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Reviews For: Wilson 40 foot tubular crankup tower

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

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Review Summary For : Wilson 40 foot tubular crankup tower
Reviews: 2MSRP: Unknown
Description:
This tower is very similar to today's US Tower MA-40, but built by Wilson company in the late 70s to early 80s before they went out of business.
Product is in production
More Info: http://None
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0024
K0VH Rating: 2021-01-31
25++ years old and still working fine Time Owned: more than 12 months.
You can see my 2 reviews in the US Tower section as (erroneously) an MA-40. Here is the net of my latest:

My inherited 1995 tower is NOT a US tower MA-40 but a WILSON 40 foot crankup tubular tower. Per emails from K7TDU and W2CQM I determined my 25+ year old tower was made by Wilson. There is some debate if US Tower bought Wilson as there are a lot of similarities between this late 70s / early 80s version and today's MA-40 but while they appear the same in a brochure they are different in the detailed specifications. I do have the tilt over rotor base (rotor near the ground turning the entire tower via a thrust bearing). Per K7TDU, there is a weak point in this tower (and maybe the US tower version also) where a weld holds the large rod/pipe off the top of the rotor and thrust bearing to the U shaped clamp holding the base of the larger 20' tower tube....it snapped on him and the entire tower came down. Since my crank up winch was giving out after 25 years, I did preventative maintenance this past month and dropped the tower w/TA33Warc beam over and replaced both the winch with an equivalent 1100 lb boat winch and 3/16" 50' cable. I also inspected the weld spot mentioned and touched up paint on the base (the tower tubes are galvanized, even after 25 years no rust). The tower is back up as good as new. If anyone has this Wilson tower yet still in service, I do have some notes I can send you on the "tricks" for winch & cable replacement as it's really not that hard and well worth the effort to have a safe system. I hope to get another 20-25 years of service from this tower now.
73s Dave K0VH in SE MN

JAN 2021 add on: tower still doing fine. Tilted over for new LMR400 coax on the tribander May 2020. Probably time to replace that winch & cable, but am planning a downsize mover in next few years (arthritis, too many stairs) so will be losing my modest HF setup sooner than I want.
WA3LWR Rating: 2017-05-14
Good tower, even after many years Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I inherited the Wilson tower from a old timer, who died five years ago He had it up for over 20 years. I repainted it and closely examined it, also tore my rotator cuff. The tower is still in excellent mechanical shape and easily holds a three element tribander, a dual band vertical. If you have one, keep it. It is an excellent antenna.