I have three TIC rings on my tower, so a trip to the top and back involves a
lot of climbing around rings.
I stopped kneeling on the rings several years ago. It was really awkward and
banged up my knees too much. It was even more awkward on the way down.
It's hard to describe what I do, but I think it's probably similar to or the
same as what Dave suggests as an alternative to kneeling on the ring.
I use a Y-lanyard for fall arrest. When I get to the point where I can reach
above the ring, I clip one side of the Y to the horizontal cross brace just
above the ring. Then I climb up a little higher and clip the other side of
the Y to the highest cross brace I can reach and unclip the other side of
the Y. Then I grab the highest horizontal cross brace above the ring that I
can reach with both hands, push my butt out, and sort of walk up the cross
braces below the ring until I can place a foot on top of the ring. I pull
hard with my arms and press down with that foot, pulling my body up over the
ring and bringing the other leg up on top of the ring. When I'm done, both
feet are on the ring and I'm standing up. I do the same in reverse when
climbing down.
If I don't clip on high enough with the second side of the Y lanyard I end
up having to stoop down when I get on top of the ring because my Y-lanyards
are relatively short. That's why it's good to clip as high as you can before
climbing on top of the ring.
Note that each of my rings is about one foot above a guy bracket and that I
step on the bracket as part of the motion. However, the brackets are at the
same level as a cross brace, which could be used instead (and it would
probably be easier.)
Maybe sometime I'll have a friend video tape while I do it.
73, Dick WC1M
> -----Original Message-----
> From: K1TTT [mailto:K1TTT@ARRL.NET]
> Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2012 10:48 AM
> To: 'Towertalk'
> Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Climbing around Ring Rotors
>
> I've been doing it for years, it is annoying but not too hard to do. I
> usually get up the the ring about shoulder high then clip to a rung
> above it. Climb up so its below my waist then either kneel on it with
> one leg and bring the other leg up to stand up on it, or just bring the
> first foot up to stand on it and stand up... depends on how heavy the
> toolbelt is and
> how flexible the clothes are. with the snow suit the other day I had
> to
> kneel first then stand up, but usually with regular clothes I can just
> get a foot on it and stand up. The bigger the ring of course the harder
> it is.
> It does pay to point the ring in a direction that puts the boom cradle
> away from the side you are planning to climb up so you have a nice clean
> platform to stand on. And definitely make sure the power is off so no
> one can accidentally turn it on you.
>
>
> David Robbins K1TTT
> e-mail: mailto:k1ttt@arrl.net
> web: http://wiki.k1ttt.net
> AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://k1ttt.net
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Thorne [mailto:rthorne@rthorne.net]
> Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2012 15:33
> To: Towertalk
> Subject: [TowerTalk] Climbing around Ring Rotors
>
> I'm working on a plan to install a couple Tic ring rotors on my 45g.
> For the most part I've been using a crane for tower work. However, its
> more than likely I'll have to climb the tower occasionally.
>
> Is it a major problem to climb around an installed Tic ring rotor?
>
> Thanks
>
> Rich - N5ZC
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