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Reviews For: Rohn - SSV Tower

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

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Review Summary For : Rohn - SSV Tower
Reviews: 3MSRP:
Description:
Rohns commercial freestanding tower line.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.radiancorp.com/ROHNNET/rohnnet2004/html2004/index.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0035
N9LB Rating: 2010-07-20
Mega-Strong & Heavy Tower Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have used Rohn SSV Self Supporting towers for 25 years. All obtained used. The current two I have in service both required re-galvanizing before I put them up in my back yard. I used Acme Galvanizing, Inc in Milwaukee, WI. Both required a crane to erect.

Positives: Very Strong, no guy wires, and complete engineering info available on the Internet.

Negatives: Very heavy 20 foot sections and a lot of concrete is required for the base.

Heights of 40 feet to 190 feet are available.
New Rohn SSV towers are available from several vendors.

Used Rohn SSV towers are sometimes available free if you remove them – you will need a crane, or relatively inexpensively from your local tower maintenance companies.

Complete engineering drawings, foundation and specifications are available on the Internet.

Here is some information you will need if you are considering a Rohn SSV tower.

The tower sections are very heavy and come in 20 foot tapered lengths.

Note: There are 10 foot sections available but these are uncommon and are intended as either short top sections or as special purpose straight section.

The standard SSV tower specifications list two configurations, 70 MPH and 90 MPH. 70 MPH wind rating uses 2W and 1W as the top two sections and 90 MPH wind rating uses 3W as the top section.

Rotor plates and top plates are available from Rohn for the SSV line, but they are very expensive. So I make my own rotor-plates and top-plates.

The SSV are fabricated using two different systems: Bolted together N or WN and Welded together W. At some point in the past, they stopped producing all welded 5W and 4W sections and converted to manufacturing bolted sections for these sizes.

There is also a SSV Heavy Series with NH suffix designation that uses thicker material for sections 9 through 16.

The 5W, 5N, 4W, 4N, 3WN, 2W, 1W and 1WB are solid leg construction.

The 16N through 6N sections are all hollow leg sections, and are always bolted together.
The 16N through 6N sections have a different taper than do the smaller 5N to 1W sections.
Note that the change in taper occurs between the 6N and 5N sections.

SSV Tower Section Info:
1W = 20 foot tall by 14 inch wide straight section ( MAX 70 MPH Wind Load )
2W = 20 foot tall by 18 inch wide bottom to 14 inch wide top
3W = 20 foot tall by 22 inch wide bottom to 18 inch wide top
4N = 20 foot tall by 26 inch wide bottom to 22 inch wide top
5N = 20 foot tall by 30 inch wide bottom to 26 inch wide top
6N = 20 foot tall by 4 foot 6-1/4 inch wide bottom to 30 inch wide top
7N = 20 foot tall by 6 foot 6-3/4 inch wide bottom to 4 foot 6-1/4 inch wide top
8N = 20 foot tall by 8 foot 6-34 inch wide bottom to 6 foot 6-3/4 inch wide top
9N = 20 foot tall by 10 foot 6-3/4 inch wide bottom to 8 foot 6-34 inch wide top
10N = 20 foot tall by 12 foot 7-1/4inch wide bottom to 10 foot 6-3/4 inch wide top

Combine a series of available sections to create the tower that you want.

In my case, I used the top 5 feet of a 6N for the concrete base section and put 5W, 4W, and 3W sections above that base. This results in a 60 foot tower with 90 MPH wind load while holding a large Christmas Tree antenna stack and no guy wires.

Since they are self supporting, it was easy to gamma-match load them both as verticals for 160 and 80 meters. Also raising/lowering antennas is a simple matter since there are no guy wires to contend with.

As always when working with any tower, employ every safety practice and every safety device available.

73

Lloyd N9LB
K5RG Rating: 2007-04-08
Bulletproof Tower Time Owned: more than 12 months.
After my XYL put a 1/2 acre house on our 1/2 acre lot, I was forced to an self-supporting tower. I bought 80 feet of SSV tower, Sections 4N thru 7N, new, in 1985. Rohn did the engineering analysis for me based on height requirements and estimated load; they were very helpful. The foundation was poured the same day we poured the foundation for the house, in fact the first two cement trucks were for the tower. Followed the excellent engineering diagrams for the foundation and assembly. Erected the bottom section by hand along with three assistants to verify the foundation work was OK before the crane showed to erect the remaining sections. This was far easier than I anticipated. I had some custom metal fabrication done for two platforms, one for the top with the TB3 thrust bearing and a second for the rotator (should have done three platfomrs for a second thrust bearing). This is the only downside to the tower, it wasn't made for amateur applications. After 22 years, I have had no problems with the tower, the galvanzing has stood up fine even right next to a semi-salt water lake (Clear Lake). The step bolts on the bottom two sections (7N & 6N) are a great help and wish I had used this type of section for the upper segments but I have put my own steps on the two upper sections of the tower. The upper sections can be easily climbed using the cross braces but step bolts are a lot faster (even safety connected to the tower the entire time). The tower will probabaly out last me, requires zero maintenance and has never been a safety concern. It is more than worth the money if for no other reason than peace of mind.
W0NCL Rating: 2006-07-28
When purchased used its an outstanding value! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I was looking for a bigger tower to put up on my property and knew I didnt want it to be guyed. I have too many kids around for guy wires. I had started to do some searching in my area and found that some of the cell towers were becoming available on the used market.

As it turned out, I was able to buy 80ft of Rohn SSV at a pretty decent price. Each section weighs about 500lbs. I was really impressed with the build quality. Its really a tough tower!

I dont have anything too huge on it at the moment(40ft boom 20 meter logcell yagi), but would have no worries adding anything additional on it that I might want.

Radian has purchased Rohn so the above link takes you to the radian site. All of the SSV information is there.

The only downside to errecting a commercial freestanding tower is the infastructure expense. Due to my initial lack of knowledge and experience, I wasnt aware of all the installation requirements. Access to the rohn information website and to other hams on the internet was invaluable. I now have an installation that is tough and can endure a lot of wind when necessary.

If you are looking for a tower that is robust and will give you peace of mind whenever and however the wind blows, this is the model for you.