>Interesting.
>
>I have been following this thread. I am in the process of installing some
>25G which was formerly used as an AM BC tower. As such it had a good number
>of 502 insulators in the 3/16" guys. All of the Big-Grips were installed
>starting at the first mark. I'm not saying that's the correct way, just the
>way they were on this tower. I had to move an insulator on a few guys
>because it ended up being right where I needed a turnbuckle. I installed
>the new Big-Grips the same as the original, starting at the first mark. I
>had no difficulty doing this.
>
>I think there has been some concern (maybe in a previous thread which may
>have even been on another list) about the Big-Grips exerting too much
>pressure on the insulator when installed this way. That would be my only
>concern. They do squeeze the insulator pretty hard when the guys are
>tensioned.
>
>73,
>Paul N1BUG
What first got me onto this subject is that the lower set of guys on my
tower uses big-grips. The rest use clamps. About 8 years ago a freak
lightning hit disintegrated ALL the guy insulators in the bottom set of guys
of my tower. I have the guys broken up every 18 feet - this keeps them rf
transparent through 40m, and I use the tower as a quarter wave vertical on
160. When I replaced the insulators, I used big-grips instead of re-using
the clamps.
I installed mine using the first crossover marks. It never even occurred to
me that you would do it any differently. I don't recall any difficulty
installing them by hand, using no tools. Much quicker and easier than with
clamps.
About 3 months ago I noticed the end of one insulator was shattered, but the
interior of the insulator is still intact so the cracked insulator is still
full functional, but I plan to replace it. Somewhere on the internet I read
about the 1st vs 2nd crossover point. Otherwise I would never have
questioned my installation. It got me thinking that perhaps using the 1st
paint mark caused enough pressure on the insulator to crush it, but it could
have simply been a defective insulator or lightnig again.
I haven't contacted the company yet, but I will probably try their customer
service if I can get in touch with them. I was curious what other users
might know about this issue.
73, Don k4kyv
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