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Written by Start a WISP Site Admin
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Monday, 10 July 2006 |
"What's the best way to mount a cluster of antenna's onto a watertower that doesn't have a railing? I've done installs before on watertowers with railings and they have been fairly straightforward but we're looking at a tower right now that just has a smooth top. If anyone else has mounted on such a surface, please give me any suggestions you have."
robbin:
Heavy duty magnets?
djhurt1:
I'm curious about this as well. I see gear mounted on this same type of water tower/structure and wonder how they do it. I just guessed that the stell wall/shell was very thick and you drill into it so far to hold a screw?
keefe007:
I have found a heavy duty magnet mount that claims to withstand 125 mph winds with 10 square feet of capacity.
Here's the link -> »metal-cable.com/magnemount.pdf
I haven't called for pricing at all yet.
robbin:
Thanks, I didn't get insulted. I did a search of this forum for water tower magnets and found this old thread. Searches using water tower mount turn up reasons not to drill or weld. Epoxy may be an option but I would be hesitant as you would probably need to grind down to bare metal. I wouldn't want to be responsible for the paint job and that may just make me responsible.
jdmarti1:
We went to a fab shop and had something built that looked like the cell phone mounts, it attached around the vent cap on top. I will try to find some pictures of them. The legs are then epoxied down to the tower. The epoxy works very well, this is what it is designed for. You only have to clean the area where you are actually putting the epoxy - so you do not damage the paint on the tower. DO NOT DRILL HOLES IN A WATER TOWER TOP!!! You will be opening a can of worms that you can't close.
LLigetfa:
You still need a good grounding point and for that, you need to go down to bare metal. If there is a vent that you can get even a single guy/ground wire to, you could use it as a hold-down for a tripod.
There is available, green thermoplastic stuff used primarily in the pipeline industry as a dielectric anti-corrosion coating that you apply over jeeps with a torch. The stuff works better than hot glue and can be resoftened if need be. It is also marketed for boat repair. You can use it to cover the grounding point, probably best cad-welded. If you have a centre hold-down guy, you could hot glue down the tripod legs.
Original thread location |
Installation Techniques 
