40 foot crank up tower, down, safely

[Glenn Baumgartner]

Gents the antennas came down Sunday.  The tower laid over very nicely 
with a home fabricated 'falling gin-pole" technique and a small 12 Volt 
winch on Monday.  Entire job went exactly as planned with no surprises, 
no scares, no broken anything.  Kind of fun actually.  No electrons were 
harmed, no antennas damaged, and no one hurt, and very little blood 
spilled (mine).    With the help of my small electric tractor and a home 
made A frame "crane" boom, the tower now is on the edge of the 
driveway.  Only casualty so far were two flat tires on the little 
tractor.  500-600 lbs on the little front tires was a bit much but it 
really did not hamper the job much at all.  Batteries just had to work a 
bit harder.
     The tower is now on the edge of the parking area and available for 
ANYONE who wants if as far as I am concerned.  I do not claim it.  AMRAD 
first, then perhaps VWS or other ideas you all may have. Please help me 
find a new owner who will love the thing and take care of it.  The beast 
is really quite a nice tower.  It is a two section crank-up with 
motorized winch will easily handle all the antennas you can hang on it. 
   It is massive.   Minimum length is about 20 feet and the two sections 
can be easily separated for man-handling.  The winch motor seems frozen 
but that is a common and relatively easily fixed problem with induction 
motors that sit out in the rain.
     I can help anyone  interested to  load it on a truck (long truck) 
or a flatbed trailer. for the next week or so.     The little 
tractor/"crane" will do wonders to load it and I am willing to do most 
of the work.  Come on guys we need a little help here.. Suggestions 
gladly accepted.  The liability stuff is essentially all past us now.
     Thank you Paul for your generosity.  I had fun figuring out how to 
take all the antennas and the tower down nearly all by myself. (totally 
a  no liability, non-AMRAD job, we are safe now guys and I sill have all 
my fingers and toes.)
      Ken (Paul's brother) was most  most helpful with good common sense 
advice Monday afternoon when moving the beast to the driveway with the 
little (very undersized) tractor.    Thanks to all who helped make this 
little "drill" possible.   73 Glenn b.  AK4QJ.