Tilt Up Tower Pix

[Ric Murphy]

Well I was fortunate to receive a completely reconditioned turbine earlier this week in exchange for the one that failed shortly before Christmas. The Canadian distributer felt it appropriate to replace the unit at no charge even though the warranty had expired. This one is a later model than the previous 2 and has some new design features, mainly the revised tilt up furl. Although today's weather wasn't the greatest it's better than the forecast for the next week (I just love doing wiring outdoors in the Canadian winter!!!). I pre assembled the turbine earlier in the week and I was able to lower the tower, install the turbine and have it in the air today by myself in just over 2 hours (that includes 42 trips to the shed for tools). This time I tried using a pulley at the end of the gin pole. By using the pulley the load on the winch is greatly reduced. The only minor problem was the lack of space between the end of the gin pole and the ground anchor. Other than that it worked quite well. Some pictures of todays adventure are below.....
Regards,
Ric
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[Stewart Corman]

Ric,
Nice pics and thanks for sharing. I am very impressed with you tower construction, especially those couplers

you made one comment that I can address:
The only minor problem was the lack of space between the end of the gin pole and the ground anchor.


My buddy in Rochester had an interesting configuration.
Nobody ever said that the gin pole had to be secured at 90 degrees.
He welded the gin pole at a slight upwards angle , so that when tower is vertical, the gin pole sits about 3 feet off the ground ...he then has a 3 ft piece of heavy cable with thimbles (or chain) with a shackle, so he can unhook the winch for a permanent but removeable installation to the guy anchor.

I know you said the tower was 70 feet, but I didn't recall whether you actually remove the gin pole after reconnecting the guys or leave it permanently attached??

Stew Corman from sunny Endicott

[Ric Murphy]

Stew,
Thanks for the compliment. Interesting idea to have the gin pole less than 90 degrees. I find that with the tower upright I can lift up my 21' gin pole at least a foot off 90 degrees (if I eat my Wheaties that is!!). I usually have to do that to attach the guy wires. If I understand you correctly does your buddy use the gin pole and it's anchor as a permanent attachment for those guy wires? My 4 guy anchors are 37' from the tower base...the gin pole (and it's anchor) are 21'. I attach the winch to it's anchor and the gin pole first and then transfer each of the 3 guy wires one at a time to the gin pole starting with the lowest one. I usually remove the gin pole unless I know I'm going to have to use it in the near future. In the winter it's not an issue but it's a pain to cut the grass around in the summer!!! It's also a pain to take it out (due to it's weight) but it's not that bad when you have a tractor with a set of forks on it.
Ric

[Stewart Corman]

Ric,
I think I understand part of your geometry ...if the gin pole is closer to the tower base than guy anchors, then the longer guys wires from the guy anchor have an intermediate "loop" or such, to allow connecting at the winch at which time the extra just lays on the ground.

If you remove the gin pole, then you'd need a temporary saw horse to hold it three feet up while setting up.

I wasn't going to mention using a pulley at the top, but I see you figured that one out already ...only restriction is that you need 2x length of wire and winch capable of that extra takeup

Yes, the other setup simply has the gin pole 3 ft up and comes down at the guy anchor and just sits in space doing nothing when the short cable takes over.

My setup will be much different as I am doing experimental models which need frequent raising and lowering, so I need to be able to "tilt" in a few minutes w/o any assembly, ergo Mario's setup.

Stew

[Laurie Forbes]

Ric, good to see your turbine back in operation (I was hoping though you'd join the rest of us maschoists and build you own :).

I'm interested in the tilt-back furl mechaism as my previous turb had something similar. Have you seen it furl yet and if so, how smooth is the motion i.e pretty much on or off or, with gradual tilt-back with increasing wind speed? Also, is there a damping mechanism to keep it from banging back and forth?

The tilted up gin pole is a good idea BTW - will consider that for my tower upgrade.

PS - any idea how thick the neos are in your alternator??

[Ric Murphy]

Hi Laurie,
I'm kinda stuck with this turbine for now. As long it keeps working (or they keep fixing or replacing free) then I'll stay with it until I'm ready to go bigger. At that point everything's an option. I have seen this model furl many times. It seems to be a slow, smooth tilt back until it reaches a certain point (I'd estimate about 50 degree's off horizontal). Then it usually flops back all the way (which is almost straight up) until it hits a bumper and then quickly falls back forward. The last 2 turbines had no damping mechanism, just a rubber bumper, but this one does (you can see it in the picture in the first post). I haven't seen this one furl yet so can't say how well the damper works. It usually starts to furl around 38mph. I've seen as high as 50A @24v at pre furl. I have no idea how thick the neo's are on this unit. I've seen them apart but can't recall any details (thats beyond my area of expertise). You might find some pictures at this site http://www.truenorthpower.com/index.php?option=com_heximage&Itemid=25

Did you notice the pulley in the tower pix? I got thinking about it after our discussion in the other thread. Really made a difference in the winch lift capacity. I don't think there'll be any problems lifting the extra weight with this winch if I add another section to the tower

Ric

[Laurie Forbes]

Hi Laurie,
Did you notice the pulley in the tower pix? I got thinking about it after our discussion in the other thread. Really made a difference in the winch lift capacity. I don't think there'll be any problems lifting the extra weight with this winch if I add another section to the towerRic

Ric:

I just added a pulley to my rig as well - the added weight of the pitch control was too much for my small tractor to handle (so had to use the neighbour's tractor). Now I can lift it easily though, with better control.

The hard part was driving an adequate anchor point into the frozen (& rocky) ground - just about killed me but good exercise.