Suburban Outfit: Can I do this?
Posted: Mon May 31, 2021 11:50 pm
About two weeks ago, I bought a complete and rebuilt 12' D-602 Aermotor and an original Aermotor tower with the "D" stub (approx. 30'). At the same time, I bought another tower of my dreams (the trussed tripod was the first), the top 40+ feet of a 60 foot Suburban Outfit tower made for a 10' "C"-Aermotor. Although it doesn't have the tank, it has all of the special tower parts for it (and I'm not at all hesitant to build a tank).
So, the very good fellow I bought it from, had his 12 year old son helping us load everything into my truck and he looked at the two piles of tower parts and then he asked me if I shouldn't label the parts so they wouldn't get mixed up. In my best over-confident voice, I said "naw, after all, it's only two towers!"
(Anybody have any guesses who's been spending two days measuring and remeasuring, and trying to figure out shipping stencils and leg and girt numbers, and then trying to match up rust lines and bird droppings in order to put "only two towers" back together?)
So, in all of that "investigation/research", I noticed that the top 13' 8" of both towers have only three differences; the two top girt sizes are a little heavier on the 12', the bolt holes and hardware are heavier (nuts, bolts, brace rods), and of course, the mast pipes. The legs are the same size angle iron and the hole locations are all the same.
So, here's my question: can I just switch the 13' tower tops if I want to put the 12' D-602 on the tank tower? From what I see, everything below the top 13' on my Suburban Outfit tower is heavy duty to support the weight of the full water tank. The only modifications that I will have to do is to re-drill some existing holes for larger hardware and to spread the legs at the top of the tank a little less than 1". (That is just at the bottom square of the top 13' of the tower) I've done that with a drift/spud easily in the past so I'm thinking it won't even be noticed once it is assembled.
The advantage of displaying a big mill on a water tower is that my yard is getting kind of full and combining two towers into one would help the garden planning. However, I'm suffering from flashbacks of that 12 year old offering me sound advice and me being too headstrong to take it!
Any thoughts?
So, the very good fellow I bought it from, had his 12 year old son helping us load everything into my truck and he looked at the two piles of tower parts and then he asked me if I shouldn't label the parts so they wouldn't get mixed up. In my best over-confident voice, I said "naw, after all, it's only two towers!"
(Anybody have any guesses who's been spending two days measuring and remeasuring, and trying to figure out shipping stencils and leg and girt numbers, and then trying to match up rust lines and bird droppings in order to put "only two towers" back together?)
So, in all of that "investigation/research", I noticed that the top 13' 8" of both towers have only three differences; the two top girt sizes are a little heavier on the 12', the bolt holes and hardware are heavier (nuts, bolts, brace rods), and of course, the mast pipes. The legs are the same size angle iron and the hole locations are all the same.
So, here's my question: can I just switch the 13' tower tops if I want to put the 12' D-602 on the tank tower? From what I see, everything below the top 13' on my Suburban Outfit tower is heavy duty to support the weight of the full water tank. The only modifications that I will have to do is to re-drill some existing holes for larger hardware and to spread the legs at the top of the tank a little less than 1". (That is just at the bottom square of the top 13' of the tower) I've done that with a drift/spud easily in the past so I'm thinking it won't even be noticed once it is assembled.
The advantage of displaying a big mill on a water tower is that my yard is getting kind of full and combining two towers into one would help the garden planning. However, I'm suffering from flashbacks of that 12 year old offering me sound advice and me being too headstrong to take it!
Any thoughts?