Should I get this tower? (pics included!)

[Airdorn]

Hey all.

I was at a customer's house today doing some work and noticed that he had an old Rohn 45 tower.. the old man said it was about 70' tall. And he called it a 'tilt tower'. It has guy wires.

He said he would sell it for $500, and that if I or someone was interested he could probably be "talked down a bunch", haha.

What say you, group, about the value of this tower? The crank is rusted, but the rest of the tower looks to be in good shape. Are the footers, or whatever you call the piece in the concrete, available still?

I included some pics of it. Sorry for the poor quality. I didn't have my camera, so I had to use my phone camera.

Thanks!

 

[KJ4FWA]

Wow, Thats pretty cool, IF you have the space for It I'd say go for it! I'd love to have it myself

 

[RESCUE4NFD]

70' Tower..NICE FIND...

 

[N4GKS]

I gave away a Rohn HDBX40 before I moved. I can tell you if he want's $500.00 and you remove it, it's not worth it. Too many people will give you tower just to get rid of it. Keep searching.

 

[key2_altfire]

I gave away a Rohn HDBX40 before I moved. I can tell you if he want's $500.00 and you remove it, it's not worth it. Too many people will give you tower just to get rid of it. Keep searching.

Agreed. I only paid $285 for my 38' tower (granted it's not a 70 footer, but it was new)... the real costs were in the installation and cables.

 

[n8emr]

Unless you know how or know someone who knows how to take down the tower, its not worth it. the tilt is going add complexity to removal. If I got the tower I would get rid of it entirely.

 

[SAR923]

70' of tower is a lot to handle, even if you know what you're doing. Trucking it to your location will be another challenge. I can't see how it's mounted now but I suspect you'll have to torch off the the tower legs from the concrete base. Making a new base is not hard but having enough length left on the tower legs for a secure mounting is another issue. The tilt over crank is so rusted that I doubt it works any longer. How long has it been up and what condition the welds are in? And why do you need a 70' tower? I'd give this one a pass. You can put up a 36' guyed zip pole for a lot less than $500 and you really won't notice the height difference in terms of reception compared to the amount of grief you're going to have to go through with a 70' tower

 

[Airdorn]

Ok.

I'm not really interested in it.. I was just wondering if it was some kind of "great find" at $500. The thing DOES look impressive up there.

If someone else wants it (for probably less than $500, btw), let me know and I can put you in touch with the old man.

 

[N1BHH]

That's got a tilt-over hinge part way up, that's no cheap tower. That's built for some bigger antennas, like an HF beam. You would do better with finding some Rohn 25 sections and building one. You have to remember to dig a pretty good size hole and mounting the base in concrete in that hole. It can be a bunch of work, but once it's all done you'll feel a sense of accomplishment. Do some research on putting one up, of course with the help of some friends. In fact, that tower don't look to be 70 feet. Rohn 25 comes in 10 foot sections, try to count the joints, doesn't look like more than 50 feet from my view, maybe only 40.

 

[Airdorn]

That's got a tilt-over hinge part way up, that's no cheap tower. That's built for some bigger antennas, like an HF beam. You would do better with finding some Rohn 25 sections and building one. You have to remember to dig a pretty good size hole and mounting the base in concrete in that hole. It can be a bunch of work, but once it's all done you'll feel a sense of accomplishment. Do some research on putting one up, of course with the help of some friends. In fact, that tower don't look to be 70 feet. Rohn 25 comes in 10 foot sections, try to count the joints, doesn't look like more than 50 feet from my view, maybe only 40.

The old man said it was a Rohn 45 70-foot tilt tower.. and he said it like he knew exactly what it is and I have no reason to dispute him. It was apparently someone's tower (possibly his!) for HAM radio. I noticed some 'strange equipment' in his garage, and so he may be withholding his old HAM fetish for some reason.

It definitely looks to be 70' or better.

No, I'm not trying to sell this thing. The guy just said that if I knew anyone that might want it, to pass the information on.

 

[Airdorn]

70' of tower is a lot to handle, even if you know what you're doing. Trucking it to your location will be another challenge. I can't see how it's mounted now but I suspect you'll have to torch off the the tower legs from the concrete base. Making a new base is not hard but having enough length left on the tower legs for a secure mounting is another issue. The tilt over crank is so rusted that I doubt it works any longer. How long has it been up and what condition the welds are in? And why do you need a 70' tower? I'd give this one a pass. You can put up a 36' guyed zip pole for a lot less than $500 and you really won't notice the height difference in terms of reception compared to the amount of grief you're going to have to go through with a 70' tower

How about this: climb up, unbolt the section, push it off and let it fall.

Rinse and repeat.

 

[af5rn]

How about this: climb up, unbolt the section, push it off and let it fall.

Or charge the old man $500 bucks not to do it.

 

[Don_Burke]

How about this: climb up, unbolt the section, push it off and let it fall.

Rinse and repeat.

That is more trouble than I would go through to get some scrap metal, which is what much of the tower will be after the drop.

 

[jim202]

It's not that hard to take a tower down. You just need the right equipment to do it
with. With this tower being up long enough for the winch to rust up like that, the
legs will be stuck together. You will need to take out the 6 leg bolts at the bottom
of the section your trying to remove. Use a gin pole to tie it off with a rope, so
your ground crew can help with the lowering. It may take a hammer and a
drive pin to get the bolts out. They are probably rusted and will snap off
when you try to get the nuts off. You may even have to use a hammer to
tap on the legs as your trying to force them apart. Some penetrating
oil in the tower legs might also help. Once the bolts are out, you can
try applying the oil to the sides of the bolt holes. Remember, that
your trying to get the oil in between the leg sections, not on the inside
of the tower leg.

But the big problem here is trying to get the sections apart. You will need a way
to pry the sections from each other. One way is to use a couple pieces of hard
wood blocks and a hydraulic jack. Put one wood block on a cross member of the
tower below the joint. Rest the jack on it. Don't forget to tie off the jack with
a piece of rope so it won't fall if it slips. Take another piece of wood and place it
above the jack. It may take some finess to make up these blocks. Anyway, you
need to jack the tower section up about 6 inches to get them to come apart.

Once you have the tower section free from the lower tower, have the ground
crew lower it to the ground using the rope going through the gin pole.

Unbolt the gin pole, lower it to the next section and do it all over again. The
tower sections are 10 feet long and have enough weight that one person
will have a hard time on the tower trying to do all the work himself.

Don't forget to use a safety belt on the tower. None of this wrap your leg
around the tower stuff. Use a rope of at least 3/8 dia. Make sure the ground
crew is wearing gloves while tagging the rope line lowering the tower sections.

Jim

 

[Paulsan]

Can't you just tilt it over and take it apart?

 

[Don_Burke]

Can't you just tilt it over and take it apart?

Getting it down without bending it would be pretty tricky.

70 feet for general scanner use is a bit much anyway and $500 is way out of line.

If it was free and ham radio is in your future, there are possibilites.

 

[hoser147]

I see all kinds of adds in the freebe classifieds of people wanting to get rid of towers for taking them down. There are a bunch of unused towers just in my neighborhood alone. I was lucky enough to run across 2 rohn towers that someone had already taken down for 15 bucks. With the sections it amounted to 90 ft with both towers. I could get my money back just scrapping the thing. Im going to go over it and paint it and then Im going to decide whether to keep it or sell it. Ive seen alot of people using sections for pole lights and antenna towers, so I dont think it will be hard to sell. As far as putting it up myself Ive got so many big trees around me I think it will hurt my reception by going up higher in the foliage from the trees. Im already up about 35 ft and get great reception but Im below most of the foilage. My other nieghbor has one similar to the one you are looking at but his hasnt been tilted in 20 years and I imagine it is rusted together. Good Luck hoser

 

[harpman54]

A tower that size is a LOT of work to dismantle and remove. How do I know this? I was offered a 55 foot tower which was a crank up, tilt over style tower with a 'sand base' , a special ground section which did not require cement. To take the sections apart and pull that base was a huge undertaking. I didn't use the sand base so to anchor the tower took 3.5 cu yds of concrete or about a 5' X 5' X 5' hole requiring about 9000 lbs of concrete.

I'd keep looking. Someone out there has sections of tower on the ground already, with a LOT less work, lots of time for free.

Bill