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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
N8XE Rating: 2002-12-26
Solid Roof Tower Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I decided to go the roof tower route. Wanted to save money and keep the neighborhood happy. I bought the 17.5' tower and a week later the tower shows up at my door. That was fast! Putting it together was pretty easy. The instructions could be a little clearer, however, I was able to figure them out. Also, a couple of bolts were missing and they missed one 3/8" nylon lock nut. A quick trip to the local hardware fixed that.

I opted to not use the lag screws and went with 7" long, 3/8" bolts going through the roof plywood, then a 4x6, then a 2x8. The 4x6 was set between the trusses and sandwiched between the 2x8 and the plywood roof. I used roofing tar to seal it all up.

Climbing the tower was a breeze with the ladder on one side of the tower. However, I find it interesting that Glen Martin recommends not climbing the tower... (then why put the ladder on one side?!?!) Anyways, it sounds like a way to avoid any liability in case someone falls off of one of these things. I am 230lbs and the tower did not budge at all when I was up there. This thing is solid!!

I have a 5 band Hexbeam up on top with a Yaesu G450XL rotor which is way within the weight limit of the tower.

The best part about my experience with Glen Martin is that they worked with me to get my building permit. They were patient and followed through on the proper documentation required by my city. Troy, James, and Amanda were great helping me.

I recommend a Glen Martin roof tower to anyone who wants to avoid the expense of a full tower.

Pictures of my installation are available at http://www.qsl.net/n8xe/radio/tower_project.html
N3ZR Rating: 2002-11-12
M1870 - Fine product & company Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My Martin M1870 tower holds a Lightning Bolt quad (24 foot boom; 4 elements on 20-17-15-12-10 meters; 6 elements on 6 meters; 13 square feet wind load). The quad is mounted on 2" OD .250" wall 4130 mast, and turned by a Yaesu G1000SDX rotor. Yardarms at 62 feet support wire antennas.

I'll rate the tower and company in 5 areas: Product Quality, Instructions, Service, Ease of Assembly/Installation, Performance. I'll also include some comments regarding assembly and lifting that may be useful to others.

PRODUCT QUALITY: 4.5 / 5. If you're used to welded steel towers, your first impression may be (as mine was) that a 400-pound aluminum angle tower with tubular cross braces and stainless steel fasteners won't support a large array. But it does so without problems. The sections were well-assembled, all fasteners tight and torqued to spec. Minor issues: 1.) I had a slight mechanical clearance problem with the raising winch cable, easily corrected with a couple of backing washers between the winch frame and mechanism, and slightly longer bolts. 2.) The supplied guy thimbles were galvanized and lightweight, and I replaced them with heavier plated ones.

INSTRUCTIONS: 4.5 / 5. They are sufficiently detailed and illustrated for proper assembly and raising of the tower. One thing I wish Martin would stress more is that the primary purpose of the guys is to limit the effects of rotational torque. It's especially vital on this kind of tower to make sure the guy point compass positions are exactly per spec (see more below under Service).

SERVICE: 5 / 5. I had several service experiences with Martin, all good. The tower came on a single pallet which fit in a standard pickup truck, shipped via a reputable carrier. Two sections of the tower were damaged in transit (a forklift operator had to work really hard to do what he did!). Martin promptly replaced parts at no charge so I could rebuild those sections. I sent them pictures of the damage, and though it was not a packaging problem I understand they used the feedback to beef up packaging to make forklift damage even less likely. Later, while the tower was under construction, a tree fell unexpectedly and damaged another section. Martin promptly provided needed replacement parts. I also purchased the rotor from them (this was several years ago; they had the best price at the time).

Because of a very large tree stump I could not locate one guy point exactly to spec. A fellow at Martin carefully explained that limiting rotational torque is the primary purpose of the guying system, and therefore maintaining the compass position of the guy point was highly critical. He suggested establishing an elevated guy point on a steel beam buried in concrete a few feet farther away from the tower, or moving the earth anchor guy point a few feet closer in (the option I took). Martin also gave some phone advice on raising the tower. I definitely recommend talking to them about your particular situation before you do the lift. I later ordered two additional tower leg guying clamps to construct a lifting point (more below).

EASE OF ASSEMBLY & INSTALLATION: 5 / 5. Assembly is very straightforward, especially since you build on the ground. After talking with Martin, I moved the top guy points 5 feet down from the top of the tower to provide ample clearance for rotation of the quad. The lower guys are at the standard 35-foot level. Guying starts with the supplied earth screw anchors, then 10 feet of 3/16" EHS cable (more below on why), then Phillystran 2100 to the tower. As Martin's largest tower, the M1870 is not a "walk-up," but doesn't miss it by much. No doubt all their others can be walked up, since this one is actually just a little beyond what a half dozen healthy men could do, with 4 walking it up and 2 more pulling from the other side. I'm no weight lifter, but I could lift the top end of the fully-assembled tower over my head by myself.

The terrain here made a crane or bucket truck lift impossible. So I used a cable and pulley system strung in a tree to the southeast. I added two Martin tower leg guy clamps on one leg of the tower at the 50-foot level as a lifting point. One is mounted in the normal position, the other upside-down against it for a bit of extra support, because the cable lifting angle was only going to be about 30 degrees at the start of the lift. I attached a cable and snap hook which remains permanently attached to the tower in case it ever has to be lowered to the ground again. The tower can be pulled up using an 18 HP yard tractor, with a little human help for the start of the lift. The lifting pulley suspended in the tree was off-center from the tower leg, and the lifting cable angle was lower than I would have liked. So we set up a 30-foot vertical standard using orange flag tape so one person could sight through the tower to it during the lift. The plan was for him to give instructions to two other helpers who would use the guy cables to keep the tower lined up as it went up. But the tower went up straight without help, and there were no problems with the hinged base. The hinged base looks lightweight, but it performed just fine, no movement of any kind. I had leveled the base adjusting bolts ahead of time and minor tweaking achieved dead plumb once the tower was up. (It was great to be able to send up a plumb bob line to any level of the tower on the Hazer. I left one made of Dacron rope on the tram permanently.) Proper guy tension is critical. That's one of the reasons I used 3/16" EHS for the bottom ends of the guys, so I could use a Loos tension gauge to establish proper tension. This was my first experience with Phillystran guys. They relaxed a bit during the first couple of weeks, but only about 15%. A Loos gauge will not give an accurate tension reading on Phillystran directly. So having the EHS bottom ends allows me to take tension readings any time.

PERFORMANCE: 5 / 5. The tower/antenna system has been exposed to 50 mph winds and stronger gusts. The only thing I notice are minor twisting excursions, mainly above the top guys (remember I put them 5 feet down from the tower top for quad clearance, with Martin's advice). The tower is designed to do a bit of flexing. Too much flexing would probably indicate inadequate guy tension or wrong guy anchor positioning. I like being able to raise and lower the antenna pretty much anytime for maintenance. Since I'm a quad man but not able to climb towers because of back and neck problems, this was critical for me. I like the electrical transparency of the Phillystran.

OVERALL, I give Martin and the M1870 a 4.8 out of 5. I rounded that up to 5 / 5 rating for purposes of this review, since my "points-off" issues were very minor in the grand scheme. If you have questions or want additional information, please feel free to e-mail me at n3zr@711online.net.
KC5NYO Rating: 2002-11-02
Great Little Rooftop Tower Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Purchased the 9' quad, it arrived when promised. Assembly took a couple of hours. Solid little tower..... it's supporting a SteppIR 3-element beam and a dual band X-50 vertical. So far no problems at all, happy with the purchase. Photos on my web site in the photo album section.
W8VKD Rating: 2002-05-06
Well Designed Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I picked up a used 1350 last year. One call to their parts dept. and 2 days later my parts arrived. The instruction book and diagrams are right on! I built my own concrete stub base from the diagrams in the manual and my tower base fit perfectly. I am a mechanical engineer so I am usually quite dicriminating when it comes to this type of equipment. My tower needed the usual retightening of cross braces and new winch cabling but that was to be expected. This is a well designed and well made product that when used "AS INSTRUCTED" works extremely well. I will be buying more of their towers in the future. They beat the heck out of climbing!
N1JAO Rating: 2002-05-04
brick #$&@house! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I put the 9-foot roof tower together today and man, is it built to last. Expensive, (450 bucks) but in my estimation well worth the money for the piece of mind it will give me being up on a 45 foot pitched roof. It is all anodized which is an expensive chemical process. The thrust bearing is also Glenn martin made and well made (89 bucks) the four legs are 1/4" aluminum- rugged!!
KC2ACP Rating: 2001-10-06
Fantastic,built to last,sturdy construction Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It went together easy.Very high quality.Must get their thrust bearing if using a rotor.Their thrust bearing is also high quality.Pleased with their tech support.I installed a Yaesu rotor and the antenna is a Force 12C3ss.I would recommend this roof mount tower to anyone who can't put up a regular tower.
K3ROJ Rating: 2001-09-29
Solid Time Owned: N.A.
After getting interested in satellite operations, I decided on getting a roof tower for my large shed. Glen Martin has some roof towers advertised in Radio Shack's catalog along with accesories. I ordered the 4.5 foot tower and assembly was very easy. Using a Yaesu G-5500 rotator, the azimuth rotor was mounted down in the tower with the elevation rotor on a mast that goes through a thrust bearing on top. The horizontal mast was made from an 8 foot section of 1 inch schedule 40 pvc pipe with a hardwood 1 inch dowel inside it. Even my neighbor commented on how well the tower looks with all my antennas mounted. To get a look at it, go to my website: http://www.k3roj.com Am planning on getting a 9 foot tower for my house roof to hold a tribander. I wouldn't consider another brand of tower now.
K4TBN Rating: 2000-10-24
good design Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Before you begin to assemble the 17.5 ft rooftop tower, call the factory. Documentation is skimpy at best. It's possible for the entire tower to go together per the diagrams and not be assembled correctly. I know. The tech support team is the best and will try to get better documentation created as soon as possible. Also, wrong parts were included, but the correct ones were shipped upon request. On a per foot basis, at $500+, this is one expensive tower. Having said all that, the tower is both lightweight and very strong and stable. There is no doubt this tower will give long and reliable service. The design could be improved by including 'ladders' on two faces of the tower rather than just one. Most antenna installations on top of towers are two man jobs. Overall, I recommend this product.