Taking down a Unimesh 10 footer, piece by piece?

[toucan-man]

Can a mesh reflector be taken off the mount quadrant by quadrant? I found a Unimesh 10 footer in nice condition, but it's on an 8 foot or taller pole. Never had to deal with such a tall pole before. How would you get it down, if YOU had to do it alone?

 

[hd fan]

Alone? In a country of almost 300 millions!!!!, you have to be kidding me toucan-man!, lol. Just kidding or may I say facing the truth with a smile. Alone it would be imposible I think , but I beleive it can be disassembled at least in half. I have a co-worker who dit it with a 12 feet Unimesh but it requiered 4 or 5 Ecuadorians and obviously a few beers they told me lol. It also had an 8 feet pole that is 6 inches I think.

 

[coinmaster32]

cut the pole almost in 3/4 with a saw, then fell it and let the dish fall on its back, wont hurt the dish if done right slide the mount off the pole and take the dish apart.

 

[Kallesatman]

Can a mesh reflector be taken off the mount quadrant by quadrant? I found a Unimesh 10 footer in nice condition, but it's on an 8 foot or taller pole. Never had to deal with such a tall pole before. How would you get it down, if YOU had to do it alone?

Not being familiar with your dish. How about if you put the dish in a perpendicular position with the ground and then attaching a chain hoist and lowering it to the ground after you've taken off the motor actuator. It would of course be simpler/easier if you had access to a gin pole for better support. I used the gin pole method to put up a 12 footer with side skirts solid spun aluminum Andrews dish. When I was done and the dish was True south, the bottom lip of the dish was about 8 feet above ground. Did this by myself. Oh, I forgot to mention that my homemade gin pole was not aluminum but rather square steel tubing. You can see my monster by going to my website at www.karl-heinz-graf.com and click on the tab Satellite News.

 

[toucan-man]

As it turns out I found someone to assist me, and once the dish was free, for two people it wasn't a problem getting it down to earth. We didn't drop it, that's the main thing.

It would have been tough to take it down in quadrants with just one person. The center plate is not held in place by carriage bolts, so you need a way to hold the bolt heads to keep them from spinning. A second set of hands is perfect for this when the reflector is on the ground.

I want to try coinmaster32's idea sometime, though. That's a cool idea. As for you, Kallesatman, loved the photos at your site.