murry, I was hoping to get to cooler weather to build my gin pole but it is hurricane season and they wait for no one.I built it as you showed in your photos and it worked great.My gin pole was only 1and 1/2 inch pipe so I put in an exta cross piece.I also set it up so I can remove it once it is up or down.The eye hooks at the top really made controlling the lift or lowering great.Thanks for your time an great ideas! mark99[attachment=2:3c0ejfkm]100_0112.JPG[/attachment:3c0ejfkm][attachment=1:3c0ejfkm]100_0111.JPG[/attachment:3c0ejfkm][attachment=0:3c0ejfkm]100_0110.JPG[/attachment:3c0ejfkm]
hi Mark thanks for the kind words. I am glad to hear it works well for you ! I guess it just shows the importance of the forum being able to share ideas with each other. I zoomed in on your last photo to follow the line to your truck. I would like to suggest that the line from the turbine pole goes all the way through the gin pole eyelets and can protrud about a meter or more. The line from your truck will then attach to the end of this line. This way when you pull all your leverage is off the end of your gin pole. I think the way you have it right now with the truck line attached between the tower pole & the gin pole, this works in a way to pull the two poles towards each other. Being attached as high as it is right now is what is providing the leverage to raise it easier. Of course all this is if I am seeing the hook up this way.
Murry, thanks for the info on the cable. What you are seeing was a 2nd cable to back up the first one if it broke. I have a lot of time and money invested and it would have killed me if I dropped it .I needed to do some maintenance and wanted to make some improvements but to be honest I was really afraid to bring my tower down.The lift cable was too small and before your lift system it was a risk filled ordeal. I was able to put on a larger lift cable as well as larger guide wires. I also put on a 2nd set of guide wires lower on the pole. I also welded 3 pieces of angle iron near the top of the tower to keep it from swaying in higher winds. I am going to leave the gin pole attached until the hurricane season is over so I can bring it down quickly if I need to. I have been working on other parts of my windmill system over the summer. I have built a zero loss switch for my solar panels that Tom T had provide the information for. I have also built my own charge controller and a 3 ph bridge rectifier out of sochottky diodes to try and ring out every bit of power out of my system that I can. If any of this would be useful to you let me know. I would be happy to send it along. Thanks again mark99[attachment=2:1c9i86oo]100_0114.JPG[/attachment:1c9i86oo][attachment=1:1c9i86oo]100_0115.JPG[/attachment:1c9i86oo][attachment=0:1c9i86oo]100_0116.JPG[/attachment:1c9i86oo]
great photos. I can see real clear the heavier lift cable. Looks real good. Hope you get some decent wind to work with and not terrible storms. Thanks on your offer on the other items but to tell the truth you guys who do all this electrical are way out of my league. I get a brain freeze when it comes to trying to understand so I do the next best thing and purchase what someone else has made.. later, murray
Murry, don’t sell your self short. I have worked in maintenance including hospital maintenance for the last 30 years and the go to guys have always been the ones who can reduce the problem to the simplest form. I have a great respect for that and those are the guys you want in your corner when your backs against the wall. From your first response you struck me as that kind of guy. Don’t kid your self I did a lot of internet time to find the right parts and how they go together. I would still buy the charge controller. The only reason I built mine was it was only rated for 300 watts. Not big enough. The other stuff was useful and did not take away from Windy Nation. I like these guys and respect what they do. We have to start some where and they gave us some where to start from. Speaking of that how did you like the 750 watt alternator? Was there a big difference between the 750 and the 500 watt unit? I am torn between the 750 watt alternator and the furling system but it will be one or the other .I would greatly appreciate your opion. thanks mark
Mark I have worked lots for organizations who needed someone to make it happen. When others micro manage a situation I usually find ways to bring others or information together and just do it. Now 500 vs 750 The 750 is a much larger / heavier turbine than the 500 but due to its sytle will adapt to a similar mount as the other. Hard to give a recorded difference as the 500 feeds a battery bank and the 750 feeds 1000 watt of grid tie inverters. Both have worked well in their respective area. I am a believer that if you put up a proper / strong tower you might as well put up a larger turbine as it takes up the same ground area as the smaller turbine. The 750 really keeps those inverters working hard and to date we still have not found the proper tuning to maximiz the power that is being produced. So far it is producing more power than the settings can handle. I do not have any stats on Volts / amps as it is much harder to check due to feeding the inverters who demand a strict control of low amps in. Bottom line for me, I have been very pleased with the performance of the 750 and find it a decent price. murray
