I have been reading the aluminum tower threads recently and thought I would add
some data on the aluminum tower I had a number of years ago, maybe before some
of you were born!. Anyway, in the early 70's, I wanted an inexpensive, self
supporting tower as I did not want guy wires. I settled on the Universal 50 ft.
model whose size was rated well above my TH3 wind load was going to provide. I
had the tower for 5 to 6 years and was climbing it one day to service the
rotator. Well, as I was readjusting my climbing belt, I looked down at my feet
and saw something that was incredible. The weld joints of almost all the welds
above 30 feet were starting to crack, some were sizeable (a few that I saw had
at least a 0.1 inch gap) and some were hairline, just starting. Needless to
say, I set a worlds record for coming down off the tower. I decided to take the
tower down and replace it. I sold it to a ham that had experience in welding
aluminum and he was happy to get a cheap tower! I e
ventually upgraded to a Rohn 25 48 ft. fold over and now 30 years later have
the UST HDX555, a fine, well built tower, my first crank up. Hopefully, they
are making the aluminum towers better and I had a fluke, but I personally would
think twice now before I would use one of these for any length of time. Maybe I
had a lemon, who knows. The tower had plenty of margin for a TH3 and that was
all I ever had on top of it and it saw no ultra high winds.
W5RD
Murphy, Texas
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