TriEx W51 Crank Up Tower Conversion to Electric Winch & Tiltover Accessory Fabrication & Winch

[@southboundsuarez9832]

How often do you raise and lower your tower? How does the badlands winch hold up to the outdoors ? I used the Pittsburg 2000# hoist by HF. It died after 3 years due to moisture and condensation . ☹️ I really liked it until it failed . I raise and lower my w51 all the time. The hoist solution is much quieter and it runs of 120volts . I probably will buy another and weatherproof better. Also going to add limit switches.

[@XA-JJKILLERs]

Can we get an update vid

[@southboundsuarez9832]

Agree, i would be interested in hearing a update and what is going and how this has held up. I would also like to comment on a few things I see in his video. First comment is that for others interested in doing such a thing. DO NOT USE A WINCH. A winch is not designed for lifting loads or hold dead weight. It is designed to pull loads across the ground. It does not have a brake but has a clutch. The whole weight of your antennas and extended tower will be on that winch. God forbid if it mechanically fails or goes into freespool. THE PROPER THINH TO USE IS A HOIST! Harbour Freight sells several hoist models as opposed to their winches! As an added bonus the hoist will run on AC mains power. Thus no need to utilize a 12v DC power source such as the jumper cable from a motor vehicle. The tilt fixture? I am curious as to how tilting the tower over repeatedly how this has held up. There are many great forces at play when pulling a tower from horizontal to vertical, the forces exerted upon the tower change dramatically thru its full course of motion. There is going to be a point where the cable will go slack as you near vertical. Does this become problematic when the tower drops the rest of the way toward. The mounting ears. Do you notice any lateral flex when the tower is only bolted to the two ears that act as a pivot point. The shear l force on those ears and mounting bolts must be fierce! I would imagine shoulder bolts would be most appropriate to keep the threads from tearing up the hole or wearing the hole oblong. How did you decide the geometry of where and how to attach your lift cable? I would utilize a rigid triangular style of cable mount to the exterior of the tower. So as to spread the force against the tower legs more uniformly when lifting the tower upright. Similar to how they are supposed to attach guy wires to a triangulat tower. You don't want to be pulling the tower apart or create torsion on the single leg of the tower. Basically pulling the tower leg apart from it's lattice or causing localized bending on the one 1 outer leg. Unequal stress upon one leg. The placement of heighth of the pulling force in relation to the geometry of the angle thru out the range of motion is important to minimize undo mechanical stress to the tower structure. Just something to consider.... I am not trying to be critical, but mostly thinking out loud and wondering how the author dealt with such things or if they became evident overtime? I see the tilt as beneficial for uprighting the tower itself and maybe to affix a rotor and mast. But I don't see it as useful in this configuration to service antenna. That's just too much to pivot from the base. Most tiltover towers designed for tilting with a load atop of the tower have another pivot point higher above on the first section. This creates a better more manageable balance point and allows for counter balance at the base. Certainly more useful than tilting only the tower. Really no need to tilt the tower often. Especially if you already have to go and remove the antenna first. I wonder how often the author utilizes the tilt feature now that it's all been said and done? As an update to my hoist installation. I was actually able to teardown my water logged Harbour freight hoist and clean up the rust and corrosion from two years of exposure and get it working reliable again. I started wrapping it up in a garbage bag when inclemental weather posed a risk. This seems to work good except for when I got complacent or forgot to wrap it up or the wind blew it off. Regardless, I messed up and experienced water intrusion again and again did a complete teardown and got it working again . I have utilized the Harbour winch for a number of years now and it works good. I raise my tower when I utilize my station and I lower it when not in use. My w51 has a Hygain TH7DX antenna . It's fairly large and heavy antenna. Probably the upper threshold of what the tower was designed to carry. Certainly overloaded by today's latest TIA standards. Given my geography and weather patterns with extremely gusty infamous Santa Ana wind conditions. Lowering the tower whenever not in use gives me much peace of mind. The gusty wind patterns have definately aged my like new TH7DX but it has indeed survived with few problems. Just a good old heavy duty antenna design onto of a good old simple crankup tower.