Nice when a plan comes together. I did mine off a pulley set up on the gable end of the house. Dry run went fine. Added my antenna's got it up 80% and my $129 3.5 ton Chinese 12vdc ATV winch failed and I ended up with a pile of bent aluminum on the ground when the tower fell. After the rebuild I made sure I had an "A" frame ladder under the tower and moved it up as a safety till it got past that 45 degree point, just in case. FYI 2nd time around I paid the price and got an American made Armstrong winch. Money well spent. W9DLP
Hard lesson losing your antennas. Glad you got it back with a better winch. I am always nervous when raising any one of my three towers because home brew systems can fail.
Think you! Our tower was taken down from a local high school that didn’t need it anymore. It is a communications tower and there are several manufacturers on line. Used ones are hard to come by.
NICE tower !. It looked solid and your raising couldn’t have gone any smoother. Awesome job & video. Thanks for sharing. May I ask the make, model and cost of the tower only ? (Not the concrete foundation, winch or anything other than the structure itself) Please & thank you.
Thanks, John. The tower is at least 20 years old and I got it for free from a local high school that was tearing down an old building. It does not have any ID but it looks a bit like an old Rohn communications tower.
nice work having guide wires on the wench post. i considered making an A frame with guide wires to do this as well. i have only helped one person up a tower, it was 70' and pulled from a bumper wench. looked so scary at start with the tension and tower bend. pull point being low seemed so dangerous.
I did the same with my tower, tho it's only 50' tall. I used the power pole in back yard to raise it. Hand crank. I still have an abandoned pole I had the electric company leave after Hurricane Harvey, I may just do this again. (my old tower looked like a pretzel after the hurricane) Curious, no guy wires?
Hello Mike and Steve (whichever). And FYI...Great tower setup and nice to see 80 feet of Rohn 25 does not bend too much when being raised from horizontal. Liked you home brew pulley's and thought I might try that too. One thing, using an electric winch does require stopping every so often to keep from burning up the motor. They won't stand running them for over a minute or two safely is my guess. I know, I wore out two 8000# Harbor Freight 'Chicago' winches which was probably my own fault. Now I have a Ramsey RE8000 worm gear winch that works great and holds the load in any location while going up and down. Great for building quad arrays or any such thing. Like your setup. Terry
Thanks, Terry. Actually the tower is 100 ft tall and is not Rohn 25. The base is a 5 ft a side triangle and the whole thing is quite sturdy. Our winch is rated at 10,000 lbs but I never thought about needing to stop it part way up to keep from over heating. I guess I got a good one, lol! Glad you have a set up that works and hope it holds up.
Awesome tilting tower but I would never put something like this up as a tilting tower. A tower of this magnitude needs to be cemented in if it were mine😎
I love the youTube Commenters! They just watched 2 tower videos last night and now they are experts.... Like the guy who's gonna put a 100ft tower, with a 60 ft fiberglass pole on top. SMFH Great job! I presume you have a healthy hinge and 10 yards of concrete... That wasn't shown in the video
This was one of the best videos of raising a large tower that I have seen on UTube. My tower is small, 33-foot Rohn tower given to me. I have used my old Ford 4x4 2002 Explorer to raise two towers, but now I have a 5000 lb winch mounted on the rear of the SUV. Both towers are only 3 section Rohn 25G. I like the idea of using the old telephone pole. Using my car with hitch mounted on it has an angle of pull that increases beyond 45 degrees as the tower reaches 45-degree lift point which I do not like. My question is, can you show a close up of how you mounted the winch on the pole, and also the double pulley mounted? This way I can mount the winch VERTICALLY at the base of the pole that I intend to use, and the pull from the winch will be straight line which will make the winch very happy. Thank you Mike. W1REJ
This tower is located 90 min from my home and I go there only a few times a year. I will be going in the next few weeks and will try to get a few good pics. I made a flat plate as an adapter to attach the winch to the pole. I will make a sketch of the double pulley set up.
I set up a spreadsheet with multiple formulas to do this job. I got the tallest winch pole I could find and sized everything else to handle the calculated load.
@@mikeg8116 I think Lawrence was talking "attaching" the cable and you talking tensile strength of the cable, two different things! Most winches have a cable capacity in the thousands or tens of thousands, while your not lifting the "total dead weight" of the tower, if that pole and pulley are going to handle it, most mid range winches will handle it!
@@ktrades2898 I also have a steel 40 ft tower that I raise and lower with a 2500 lb winch. You can find good winches in that range both motor and hand crank.
Excellent job and video!! I have a very similar tower that I'm wanting to erect in the same way. I am uncertain how big and deep a hole I need and how much concrete I need to support a 100 ft free standing tower. Could you share some information please? Thanks!!
I do not share that information because all situations are different. If you are not sure how to do it seek the help of a professional. A tower this tall is very dangerous to work with. One recommendation I make is to use a remote control winch and get far away.
Did you use any doubling or extra blocking in the lift process? If not, it might take some extra strain off of your wench, and it can also help keep the tower from bending and warping.
Agree, but I wanted to test winch before putting antenna on it. No guy wires, tower is self supporting. Also, I plan to lower it occasional to make antenna changes.
I just thought about something I heard you say in this video. It gets easier as it goes up. Yet alot claim at about halfway up is the worse. An enginner told me the start of the lift is the hardest like you are saying.
@@theboogeyman826When the tower is laying flat on the ground the winch is picking up the max weight (the actual weight will depend on the weight of the tower and the angle of the lifting cable - it'll be more than the weight of the tower. This is why snatch blocks are often used to reduce the weight). As the tower rotates up, more and more of the weight transfers to the base and less and less is on the winch. When the tower is nearly vertical all the weight is on the base and the winch isn't lifting any weight at all.
Sorry, I got it used and don’t know the brand. This one came from a high school that no longer needed it. I have seen towers for sale online, but not too often.
Wish you included a close up of the base of the tower and the swivel method. Just seeing the tower go up does not help in our research on how we will construct ours.
This is extremely dangerous. I've done it three times. First time went great. Nearly got killed the second time when the tower went over to the side, swung around and crashed. If you are going to do this you need some safety lines off each side of the tower and the pole. Third time went fine with the safety lines. I will probably do it again. Just remember that things can go wrong!
Thank you for your warning to me and anyone else who might try this. You are correct to say that it is quite dangerous and ANYTHING can go wrong. That is why I stand back quite far and use a remote for the winch. I have done it at least 15 times in the five years it’s been up.
Two guy wires supporting the winch pole. One steel cable for winch attached 35’ up tower. Two pulleys used to cut load on winch in half. Tower is self supporting, no guy wires.
@@mikeglass376 I know tower is self supporting but since you have the wood pole there anyway, are you using it at all as a safety support for the tower?
@@mikeglass376 this is definitely safe for total novices: no climbing, no guy wires to snap because you did it wrong. I’m looking at Universal Towers 100 ft tilt tower. I’m going to put a 60 foot telescoping pole on top to get 150 or 160 (depending on how much I have to brace the pole). $5k tower $1.2k 60 foot fiberglass pole $ for guy wires (but not critical to integrity of tower) No $15k labor charge for tower techs.
Mate, that was dangerous! If you had pulled it past 90 degrees toward the post it could have fallen forward/twisted sideways and came crashing down, not to mention wind gusts which could also twisted it sideways with the same deadly result.
Not to be done on a windy day, definitely! I actually was more concerned about a cable failing and whipping about. That is why I use a remote control for the winch. You are correct to say it is dangerous.
@@mikeglass376 I suggest you install a spring for the tower to push against the last little bit to would allow a more gentle last few degrees tilt to vertical lock .
@@roynorman3650 No, I would be worried about the anchors flexing and or moving. My base of 24 inch wide circle x 48 inch deep with rebar is well below what the manufacturers specify. I think there is some overkill with their specs. That said, I know a guy who built a massive base for an 85 foot tower, a tornado snapped off the upper 40' and what is left is tilted 6 degrees. I guess it just depends on the stresses your tower receives.
Yea it worked but you should have put a rolling snatch-block in and that way you could have pulled from two points. That's a lot of pull on one point. you got lucky. W5GIF
I did add a second snatch block after that first lift. It reduced the cable tension 50% and made the whole operation smoother. Been using it for 5 years now.
@@mikeglass376 I'm looking for info, on the size base I need for mine. It's a crank up that also tilts at the base. I was told, the base needs to weigh more than the tower.
@@theboogeyman826 I would refer to your local zoning requirements. There are many sources online to help with that. It is a lot more than just the weight of the base.
If for instance there is a need to change the antenna above (or maintenance), can you climb the tower or do you need yo tilt it again. And it can be climbed, how much weight can it bear?
@@angeloandrada7800 the tower can be climbed but I installed it so it can be tilted down easily. I have lowered it several times after the initial installation. I do not want to climb any tower for safety reasons.
No, it is fully self supporting. I did buy guy wire as a backup and still have it. However, I did put 2 guy wires on the winch pole for extra support. I remove them after use to keep the yard clear. Thanks for looking!
@@mikeg8116 The tower I have is a crank up/ tilt tower. I already have a utility pole in the ground, that I plan to use to raise and lower the tower. My question is, would the pole next to the tower be enough support without the use of guy wires. I have seen setups like this before. The pole is 16 feet high, which would leave 16 feet of tower above top of pole. That would be leaving the tower cranked all the way down.
Roy Norman half way up the collapsed tower is a good spot, but whether it is sufficient depends on pole size, material, depth in ground, weight of tower and antennas, winch and cable rating. A quick way to see if you are in the ball park would be to have the tower and antennas tilted down and solidly supported underneath. Try winching the tower up a few inches so it clears all supports. If it holds for a minute you have at least the minimum required to raise and lower the tower and antennas. This is because the winch sees its highest load when the tower is parallel to the ground. If you want more confidence put a weight on the end of the tower that is significantly greater than the antennas and try raising it up. Be sure to stay clear of the tower and the winch cable in case something gives. It is important to have more than the minimum because winches and cables weaken over time. Please be safe! As a matter of safety I always use a sold support under a tilted tower before I work on it. As I said before you have maximum load on the winch and cable when the tower is horizontal to the ground. I NEVER trust a tower held up with a winch only. I am not a professional tower installer but have learned a few things along the way. I have three other tilting towers but none are telescoping. I think it is far better to safely tilt a tower than to climb it to install antennas.
It sure is. It has been lowered and raised several times a year. We did take the top 27 ft section off a couple of years ago to put double 7 ft dishes on it.
