EZ Way tower sheared hinge pin
 

After doing some work on my antennas today I tilted up my trusty old EZ Way
40ft tower (circa 1959). To my horror, just as I got within a few degrees of
vertical, the hinge pin sheared off on one side. The other side followed
soon thereafter. This left the tower sort of hanging from the lip of the
hinge and the tilt cable. After I got over the initial shock (and expectation
that the tower would fall immediately) I stabilized the situation as best I
could with various U-bolt kludges between the ground pole and the lower tower
segment. The problem is that I can't see any safe way to bring the tower
back down nor do I have the ability to repair the hinge in place (if in fact
that is possible). Help? Is this a known failure mode? The tower itself
is in good shape and I have kept the ground pole well painted, but I assume
that the inside of the hinge just rusted away. It's a little scary having the
tower in this state. :(

Dan Lanciani
ddl@danlan.*com

I'm not familiar with the tower you're talking about, but in general
if it's not safe to take down without one, consider getting a mobile
crane (maybe a "bucket truck" would have enough capacity,
at that height and weight?) ... better to spend some $
than to risk life and limb (or have it fall on your house and cause
expensive damage).

Carl - wk3c

"Dan Lanciani" ddl@danlan.*com wrote in message
...
After doing some work on my antennas today I tilted up my trusty old EZ
Way
40ft tower (circa 1959). To my horror, just as I got within a few degrees
of
vertical, the hinge pin sheared off on one side. The other side followed
soon thereafter. This left the tower sort of hanging from the lip of the
hinge and the tilt cable. After I got over the initial shock (and
expectation
that the tower would fall immediately) I stabilized the situation as best
I
could with various U-bolt kludges between the ground pole and the lower
tower
segment. The problem is that I can't see any safe way to bring the tower
back down nor do I have the ability to repair the hinge in place (if in
fact
that is possible). Help? Is this a known failure mode? The tower itself
is in good shape and I have kept the ground pole well painted, but I
assume
that the inside of the hinge just rusted away. It's a little scary having
the
tower in this state. :(

Dan Lanciani
ddl@danlan.*com

I can't quite visualize what happened, but is there a way to drive the
broken pin out, and temporarily replace it with a steel rod? Might require a
jack and clamps to line things up. Or, if the thing that holds the pin broke
off, can you get a welder out there? You might also want to wrap some cable
around the bottom of the tower and the ground pole so the thing can't swing
out on you. I assume the ground pole is the raising fixture.

Tam/WB2TT
"Dan Lanciani" ddl@danlan.*com wrote in message
...
After doing some work on my antennas today I tilted up my trusty old EZ
Way
40ft tower (circa 1959). To my horror, just as I got within a few degrees
of
vertical, the hinge pin sheared off on one side. The other side followed
soon thereafter. This left the tower sort of hanging from the lip of the
hinge and the tilt cable. After I got over the initial shock (and
expectation
that the tower would fall immediately) I stabilized the situation as best
I
could with various U-bolt kludges between the ground pole and the lower
tower
segment. The problem is that I can't see any safe way to bring the tower
back down nor do I have the ability to repair the hinge in place (if in
fact
that is possible). Help? Is this a known failure mode? The tower itself
is in good shape and I have kept the ground pole well painted, but I
assume
that the inside of the hinge just rusted away. It's a little scary having
the
tower in this state. :(

Dan Lanciani
ddl@danlan.*com

(following up to my own message)

Based on the responses I've received it seems that my hinge is different
from everybody else's. The ends of the tube are welded shut (and possibly
the pin is welded to the end or ends--I can't tell). There are no grease
fittings. So while I could probably jack the tower up such that the hinge
is correctly aligned, I can't simply drive out the old pin and put in a new
one. I think the end welds have to be ground off and then maybe repaired
after the new pin is in place. Hopefully a welder/machinist will be able
(and willing under the circumstances) to do this. It might be nice to have
a couple of lugs welded near the top of the pole as well. Then I could run
a safety chain around the tower to prevent it from falling off the pole if
something like this happens again. In fact, it might be a good idea to do
this first, making the subsequent work safer.

Dan Lanciani
ddl@danlan.*com