I'm dealing shortly with 5 separate cracks in my 10 year old/4000 hr+ CC28 tower.
Both forward legs have cracked at the base, the main starboard forward arm has a crack 3/4 way around and both of the cross pieces which support it have cracks developing.
I also cracked the ring that supports the tower box last year at the hole where the spreader light power lead exits. That was a 500$ fix; the upcoming one is estimated at 2K due to travel time for the marine welders who come from J&J Marine 80 miles from my boat.
I had a long talk w. J&J who say
1) the tower is incorrectly designed for the stress loads as there is no for/aft bracing
2) there's probably many more stress cracks throughout other arms and welds of the tower I can't see
3) they will guarantee their welds, gussets and collars, but can't assure me the rest of the tower will remain solid
4) in general this is going to be an ongoing work in progress and I should expect more of the same as the aluminum weakens over time and stress load.
Am I alone in having tower issues and is there a fix anyone has added to remove some of the fore and aft stress loads?
Both forward legs have cracked at the base, the main starboard forward arm has a crack 3/4 way around and both of the cross pieces which support it have cracks developing.
I also cracked the ring that supports the tower box last year at the hole where the spreader light power lead exits. That was a 500$ fix; the upcoming one is estimated at 2K due to travel time for the marine welders who come from J&J Marine 80 miles from my boat.
I had a long talk w. J&J who say
1) the tower is incorrectly designed for the stress loads as there is no for/aft bracing
2) there's probably many more stress cracks throughout other arms and welds of the tower I can't see
3) they will guarantee their welds, gussets and collars, but can't assure me the rest of the tower will remain solid
4) in general this is going to be an ongoing work in progress and I should expect more of the same as the aluminum weakens over time and stress load.
Am I alone in having tower issues and is there a fix anyone has added to remove some of the fore and aft stress loads?
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