A post or tree or other solid attachment point gives you a place to hook up a come-along. If you don't know what that is, it's a hand winch with cable attached that allows you to tighten and loosen the cable by cranking a lever back and forth. Get one with enough cable to equal the height of the tower. If you don't have a large enough come-along to hold that much cable, you'll have to use temporary braces and reattach the come-alongs as you go.
You don't want to do that. If you have a 40 foot tower, have a winch that will handle 40 feet of cable. Once you've rigged up the lowering ropes and come-alongs, tie down the legs to a stake or hardpoint on the opposite side toward where the tower will fall.
This way the legs don't slide toward the guys on the lowering ropes and hurt somebody when you lean the tower over. Now unbolt the legs from the base or cut them free with a metal cutting rig or torch. Leaving the guy wires in place prevents the tower from falling when the legs are cut. Now, cut the guy wires on the same side as the lowering ropes and leave the guy wire attached on the side toward which the tower will fall. Begin letting out the come-alongs and let the tower begin to lean over.
Work the come-alongs simultaneously if you have help or let out a few turns at a time on each side. Lay the tower all the way down and then cut it free and haul it away. Do not skip steps or use less wire or fewer come-alongs than you need. A tower like that, however lightly constructed it may seem can do a lot of damage to you when it falls. During the last 45 degrees of lean, the stress on the come-alongs can get pretty fierce.
You might consider using a scaffold or brace under the tower top to reduce the weight. Lower the come-alongs a few inches a time and the reset the brace. Putting a big log or something heavy directly below can help prevent the tower from crushing your foot if it drops on you. Better by far simply to stay out from under the tower when it's being lowered. If it falls it falls.
Also stay clear of the sides of the wires. If one parts suddenly, it can cut you up badly as it pops loose. That's why you want to make sure you use heavy enough wires to handle the load. As the angle between the wires and tower become narrower as it comes down, it puts a lot of pressure on those support wires. Better to use too strong a wire and come-along than ones that are too light.
Rent equipment heavy enough to more than carry the load. Or rent a crane. Cranes are good too. Good luck with that bad boy! 0 of 8192 characters usedPost CommentNo HTML is allowed in comments, but URLs will be hyperlinked. Comments are not for promoting your articles or other sites.
Point taken, Jack. We're talking about the TV towers that people used to have when they lived way out in the country before there was cable. They seldom run much more than a couple or three stories high and the reason you're taking them down is because you don't want them anymore - the operative words being "old or damaged". We're not talking about 200 foot tall TV station antennas here.
We're talking about a farmer scrapping an old antenna he doesn't need anymore because he bought DISH Network. And these towers are not really the kind you want to climb for any reason. If there's room you can unbolt them and push them over - good clean redneck fun that!
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