Des Moines Skyline
 

TOWERS HYDRAULIC TILT - IOWA WIND TURBINES               

Tilt - Free Standing Towers are a relatively new innovation to the small wind industry. By eliminating the need for “Guy Wires” to secure the tower, and a potentially dangerous “Gin Pole Procedure” for raising and lowering your Wind Turbine, you can now easily use hydraulic/electric power to raise/lower your Wind Turbine. It is no longer necessary to rent a large crane to assemble the tower then raise and mount the turbine & blades at the top of the tower. Sometimes a second “bucket truck” is also needed to provide a working assembly platform at the top of the tower. (These extra installation expenses are no longer required.) Needless to say ,,, all this heavy equipment will take a toll on your lawn, as well as risk crushing any underground lateral's, drain tile or sprinkler lines. With this style tilt tower those problems are greatly reduced.

Guy Wires (usually 3 or more) take up a large “footprint” around the base area of your turbine. This is a problem to mow around, visually not the best, AND IF over time ANY of the cables/clamps should loosen or fail your tower will no longer be equally tensioned.  Sooner or later ---- GRAVITY WILL PRO VAIL, you will have a bent tower and a smashed wind turbine.

Our  Tilt – Free Standing Towers are Galvanized for long term corrosion resistance. Our towers are built in China by large company's that use accepted engineering standards for quality. The tower is a very important component in your Wind Turbine System. It should be up to the task.

IOWA WIND TURBINES  offers  Tilt Free Standing Towers in 3 sizes/heights:

12 meter              40 ft       3 piece

15 meter              50 ft       3 piece

18 meter              60 ft       3 piece 

Generally - The taller the tower, the more wind you can “catch”. Local ordinances may dictate your maximum height. Remember, the Turbine sits on top of the tower, and the blades will swing higher yet. If you have some height restrictions, we can mix/match/modify tower parts for a custom height.

Hydraulic Power is most often used to raise/lower the tower. This can be provided from stationary pumps or by plugging into various implements (Tractors/Skid Loaders/etc). One very important safety issue is to use hydraulic cylinders with provisions to compensate for any hydraulic failure during the tilt process. We can provide  these type Cylinders and hoses. An alternative is an electric motor screw jack. We will have those available soon, after we complete our testing of the various manufactures types.

Below are some pictures/video that show some of the early prototypes of these towers, as well as the end product.