After months of delay the Tashjian LM470 tilt-over telescoping tower arrived and fit on its base!
A rented fork-lift was used to move the tower from the transporting trailer into position next to the base.
With the aid of a lifting bucket on a farm tractor and some muscle, the tower was maneuvered into position and two big bolts were inserted into he base of he tower to act as a pivot point. Then the entire tower was cranked to the vertical and two more bolts inserted about 8 feet up the tower which acted as a new pivot point .
Then the tower, with the base bolts removed and with the erecting cable re-rigged, was tilted further over to the horizontal position where it could be worked on and rotors and antennas attached.
A few days later, with 40 mph wind gusts forecast, I tilted the tower back to the vertical (still telescoped). That way 15 bolts through the base secured the tower instead of just 2 bolts at the tilt point. Raising back to vertical was about a 2 hour job for one person. It will probably be faster next time.
Sept 17-19,2016 I finally extended the tower to full height for he first time and took the pictures below. It was then telescoped down again in preparation to tilt over for more rotor and antenna work.
Some items worthy of note:
- There is a motor control box attached to the base of the tower. It expects to have a remote control box attached via a 6 wire cable. The tower box alone can operate the motor via manual override if it is plugged into 115 vac and the up or down motor contactors (grey bumps) are manually depressed. CAUTION: The limit switches are bypassed and bad things can happen unless you are VERY careful not to exceed limits.
- The remote box is connected via a 6-wire cable and also plugs into 115 vac. When it is attached and plugged into power, all up/down switches control the tower motor AFTER a 2-second delay. Be patient. If the tower is against the up or down limit switch, the tower will not move in that direction, but an orange light on the remote will light indicating the switch is active. Or you can now operate the tower with the up/down switch on the tower box. The limit switch affects motion commanded by this tower box switch too, just like the remote up/down switch.
- Don’t forget to disconnect the tilting cable before attempting to raise the tower.
There are 4 cable standoff arms (not in the above pictures) that must be attached to the tower when telescoped so as to not hinder the tower extension. The longer of these arms goes at the tower top and the shorter at the base. Note that the tower leg diameter is different on top vs. at the bottom too.