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Reviews For: Glen Martin Towers

Category: Towers, masts, accessories, climbing & safety gear

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Review Summary For : Glen Martin Towers
Reviews: 38MSRP: 189 for 8' model
Description:
Roof Top Towers
Product is in production
More Info: http://glenmartin.com/product-category/roof-top
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00384
N4HAL Rating: 2019-09-12
Assembly Problem Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Order a 4.5 foot tower several years ago and was pleased with it, so ordered another. After 2 hours got it together, but top bearing support angles were about 1/8" too long overall and required grinding ends in order to assemble. Without a stationary belt sander in my shop would maybe have returned it.
WX2S Rating: 2015-03-29
On mounting Yaesu rotators Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just assembled an RT-832 and put on a Yaesu G-800 rotator. Many owners have complained that the rotator mount holes do not line up with Yaesu rotators. They do -- but the directions don't say how to line them up.

To adjust the rotator mount, loosen the bolts holding one mount to the tower, slide it around until the rotator mount holes line up, and tighten again. I am using a Yaesu shock absorber joint and universal thrust bearing -- if you don't have these, you will have to align the rotator with the thrust bearing as well by adjusting both mount brackets.

My RT-832 went together in about an hour and a half. The parts kit was missing all the flat washers, but fortunately I had some stainless flat washers on hand. The tower seems very sturdy after assembly. Time will tell!

KM4CQG Rating: 2014-11-05
Tower RT-1832 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just Finished Building it and wanted to share my thoughts. I purchased this from HRO Atlanta had Will call Glen Martin to find out about delivery times. They said 2 weeks it showed up in 2 weeks in a box 8 feet long by 8" wide and 3" high.

If you helped your children build items from there erector set days this should be familiar.

All items arrived undamaged and clearly labeled with part numbers.

I worked alone and it took me about 6 hours to build both sections. There were no metal filings or improper aligned holes.

Once together you can see the masterful engineering that went into the Tower. Reminds me of the tail section of a Home built aircraft.

I did not have to call Glen Martin for help but I can tell you that unless your handy the instructions are poorly written and need better images as they show an earlier design then the Roof Tower I have.

73s I hope this helps make a informed decision.
W6GEE Rating: 2014-07-07
Does the job well! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Other than GM losing my order which delayed shipment, almost non-existent customer support, and sketchy instructions, my RT-832 8' tower went together fairly well.

As mentioned in a previous review, the blocking insructions were completely inaccurate and misleading which required an additoinal trip to the lumber yard for more wood. Because I had to pre-arrange some equipment rental and help, I didn't have a lot of time to waste chasing down addional materials due to incomplete instructions. Being a USA company, I would've expected GM to have written a more concise list of needed items and more accurate bracing instructions.

With GM's slow to non-existent customer service response time, I had the feeling they really don't take the ham community seriously. Maybe it's because their bread and butter comes more from commercial installations, so they don't put priority on amateur radio.

As far as product quality is concerned, this is a very sturdy tower once everything gets cinched down and mounted. I would've definitely given this rating a 5 if it wasn't for the extremely lousy customer service. I could live with hazy instructions, but GM's customer service was downright insulting.
W7PSK Rating: 2013-02-26
After 3 years still solid Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Put the 9 foot tower up 3 years ago. I have it setting on 4 2x4s about a foot long under each of the legs. 2 18in bolts goes through the each foot, the 2x4 and the roof sheeting down to 2 12ft 2X10s along the rafters. I had put the 2X4s on the 2X10s then the tower and predrilled, which made easy assembly on the roof and in the attic. The tower is very solid with me standing on it. It was super easy to assemble, took maybe 2 hours of careful assembly. I had an A4 on it with a Yeasu 800DXA rotor. Ive now a 3 elem SteppIR and the tower made it super easy to take down the A-4 and put up the steppir. We had 2 people on it doing the work with nobody feeling like it was an issue.

If you cant go full sized tower this is the way to go.

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Earlier 5-star review posted by W7PSK on 2007-11-27

Ive had my GM tower up about 5 months now and its solid as a rock. Ive a Cushcraft A-4 above it about 4 feet. Im not a small person (near 300#) and I could stand on it when we got it installed on the roof. I used 2x10s in the rafters and bolted down through them.

The tower is rock solid and hasn't swayed or moved with near 80mph winds we've had so far.

I'm really pleased with it.
K5TGS Rating: 2011-08-24
The Way To Go! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had the roof tower system up for over two years now. What a great way to go. The package arrived after ordering from Texas Towers (another great company!) in a small slender box. The frame and hardware were all packaged neatly and carefully. I assembled the tower within an hour and then mounted the rotor and bearing. I solicited help and got the tower on the peak of the roof. From that time on it has not moved. Even in high winds it just stands straight. The frame was well made and all holes were matched perfectly. A great way to go when you do not want a ground mounted tower.
KE7ZAG Rating: 2011-05-23
Good Value Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased the RT-832 over a year ago, used! So, unable to comment on how the manufacturer packages. But, for bang for the buck I really do not see how anyone could go wrong with the version I purchased.

The tower was sent unassembled, was a snap to assemble, and took less than an hour in my shop. Very easy to assemble. I did add four stainless steel bolts to the cross braces, right in the middle of where they cross. This stopped the vibration I could hear in high winds.

The biggest issue was bracing in my attic. Not something you want to skip over lightly. But, even that went well, and the tower now supports an 11 foot solid fiberglass mast, two M2 VHF and UHF yagi antennas, and hosts a Yaesu G-450A with absolutely great results.

It has been through two over 100 mph wind storms that took out three trees on the place, and the tower just took the brunt of it!

Very happy in this application.

K2QB Rating: 2011-05-23
Excellent Product Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just finished installing the 9' tower on my house and overall the project went off with just one issue that I can complain about. I ordered the unit through Texas Towers and waited almost 8 weeks to receive it. Texas Towers was more then gracious and even offered to cancel my order because of the long delay. I fianlly called GM myself and was told that my unit ws actually on the floor for final inspection and shipment. That was good news but I was leaving on vacation in 3 days and wouldn't be home for 10 days so I asked them to please not ship it for at least a week. Not a problem I was told. Well guess what? The tower arrived 2 days later! Not sure if I should have been pleased or not. FIrst I will say that these are quality units. I had no issues with any burrs or misaligned holes. Everything went together smoothly and easly. Assembled it myself and had it standing up in the garage in a couple of hours. The only issue I did have was with the top not excepting my 2" mast. I installed the recommended Yaseu TB-25 thrust bearing which excepts up to a 2 5/8" mast. The top of the GM tower however wouldn't let the mast pass through so a little grinding of the four top rails while were were up on the roof took care of that problem. I needed to modify the rotor mounting system to accept my HDR-300 but that was easily done. So tower is installed awaiting antenna installation this weekend.
KI6NQT Rating: 2011-03-16
Nice setup (8ft) Time Owned: more than 12 months.
No problems here. Well built, easy to assemble. Fast shipping, well packaged.
Excellent!
AB0RE Rating: 2010-09-13
RT-936 Lessons Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Well my RT-936 review mysteriously disappeared from eHam, so I guess I'll leave another.

I've owned my RT-936 for a few years now. I bought it and installed it at the same time I had my roof re-shingled. Going this route was advantageous as it allowed me to drop the bracing boards through the slot at the top of the roof where the roof ridge vent installs - the boards were too long to fit through the scuttle hole to the attic (they'd get hung up on the underside of the roof).

The tower showed up with the nuts/bolts packages split open and all the hardware was floating loosely in the package. This did a number on the brushed aluminum pieces of the tower. Since the packaging is part of the tower, and I paid dearly for the tower, I think Glen Martin should've gone with heavy duty packaging for the nuts and bolts, and secured the nuts/bolts bag to the tower legs so it doesn't shake around and end up splitting open.

Next I found several rough holes in the tower. It definitely did not look like quality workmanship. One of the holes was misdrilled over 1/4" off. Glen Martin did send a replacement piece after I got interrogated over the telephone and finally offered to email them a picture of the misdrilled piece since they didn't believe me.

Assembly of the tower went okay. Nothing is "high tolerance" with the RT-936T - everything has a little play in it during assembly. Perhaps that is why some people have such a hard time getting the holes in the rotor plate to line up with their rotor which the Glen Martin tower is claimed to have been designed for.

The holes in the tower footings were not large enough to accomodate the lag bolts that Glen Martin sells specifically for this tower. I had to use a Dremel to enlarge the holes. This is a serious oversight by the folks at Glen Martin.

Another serious oversight is that the directions that came with my RT-936 were incorrect. (Again, I paid good money for the RT-936, and the supplied product documentation and installation instructions are part of that cost.) The documentation showed three 2x6's sandwiched together to be used as bracing under the roof with the lag bolts being driven into the centers of the edges of the outer two 2x6's. The problem is that the hole spacing on the foot brackets is too wide for the lag bolts to correctly screw into the center of the bracing material. This is because Glen Martin assumed that a 2x6 is actually 2" thick, which it is not. They should've known better. So, I had to get additional bracing material to use as a shim on either side of the center 2x6's. This makes for a rather complicated brace underneath the roof (5 blocks of wood for each leg, plus two long 2x6s to spread along the underside of the blocking material, across the bottom of the rafters. That's 22 chunks of wood total, plus a LOT of wood screws).

Just keep in mind with the Glen Martin towers you are buying an incomplete kit. You will have to modify your tower to get it to go together correctly and to get it mounted on the roof. You will have to make assumptions based on the poor instructions, and just hope your assumptions don't get you in trouble with the building inspector or end up damaging your roof.

With all these design issues and incorrect instructions, I can't in good conscious give the RT-936 a rating higher than "2 - Needs help". If you have a lot of time and patience to get past all the issues listed above, I think you may be happy with the end result - a sturdy rooftop tower that'll handle a substantial amount of antennas if properly secured across several rafters in the attic. As for me I wish I'd have just gone with a used ground-mounted tower. It would've been around the same price and the same amount of labor to install, and I'd be happeir with the end result.