At 22:15 11/11/99 , K5PC wrote:
>There is no necessity to put any additional hardware on the tower other
>than the bolts and nuts that come with the tower from Rohn. The fine
>threads were chosen to prevent the nuts from coming loose.
>I am still cringing at the discriptions of those guys "showering down" on
>the bolts with the wrenches. You just put enough torque on the bolts to
>securely tighten the nut into the tower leg. no more torque than a normal
>man can exert with two small open-end wrenches.
>
>The majority of the weight of the tower is supported by the bottom of
>each section resting on the top of the section below it. The bolts are
>to hold each leg firmly in place, and to keep the legs from twisting left
>and right. By immobilizing each joint, each leg handles 1/3 of the load.
>
>You can spot over-torqued sections very easily. If the leg is no longer
>perfectly round, too much elbow grease was used when it was installed.
================================>
Absolutely !
If you keep packing away on the tower bolts until the tubes have
distorted, you have probably exceeded the allowable percentage of yield
values on the bolts;
and to what purpose ??
For a tower job, I would imagine that the tightening value necessary
should only be enough to keep the nut on the bolt, and for a fine
thread such as Rohn uses, that ain't gonna have to be very much.
Although this is certainly not to be taken seriously, I might suggest
that even the use of a cotter pin arrangement could possibly suffice
for most towers.
As to the use of flat washers or spring washers, I surely agree that
they are not necessary, but their use shouldn't be detrimental, just as
long as there remains enough bolt length available to allow for a full
thread count of contact in the nut.
Bob, N5RP
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