Once upon a time (this sounds like the beginning of a fairy tale), I had a
125 ft. tower at a building I owned. The guy wires that supported it had
guy grips also.
One day a tower guy who had another job that required him to come by my shop
wandered out and looked at the tower. He came back in to report one of the
guy wires was beginning to loosen.
I asked him to repair the tower and do what was necessary to prevent a
failure. He replace the guy wire and grip that was the root of the problem.
He told me that he did not reuse any portion of a system that showed signs
of failure.
So, I would say, replace the one that you must remove to repair the
insulator. Inspect all the wires and if you see any other problems, replace
them if more than that one show signs of weakness. That would mean having a
new set on hand when you do the repair.
73 Jim
W5JO
My tower uses 3/16" guy cable. A few days ago I walked around and
inspected the tower, and notice that one of the guy insulators is cracked.
Don't know if it was lightning or if someone took a potshot at it, but it
needs to be replaced.
I have the spare insulator, and the old one is installed using Guy Grips,
also known as pre-forms. Has anyone had any experience re-using them? I
am wondering if I should order a new set (not expensive just for only one
insulator), or if I re-used the old ones would they hold ok?
Don k4kyv
