

i have been too busy this year to do any experimenting .

 all i can say is that the tree has responded well to the bolt and is quickly  putting on new growth at the top to replace the stuff i cut off.

it sounds as if you are going to use multiple trees as a support structure

and tie them together .

i have thought of this as well

it seems as though one would need to build a very rigid connection between the trees in order to stop them swaying independently.

can you make a sketch of what you would like to do?