Take down day, a 20G Rohn tower

On a wonderful fall like day of August 19, 2012, my good friend Dennis came from many miles away to be my ground crew and help take down the tower. He was tireless and a fantastic help. Dennis has a lot of tower experience under his belt and can pull a gin pole rope like a water buffalo. I might add here that he is also a good photographer while juggling his other ground crew tasks.
Mouse click the images to enlarge.

Starting the climb. Got my tether rope secured to the tower and beginning my climb at the 2nd mid tower section.

For several reasons I managed to make a all day job of what might have been done in 2 to 3 hours by one more experienced. Obstacles we delt with, Going up the tower spraying all the bolts with Blaster PB penetrating rust killer

Spraying rusted bolts with Blaster PB rust penetrantn.

Heading on up the tower to begin the real work.

Going on up the tower to begin the real work.

I'm not embarassed to show my love for the tower while applying the safety belt around it ;)

hugging tower as I wrap the sagety belt around it.

Removing the six rusted tower leg bolts, two on each leg.

moving guy wires below the top section for easier removal of that section.

Moving the tower guy wires from top section to 4th mid section.

Mounting the ever so helpful Gin Pole to the tower.

Mounting the gin pole for top section removal.

Extending the Gin Pole that will lift each section one at a time.

Extending the gin pole for top section removal.

At the top section tying off the GinPole rope before in preparation for top section removal. From here we got real busy for a couple of hours as the top section of tower was not wanting to come off easily. But, I had my Chevy HHR scissor jack that seemed custom made for the task of slowly jacking the tower sections apart. For this top section it took moving the jack between each of the three legs many times while applying just a bit of jacking. Didnt want to bend, warp or otherwise reshape the tower joints.

Don on tower at 50ft section tying off the gin pole rope for top section removal.

After a much needed mid afternoon lunch break Dennis and I get back to the task at hand. Here we are preparing for removal of the fourth mid tower section.

Preparing to take down the 4th tower mid section by lowering the gin pole mount point and tying off the rope to the section.

I am not certain but I may have been up the tower over 6 hours total this last time. On a previous visit Dennis came and helped as I climbed the tower and removed both the 13 element 2m antenna and Yaesu G-800 rotor.

? , 2012 - 2030

Created:08/20/2012 18:04:00 (CDT),Last edit 04/01/2018 by Don Lewis