I volunteered to go up 75 feet on a TV tower years ago. Pucker factor was high on the scale that day. Was a nice day, 80 degrees, no wind, told our tech to never ask me again! These guys that do tower and tree work have balls the size of church bells!
I'm not gonna lie, I prep, wear the exact safety climbing gear and GoPro, and always take time for a good smoke when getting up and down on my step stool.
This takes strength, gotta be in shape! Guys got guts to do this. When I was 19, I worked at a feed mill. My boss and I climbed 175 feet high to get a stuck feed bag out of the top auger motor. It was 10 below zero, windy. Feed Mill sat next to a double railroad track. You guessed it, while we were at the top, 2 trains passed each other. Tower was swaying. I thought we were going to die.
300 feet doesn't seem like so much when running with a football goal line to goal line. But when you are looking at it straight up, it's a whole new world. A world not many people work in.
I worked with a lot of clowns in my 29 years doing that and I gotta say my compliments. Your safety practice and apparent skill level are worthy of bechtel.
What’s a Bechtel? My father and I climbed towers for Texas Eastern for 7 years together before he retired. I went on climbing another 15 years after that. I can tell you I MISS HIM AND THOSE DAYS WE SPENT OUT THERE!❤️
I'm getting vertigo just watching the video. I can't imagine actually climbing that thing. I don't know what they pay you guys, but . . . IT AIN'T ENOUGH!!!!
@chipsrafferty8362 in ohio between Columbus and mansfield. I lived outside of lima in 2008. We went to Applebee's one night out there and sat next to some guys wearing harnesses. I talk to everyone. Anyway, I got to talking to them and they were building towers in the area. I said something about it sounding fun and being good money. They looked at me like I lost my mind. They were making like $11-12/hr back then. My ex step son works locally for a tower company making $16 or $17. Local factories are around $16-20. So, yeah. Unless you travel or get in a union it doesn't pay anywhere near what you'd think.
I never was a tower climber but I did operate a tower crane that was 280 feet in the air. The exciting thing about the tower crane was its constant swaying with the load or wind. The company paid an extra half hour to climb and half hour over time coming down each day. Also as an elevator construction worker I was introduced at a young age what it was to work in high places. It is not really that bad if you work safe. The hardest part about this job here is climbing straight up. Have to be in shape.
Oh HELL NO! I have a 30’, 3 leg TV antenna tower. That’s my limit. Of course once you’re over 30’ it’s pretty much game over on impact anyway. It’s simply a matter of how big the ground dent will be. Thank you for the job you do. And for sharing your video.
I have been watching several tower climbers this evening. Right from the start I hear no drama. Just work happening. Heights mess with me. Kudos to you that climb. Thank you for this video.
Man all i can think about is how amazing it'd be to take a dump from up there. It actually should be a requirment when you get to the top. I need to grow up
Really that was your first thought? Before stuff like trying to hit ground targets with bolts or marbles, or hitting birds with a slingshot at altitude, or putting the phone video camera on and then filming as you drop the phone… the list is endless and you went to “taking a dump” 😂😂😂😂 To each their own I guess lol.
I did a 165' structure to install a light and the ladder up from the last platform was only 4 inches higher than the flat tin roof. Not bad going up or working on top but getting back on that ladder over the side of the roof was probably the scariest thing I have ever done including working 600V live cables without gloves in a hot steamy mine shaft. I did have fun telling my mother that I "burned" a 60' pole I was climbing, being a rotten teenager, then finally telling her I was only 2' off of the ground when my hooks came out of the wooden pole. I've done a lot of high work but watching these things now many years later makes my stomach feel queezy. You have big brass ones and faith in your equipment.
I went up a 300 guy tower at lake of the Ozarks and the view was amazing enough but then I saw a golden eagle soaring about 50 feet below me and it was heavenly.
LOL I am here sweating bullets watching and the dude is as cool as a cucumber smoking a cigarette at 300 feet. Have you ever thought about seeing a Psychiatrist? 😅 stay safe up there in the clouds guys!!!
Climbed 300 ft power transmission towers but didn't use that contraption. Had a body belt we used once we got to where we were going but no clipping off on the way up. Hardest part was the climbing up. Don't miss it though, 77 now 😂 We did have steps on the sides the whole way, some had ladder. I have admit the last with no ladder had to be rough. Young man's game.
I was thinking thru the whole video that this would be a bad job for a smoker and then the other guy shows up and lights a cigarette pretty much amazing
I've done the 60 ft silos at work a few times. But damn 300 ft😮 so I have an idea of the safety gear used. I find it strange that the ladder just stops and now he's free climbing. 👍
not free climbing, notice the cable, he is connected 100%, the extra clip he attached to the tower is for his seat. he will have 2 other lanyards for attaching when he has to move away from the cable. the ladder isn't needed once the tower sections get shorter at the top. at that point a ladder is just uneeded wind loading on the tower.
It's quite... thin for that height, especially for a self-supporting tower. Not to mention the lack of proper ladder in the upper half... I hope they're paying you more than enough for this job.
It looks like the pre-fab 20' sections of tower and then lift them up to the tower as they build. there are circular plates bolted together at intervals.
omg i am getting dizzy and he hasn't started. i hope this guy gets paid a ton of money because there is not enough money in the world to get me to do it. he is so brave. he doesn't even sound nervous.
Interesting the personnel ladder only goes half way. It looks like a new tower so I assume you're there to finish it. I can't tell if that's a t.s.i. or pyrod. I know it's not a rohn. Leblanc is out of business or I would have thought it was one of theirs. It's only 300 feet but with the surrounding area it's a beautiful view isn't it.
The tower was manufactured by Bell Towers in Oklahoma (also where this tower is). We were just there for half a day troubleshooting an issue with their lighting system.
This makes me sweat watching. Do you guys have a specific rescue plan ? Like how would you get down in an emergency? Also are there no guy wires on this thing ? How mucb does it move ?
Good climb. I’d prefer my backup a bit higher but I don’t know how those work on steel ropes. Otherwise this looks pretty fun, other than being out of breath😂
I was working my abdominals the whole time you were climbing. I'm exhausted. Do you have a brake on that line, or is the large clip the only safety? I know these questions are rhetorical, but did you help build this tower, also?
Much respect and thanks for a content that , to me anyway, never gets old. Im almost certain that you fellows are familiar with steeple jack Fred Dibnah over there in England. If not he's on you tube. Carry on.
I have climbed many FAA communications towers over 350 feet and for years I was the only certified tower rescue person in Utah. Was a great experience and I enjoyed every day luckily the only thing I had to rescue was dummies and one person that would freeze on a three foot ladder. I can’t see your gear but from what I see they have done away with center guide? That is your life if you slipped prior to connecting your lanyard.
Oh but then I noticed the cotton poly rope.gotta deduct 2 points for that. What is it's breaking strength? 750 pounds. Before any knots. Cut that in half even if you only have one bowline on the load end. 52 percent if it's an outside bowline. I always insisted on powerbraid. Either half inch or nine sixteenths. Never Kern mantle because it's notorious for not holding a knot. even if you tape the tail.
Why do most riggers use 3 ply line for hauling equipment up and down? I did a heap of tower work back in the day and I hated 3 ply, it was always twisting up and then the equipment would spin like a top. Not cool when it's a $5000 microwave dadio dish. I ended up buying a braided line and used that, it was vastly better. No tangles, no spinning under load. The other more experienced riggers I was working with refused to use it.... but none of them could offer a reasonable explanation why.
Typically the only thing we’re lifting with rope on a cathead is our tag line. One we rig the tower with our hoist, small loads are lifted in or attached to the manbasket and large loads are lifted with steel cable load line. We like the 3 ply because we can cut it to length, splice multiple ropes together, and put eyes into the rope.
I've clean my 125 foot beacon light at a small airport here where I live and it has a round expanded metal basket at the top and when the wind is blowing it would sway 3 feet side to side because it was just a 18" metal pole
And you are who to question why…could be anything from making access for those qualified only…to engineering of weight and wind balances at that height. Just wondering if you have knowledge or just a flunky on a couch that only watches peeps perform Work🤷♂️ I watch….I work.. and know why….just wondering who are you to ask lol😂😂😂 Get back to your smoothie and Gov Check
I have not but know a couple people who have been on the big tv towers. They’re fine, they were on a ladder inside the tower, the lightning traveled down the legs to the tower grounding. I don’t want to test it tho and definitely wouldn’t want to be on a cell tower that was struck!
Why doesn't the ladder go up the last 100'? When I was in high school,one of my jobs was to install color head antennae on 40 and 60' self supporting towers for my parents TV antenna company. I thought that was bad ass. This is a whole different level of bad assery.
Awesome video. I love working at job sites where the address is Lat/Long. I don’t go much higher than 40 feet now that I’m 66. I presume you were changing the strobe?
