I've taken delivery of 3 towers over the last 40 years or so, A Heights 60'
crank-up, a Tri-Ex TM358 Sky Needle, and a US Tower HDX555. The Heights and
Sky Needle were brought into freight terminals by the trucking companies and
to my house by a local cartage company. The UST arrived on a flatbed
directly from the UST facility in Lincoln, NE, so scheduling was perhaps a
bit easier. But any local delivery truck driver will contact you at least a
day in advance to set-up a time for delivery. Otherwise, you could have it
shipped to a rigger's or local cartage company's facility where they can
offload it and schedule a delivery for you.
The Heights tower was aluminum, and relatively light compared to a steel
tower. So my "crew" of local hams offloaded the sections and carried it to
the installation site. The Sky Needle was offloaded from the local delivery
truck by a crane that swung it into place for installation. The UST was
offloaded by a backhoe loader my contractor used to dig the hole for the
tower. Since we had a scheduled delivery time, getting him over was pretty
easy. He used a sling to lift the tower on the front bucket and drove the
loader to the slab for installation. A loader works just fine as long as the
loader's large enough to carry the weight of the tower. They're typically
smaller than a tow truck, and can probably get through your gate if it's not
too narrow. You could also disassemble your fence in that area to create a
temporary opening.
Good luck!
73
Lou, W0FK
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2019 19:08:56 -0400
From: "Art Greenberg" <art@artg.tv>
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: [TowerTalk] Receiving a crank-up tower
Message-ID: <73df8edd-717e-4798-8006-789499a56fb8@www.fastmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain
I'm in the research & planning stages of a crank-up (telescoping) tower
purchase. It would be my first such tower. I'm looking at "small" towers
(for < 12 square feet of antenna) in the vicinity of 50 feet height.
Considering both steel and aluminum, but at the moment the steel tower seems
to be in the lead. I'll probably post questions during the selection
process. But for now, I have some questions that pertain whatever the
choice.
The manufacturer of the steel tower told me that the shipping weight of the
tower is around 1,000 pounds, and that it will be shipped fully assembled
and crated in an enclosed truck (probably a tractor-trailer, going cross
country). The length of the assembled and crated tower as-shipped will be
about 25 feet.
I live on a narrow street, and there is zero chance that the delivery driver
will be able to bring his truck (assuming a tractor-trailer) onto my
driveway. My property is fenced with a lot of trees, meaning the best route
onto the property is though the gate at the end of the driveway and then
following the not-at-all-straight driveway to its closest approach to the
tower installation location. But to do that, the tower would have to travel
down the driveway lengthwise - crosswise on a forklift won't work too well
due to the trees along the driveway.
My questions:
1. How the heck do I get a 25-foot long 1,000 pound crated tower off of the
truck? A reach forklift? Something else?
1a. I'm not a forklift operator. Any suggestion as to where to look for one
for hire? Do such people provide their own equipment, rigging and tools?
1b. What (other) tools/rigging am I likely to need?
1c. I'm twisting myself into a pretzel obsessing over how to coordinate the
forklift with truck arrival. Is it really as difficult as I imagine?
2. How do I get the tower through my gate and to a suitable spot on my
property to await installation?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions and advice!
--
Art Greenberg
WA2LLN
art@artg.tv
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