I ran into the same problem when I replaced my tower last year. I used
Big Grips on the guys, but wanted to use cable clamps on the safety wire
through the turnbuckles, which was to be 3/16 EHS. Except for some bare
iron ones, none of the clamps I could find were rated for 1X7 EHS; all
were rated for 7X19, etc, with more strands. I think the key is that
the saddles have to be malleable, because it's impossible to compress
1X7 EHS. (Ever try to cut the stuff?) I finally ended up buying some
finely stranded SS cable and clamps for the safety wires. Overkill,
maybe, but if a turnbuckle fails, I want the safety wire to hold the
tower up.
73,
Scott K9MA
On 4/14/2020 17:05, Donald Chester wrote:
Keith Dutson kdutson at sbcglobal.net Sat Apr 4 19:28:59 EDT 2020 wrote:
Good reminder to always use hot dipped galvanized hardware.
I re-guyed my Rohn 25 a couple of years ago. Big Grips are great for attaching
insulators breaking up
guy cables on my 160m vertical, but I use wire rope clamps on the chains of 3
insulators next to the
tower because with Big Grips the insulators would be spaced too far apart for
my liking.
I ordered new clamps from Rohn, but the ones I received were cheap zinc plated
like something from
Ace Hardware, and the saddles are so poorly made that they slipped on the cable
when I tested
them under tension using a ratchet puller. I called the Rohn dealer and they
told me they couldn't get
the good hot-dipped clamps any more, since almost everyone now uses Big Grips
exclusively. I looked
on line and the good hot-dipped clips from Crosby are very expensive, about $7
each (mine cost me
35¢ each in 1980).
I ended up re-using the old ones after carefully inspecting each one, and
painted over them with a heavy
coat of Rustoleum aluminium paint. I used some of the crappy ones I got from
Rohn for another
(non-tower) project, and sure enough, the U-bolts and nuts are now heavily
rusted after only two years,
much more so than the original clamps I had installed nearly 40 years ago. The
re-used and painted ones
on the tower guy wires still look as good as the day I installed them. I have
found that ordinary aluminium
paint lasts longer before rust begins to peer through, than the "Cold-Galv"
stuff.
I still have a bucket full of the crappy ones I got from Rohn. Haven't decided
whether to take them to
a hamfest and sell for whatever I can get for them, or to toss them in the
dumpster. I would hate for
someone else to buy them from me and have a tower fail when the cables slipped
during a heavy wind-
storm. I would have returned them if I hadn't fooled around and waited more
than a year before opening
the box when I was ready to use them, and discovering what they sent me. I
didn't bother, since I doubt
they would have accepted a return after I had waited that long.
Don k4kyv
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Scott K9MA
k9ma@sdellington.us
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