About a year ago I had a conversation with the m2 people about their rotator
clamp slipping on my Monstr's mast. What follows is my memory of the
conversation:
1. It is better to have the clamp slip than to harm the rotator. (Note: the
wind banging repeatedly on the gearing can weaken the gears?)
2. The specified braking torque has not been measured (or calculated?).
3. Pinning voids the warranty. I would assume that using a different mfrs
clamp would also void the warranty.
4. They recommended a clamp bolt tightening sequence that should be
followed. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a firm answer on what torque
to tighten the nuts to. The sequence to follow is:
a) bolt the rotator to the mounting plate but leave the bolt/nuts not
tightened
b) with the bolts to holding the rotator to the mounting plate loose,
tighten the bolt/nut pair of the clamp that is nearest the bottom.
c) tighten the next (middle) bolt/nut pair of the clamp
d) tighten the top bolt/nut pair of the clamp
e) repeat steps b,c,d several times
f) now lastly, tighten the bolt/nuts of step a
I did get an answer of 40 ft/lbs from the m2 person but I think that was
just pulled out of the air.
k7puc
----- Original Message -----
From: "Byron Lichtenwalner" <w3wkr@verizon.net>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2007 5:19 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Mast slipping
> Friends
> During the last 24 hours I have received almost 20 responses providing
> suggestions on my delima of rotor connection to mast supporting my
> MonstIR.
>
> They included:
> Going to a larger rotator
> Going to an alternate mast clamp
> Adding an additional mast clamp
> Pinning the existing mast clamp, risking rotor destruction
> Praying for no wind!
> Etc.
>
> I believe Dick, WC1M, summed it up best.
>
> I paraphrase:
> While prayer should help, Nature is uncontroablre.
> You can pin, add clamps, put bigger clamps in place, but there will always
> remain a weak point It seems to make sense to allow/expect some extremes
> will cause misalignment. Learn to live with it, allow drift, retighten
> bolts
> and moveon.
>
> I think I'll follow Steve's (K7LXC) advice and do some work on the M2
> clamp
> and NOT pin it. If it slips too often, I'll either change the clamp or
> add
> Slip-Nott.
>
> That should hold me 'till retirement needs move me to "starting over" with
> a
> completely new systems with 150 ft of 55g and the biggest propitch I can
> find.
>
> Thanks for all the suggestions.
>
> 73 de Byron, W3WKR
>
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