Steve in VA

Well-known Member
I have a complete 8' mill and 27' tower stored at the farm. Long overdue to put it back together. I didn't take it down nor have I ever put one together. Manuals I have but what I don't have is experience. I've watched way too many videos and read and re-read the manual. Anyone here have experience putting the tower up? Looks like two options: get a crane or pull it vertical using a jib pole. The real rub is how to align it with the legs pre-set into the ground. Help?
 
(quoted from post at 19:18:29 09/23/15) My brother made a set of hinges that fasten to the legs and the ground anchor.

I''ve never done a windmill but I've raised a few ham towers... on my dad's tower (a 3 leg - 64' self supporting tower) we built the anchor system to fit the base of the tower (the tower included tilt over hinges...you could fab your own)... then buried the anchors in a 3'x3'x3' block of concrete... attached the base section to the tower base and checked the hinges for proper operation...hinging up the first 8' section... once we were happy we lowered the base section till it was level... then built the rest of the tower across sawhorses up to and including the rotor and antennas.

Next we called a buddy in the erection business with a truck crane, he came by after hours... we lined him up opposite the tower and boomed up, cabled out and pulled it up in one slow lift... the critical point is when the tower gets to it's balance point (just before plumb) and wants to keep going toward the truck... the third leg in the anchor would catch it but it's safer to have a hand line keeping tension on the tower to ease it into position.... all done lifting ??? check for plumb, adjust as needed and put in the anchor bolts.. climb the tower and remove the sling and hook. took about 1/2 day total and totally worth the 50 bucks for the truck crane.

you could do similar and then have him set the gearbox and windmill after the tower is up...

if this scares you... find some experienced folks and pay them to do it... it can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing and people could die or at least get mangled...
hope it helps
john
 
Fifty years ago an old man took kindly to me and over time taught me a bought home heating and furnace installation.
In his younger days he had run a crew putting up wind mills.
He said that they put the tower together laying on the ground and then used gin poles to tip the tower up by hand.
I'm not a good enough scribe to explain how. I could make a sketch but don't know if I could post it.
If you would like a rough sketch my e-mail is open.
I've done this myself but I believe I could if necessary.
Maybe someone else has been there done that.

Dusty
 
27 foot isn't that tall. Put it together and tip it up with the front loader on the tractor. I'd take metal T posts and wire them well to the legs so you don't bend any at the bottom section. Once it is up, lift the loader up until it only has a foot of travel left. Chain the tower to the bucket and lift it up on the piers. At 27 feet you will be way past the balance point that way
 
I have a 53 ft tall one. Set the corners post in concrete and assembled the rest of it one section at a time. used a crane to put the motor and fan assembly. I think the jin pole setup is only for the motor and fan. My big problem was getting the starter sections level and square. Finally went to Lowes and bought me some treated 6 x 6s and was able to get everything square and level. 1 yard of concrete on each corner buried 5 feet deep.
 
I agree that 27 feet is a very tall tower. Guys around here would prop the tower up, hang the head on the stub tower, and tip the whole thing up with a loader tractor. That being said, I wouldn't attempt to do it with a small tractor either.
I cheat!! I have an old municipal digger truck, with a bucket, winch, digger, and a long stinger. I can pick the head off of a 40 foot tower.
 
My grandfather did it with a team of horses. The entire wind mill was put together on the ground. two of the legs were fastened to hinges. the top of the windmill was raised off the ground a ways (fan section). Two poles were put in the ground vertically and another was placed horizontally across the top of the poles. The vertical poles were braced to the ground so they could not be pulled over. A rope was then tied to the top of the windmill and over the horizontal pole and to the team of horses. As another suggested a tag line should be tied to the ground side of the tower so the tower can be lowered gently on the anchor bolts that don't have the hinges. The hinges can be made in such a way that they can be removed after the tower is up and and set on an anchor bolt like the other side.
To make sure things line up build the bottom section and tip it up, square it up, then make the foundation.
When people around here were buying Jacobs wind generators years back they were built on the ground and set up with a boom truck. Those towers had three legs made of pipe.
 

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