Gin Poles for Raising Motors on Top of Towers

[JBarker]

I have always used a gin pole to put up 6', 8' and 10' mills. Anything bigger than 10' a crane was needed. 10' was always put up without the wheel and that was assembled up there. Just screw in the wheel arms and pull up the 6 wheel sections and attach them. I had several designs for gin poles but the one I settled on I used for about 35 years. It had enough aircraft cable for a 60' tower and always used a winch that will not free wheel. Having a free wheeling winch is a sure fire way to get hurt bad. My gin pole weighs 75 lbs. It's not too hard to pull up if you use the mast pipe like a windless. Old Navy trick. There are a couple photos of my gin pole on this link on my web site. http://obrockwindmills.com/obrockwindmi ... tos_1.html

Ken, thanks for all the good Information, but what is a windless? Thanks

[LoTec]

My gin pole is a 13' length of 2" galvanized pipe, I think schedule 40. I inherited it from my windmill guru Spark about 38 years ago; the system has been tweaked abit since, but is basically the same rig. The pipe is pretty heavy, but I don't have to wrestle it much on the tower. There are two heavy duty mounting brackets that clamp onto the tower. One of them has the winch mounted on it. The winch not only raises the motor, but is used to raise the gin pole. The pole slides up into place through a tube mounted on the upper bracket. The system does take a while to set up and tear down, but it works great once I have it rigged.

[hoosiertom]

First off, hello to everyone who hasn't been to the introductions page. You can see my story there. When I erected my HA in 2016, I scoured the internet for a week trying to find specs or good pictures of a gin pole. I found nothing, so I designed one myself. Better pictures in this thread than anything I found. JBarker expressed an interest, so I made a drawing with dimensions. It is pretty heavy, the pipe alone weighs 57 lbs. Seemed a lot heavier at the end of the day lowering it down. I attached it to the tower before standing it up, so I don't know how hard it is to pull it up. I am open to suggestions for improvement. Hopefully, this will help someone who has the same problem I did.

[JBarker]

wow, love your setup. Thanks for the information. I'm going to build one now.

[Mister Ed]

Well thanks Tom, that saved me a bunch of work (thinking)!! I will follow your drawing, looks like a decent starting point.

[JBarker]

First off, hello to everyone who hasn't been to the introductions page. You can see my story there. When I erected my HA in 2016, I scoured the internet for a week trying to find specs or good pictures of a gin pole. I found nothing, so I designed one myself. Better pictures in this thread than anything I found. JBarker expressed an interest, so I made a drawing with dimensions. It is pretty heavy, the pipe alone weighs 57 lbs. Seemed a lot heavier at the end of the day lowering it down. I attached it to the tower before standing it up, so I don't know how hard it is to pull it up. I am open to suggestions for improvement. Hopefully, this will help someone who has the same problem I did.

Tom,

What type of winch did you use? Thanks

Jerry

[hoosiertom]

I know I should have used a brake winch, but I just used an old boat winch I had laying around. Just had to be careful. I really didn't know if the whole setup was going to work. Was hesitant to fork out the dough until I knew for sure. Next time I use it, I'll get a brake winch. I was happy with how it functioned. If you guys build one and make improvements, let me know. Better is always better. Good luck.

[JBarker]

I know I should have used a brake winch, but I just used an old boat winch I had laying around. Just had to be careful. I really didn't know if the whole setup was going to work. Was hesitant to fork out the dough until I knew for sure. Next time I use it, I'll get a brake winch. I was happy with how it functioned. If you guys build one and make improvements, let me know. Better is always better. Good luck.

Thanks, ur right they are expensive. I priced some recently.

[Smax]

Thanks Tom just what I have been searching for

[JBarker]

First off, hello to everyone who hasn't been to the introductions page. You can see my story there. When I erected my HA in 2016, I scoured the internet for a week trying to find specs or good pictures of a gin pole. I found nothing, so I designed one myself. Better pictures in this thread than anything I found. JBarker expressed an interest, so I made a drawing with dimensions. It is pretty heavy, the pipe alone weighs 57 lbs. Seemed a lot heavier at the end of the day lowering it down. I attached it to the tower before standing it up, so I don't know how hard it is to pull it up. I am open to suggestions for improvement. Hopefully, this will help someone who has the same problem I did.

Tom,

Is the 2 inch pipe O.D. (outside diameter) correct?