FYI:


I bought some new parts for my Rohn 25 from OldTowerGuy on Ebay,
and one was a hinged base. Well, it took me almost a day to get the
3 pins on the base into the legs in the tower. When I wrote them they
told me that Rohn had changed plants recently and they were not
keeping their dimensions up to spec. Only thing wrong with this
excuse is that this was a brand new section that had been in storage
for many years, unused (I had 3 of them). I tried to get the thing on
several new and used sections, same exact problem.

Then after using a car scissors jack and axe and baseball bat to
finally get the 3 pins into the base, he holes on one leg would not
line up, no matter what. I got bolts into holes on two legs, but the
other two were off in two dimensions. They were too far into the leg
for holes to line up, and then on the axis they were off too. It took
two of us some time with car scissors jack wedged between crossarm and
base plate to force the two holes to line up vertically, but they were
still not lined up axially. We tried all kinds of drifts,
screwdrivers, and so forth, and was about to redrill the hole, when we
were finally able to force one of the bolts through the leg, then the
last one lined up after beating it in with a baseball bat.

Luckily I decided to try to see how the hinge worked. I did notice
that even though the holes for the hinged
portsions are for 1/2 inch bolts, they shipped the thing with all 3/8"
bolts. I went to Fastners store and bought stainless 7/16" bolts to
allow for a bit of slack, and guess what? The thing is so far out of
alignment that it would not go down to flat position so you could put
the
two captive bolts in to hold the tower upright. The fartherst you can
get the tower down is at about a 5 or 10 degree angle.

I'm hoping they take it back but with EBAY you never know what will
happen or what you will lose.



Caveat Emptor - I'm sticking with Rohn from now on.

Jim WA5DXP

Jim wrote:
FYI:


I bought some new parts for my Rohn 25 from OldTowerGuy on Ebay,

Rohn changed their name to Frankfort Tower Industries, went bankrupt,
and sold the assets to Radian Communication Services in 2003.

Don't be surprised if new "Rohn" stuff is a different than old "Rohn"
stuff.

--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

You really need to make sure things are all aligned and fit before pouring
the footing. Even then a 3# sledge can come in handy. It's good you at
least had parts that "could" fit.

Thanks for that information. Perhaps the American Tower parts is
made for the "New" Rohn, as the tower sections I am using are
brand new old stock I bought about 30 years ago and put in storage
for when I wanted to upgrade the towers. Ike took care of my
Rohn 25, so anyway, the problem is quality control at the American
Tower factory not the Rohn changes. Either their manufacturing jigs
are a joke, or the welder was hungover the day they fabricated this
hinged base, but I know they deliberately knew it was bad, as the
hinge bolts and securing bolts are 1/2" to take the load. They
shipped the thing with 3/8" bolts to allow slack in several
directions, and even that would not work. In order to get the hinge
to work, get this, you have to remove ALL 4 BOLTS. Try that with
a 60 foot tower bolted to the hinge.

Also, the hinge plate was warped, and the pins that go into the legs
of the Rohn ware off in two directions, the holes were axially
rotated so the bolts would not line up, and they would go too far into
the leg so the holes would not line up vertically. It's hard to
describe, but you would have to see this to believe it. I had to use
a automotive scissors jack and gobs of heavy silicone grease, and a
baseball bat and large heavy axe to just get the pins on the hinge to
go into the legs of the Rohn. Two of the legs holes could be made to
line up, the third one was impossible, off in two directions.

Then, the tower people tried to say it was ROHN's fault.... he he. I
sent them digital pictures and have not heard back from them, but
looks like I will have problems getting my money back.

The galvanize was very thick and thorough, heavy plates, it's just
they the parts don't fit together, no after assembly testing, no
quality control, although there was a big red sticker on the thing.
This one really slipped through the cracks. We will see if they stand
behind their products or not. My son just graduated from law school,
would be a good first case for him... he he...

The "Old" Rohn products were excellent, I assembled many a tower over
the years and never had any matching problems. Now I'm going to use
a HAZER with this, my last tower...



Jim



On Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:05:01 GMT, wrote:

Jim wrote:
FYI:


I bought some new parts for my Rohn 25 from OldTowerGuy on Ebay,

Rohn changed their name to Frankfort Tower Industries, went bankrupt,
and sold the assets to Radian Communication Services in 2003.

Don't be surprised if new "Rohn" stuff is a different than old "Rohn"
stuff.

Dear JB;

Don't know if you are familiar with a hinged tower base, but the only
way this one would "hinge" is to remove all 4 bolts. Try that with
a 60 foot tower on the hinge. Yes, I tried everything with two
sections and it was a total nightmare, impossible to work as
advertised. I sent digital pictures to the factory, have not heard
back a peep. I had to use a scissors jack, baseball bat and large axe
just to get the hinge pins inside the tower legs, along with lots of
heavy silicone grease, thent he holes would not line up...






On Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:15:21 GMT, "JB" wrote:

You really need to make sure things are all aligned and fit before pouring
the footing. Even then a 3# sledge can come in handy. It's good you at
least had parts that "could" fit.

And now Radian has been sold...


wrote in message
...
Jim wrote:
FYI:


I bought some new parts for my Rohn 25 from OldTowerGuy on Ebay,

Rohn changed their name to Frankfort Tower Industries, went bankrupt,
and sold the assets to Radian Communication Services in 2003.

Don't be surprised if new "Rohn" stuff is a different than old "Rohn"
stuff.

--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

"Jim" wrote in message
...
Dear JB;

Don't know if you are familiar with a hinged tower base, but the only
way this one would "hinge" is to remove all 4 bolts. Try that with
a 60 foot tower on the hinge. Yes, I tried everything with two
sections and it was a total nightmare, impossible to work as
advertised. I sent digital pictures to the factory, have not heard
back a peep. I had to use a scissors jack, baseball bat and large axe
just to get the hinge pins inside the tower legs, along with lots of
heavy silicone grease, thent he holes would not line up...

Proves my point about checking things out before trying to put it up.

You bought it on Ebay from OldTowerGuy? The name says "let the
buyer beware" In that case, at least you got a "tower". Did you check
how bad the rust was before putting it up?

We have all been burned at some time in our lives. I took a 327 Chevy
block to be rebuilt, and they put me off for over a year. After much
cajoling and even hitting them with a lawsuit just to get (some) of the
parts back, I dropped the suit and they (local mob I guess) sicked
the cops on me and I was followed around and pulled over constantly
and threatened all over town until I joined the service just to get away.
I figured that if I was going to be shot at, I might as well go to war and
get paid for it.

I guess the shop was a front for political contributions or something.