Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

I've never seen a tower like the one I just bought, especially the way the diagonal bracing "straps" are attached. (Obviously, they aren't laid out correctly in the photos which are "as found in Craigslist") It almost looks like a kit to upgrade your tower; is it a system that doesn't require new holes when a person wants to beef-up a tower?

I'd like to find some literature/illustrations but don't know the brand. Any ideas?

Burt

I would not doubt that it is original. USWE had tighteners similar to that, but stationary. But those seem to be a bit complicated for a home fix. They appear to lip over the inside and outside of the leg, as to slide for adjustments.

I bet they go on the lower part of the tower and have been taken loose an twisted to the upper part for transport. Just a guess.

You're right, they are too complicated to buy off the shelf in a hardware store. In the second photo, the top straps and hardware are just laying there but the ones next to the ladder on the ground seem to be "cornered" into their correct positions. They seem to float rather than being bolted onto the tower.

I'm headed back to pick the tower up this coming Friday so will have better pictures after that. The plan is to rejoin the two sections to make about a 25' tower. I think that originally, the tower was 50' as there seems to be enough straps and hardware and some angle iron sitting on a hay wagon behind the shed. I negotiated for that stuff too.

If the original tower was 50 ft, and it's split in two, just use the upper part? Might save you a lot of assembly/ disassembly work.

I wasn't very clear; judging from what I found in the junk pile, I think the tower was 50' from the factory. The bottom 1/3 disappeared by the time that I bought the two pieces (plus parts) in the photos. Hopefully, when we load my trailer, I'll locate all the parts I need to make a good looking 25-30ft. tower.

I'm sure you can. I love finding deals like that.

Well, I hauled about four hay racks of parts into town and laid it out on my front yard so I could try and figure out what I had just paid for! I'll include some photos just to give you an idea of what some of the stuff looked like. In the end, I got four towers (three 4 leg and one 3 leg). They all started out as 40+ feet but they'll end up being about 21" in order to keep my head down in regard to regulations, etc. Also, when they laid them down, some of the bottom angles turned to spaghetti. I got a A602 with a broken main shaft and missing wheel sitting on top of a 12' or so tower top. Also, an A702 (with A723 hub) and wheel that I had talked about in another post. The three leg tower matches up with that. 3 tail vanes/tail bones and a bunch of stubs with parts. All of the stuff is Aermotor except the tower in this post. Stay tuned because I don't know much about Aermotor towers and I'll have some questions.

Burt

OK Burt, the top picture is Aermotor, but the rest I'm not sure about the rest yet.

Top pic - I can't see the top notches well enough to determine if they are the standard 4 leg notch or the smaller finer 3 leg notch? That is a 20' section and probably 2.5" angle. The girts are for a 3 leg but if the tower top notch is for a 4 leg, it is a hodge podge. If notches are 3 leg, then it is the top 20' of a 40' trussed tripod early Aermotor 3 leg

2nd pic - That is a top 13.5' section of a post 1915 easy to build up Aermotor

3rd pic - Front stack - all non Aermotor. Back stack - bottom rods Aer, top Aer, middle non Aer

4th pic caption - Highway debris waiting to happen or you're not hauling that to the scrap yard are you..

Ron Stauffer
Montrose CO