Wind Turbine Details

I designed my own tower and mounting system for my Air-X 400 watt turbine. It's 18' high & stabilized by 3 guy wires. I use a gin pole to pull it up with my truck. On this page I'll try to describe how it goes together & how we easily and safely erect it. All of the tower parts are available from any well-stocked hardware store; the cost is about $200 vs something on the order of $500 for a tower from Southwest Energy. This brings the total cost to less than that of any good quality gasoline-powerd generator. I usually have someone helping, but I believe that the turbine and tower can be assembled and erected single-handedly.

This photo displays the complete kit, including the Air-X which we have come to call Windy for short. Starting from the top: Air-X 3-blade airfoil, 2 8' lengths of 1" galvanized conduit (one with coupling), 6' length of 2½" galvanized fence post, 2' length of 1" galvanized conduit, 2 lengths of rope, coupling & guy wire sub-assembly, 6 12" spikes, 2 8" spikes, chain with heavy carabiner, cardboard template & base sub-assembly, 3 chain guy wire tie-downs, 3 turnbuckles, Air-X body with galvanized 2" x 1" galvanized bushing secured in yaw clamp, wire & tower foot sub-assembly. Details of the sub-assemblies provided below.

The tower itself is constructed from the 3 lengths of galvanized conduit, connected by couplings & is supported by 3 guy wires. To minimize voltage loss the total length of wire from the turbine to battery is limited to about 25'. Allowing for the 16' of the 2 main tower sections, that leaves only about 8 or 9' for the wire that connects to the battery. This limits the placement of the tower to that radius. My batteries are in the forward compartment of the fifth wheel, so that in my case the tower must be anchored just off the front of the trailer to either side. So the first step is to locate the best anchor point & use one of the spikes to temporarily hold the template for determining the layout.

The template is simply a cardboard circle with 3 lines marked on it at 120° intervals. Attach a rope to the spike & use it to line up the 3 guy wire anchor locations. My guy wires are about 25' long, which results in a distance from the anchor point of about 14', a little longer if there is a downslope, or shorter if an upslope. The chain tie-downs & turnbuckles provide flexibility in adjusting the guy wire lengths. I spike down the 3 chain tie-downs using 2 12" spikes each. Keep in mind during layout that when we pull the tower up we will be pulling it toward one of the 3 tie-downs and there must be room for your pull vehicle to maneuver in that direction.

The template is removed & put away, then the base is driven into the hole that was used to center the template. The base is made of a modified gate latch bolted to a ½" galvanized floor flange with a short length of pipe. The pipe has been flattened & sharpened on the end for use as a spike.

Next we start assembling the tower, first attaching the wire & tower foot sub-assembly to the base. The wire is 10 gauge 2-conductor exterior romex with a twist-lock connector on one end for plugging into the battery connector. The mechanical parts of the foot are all 1" galvanized pipe tees & nipples. Next the 2 8' lengths of conduit are attached to the base with the open end of the wire pulled through. One threads into the tee on the foot, the next attached with a coupling. Now the coupling & guy wire sub-assembly is threaded onto the upper conduit. I do this with the guy wires still wrapped to avoid tangling. The sub-assembly is a 1" coupling drilled & tapped at 120° angles with 3 screw eyes threaded on & secured with nuts inside the coupling. A guy wire is attached to each eye using swage fittings. At the other end of each wire a turnbuckle is attached using swage fittings. One of the wires is actually in 2 parts, held together by swage loops, one of which is reinforced with a wire thimble. The thimble is also used to connect this wire to the gin pole during erection. Note, for ease of handling the turnbuckle barrels are removed from the ends of the guy wires, but attached as each wire is hooked to its anchor chain.

After threading the coupling & guy wire sub-assembly on to the tower, we then slip the turbine wires through the 2' length of conduit & thread it onto the bushing in the turbine's yaw clamp. The next step is a little tricky. We need to connect the 2 turbine wires to the 2 wires that run to the batteries, hot to hot, negative to negative. I use 2 brass butt connectors with set screws for securing the wires. I support the turbine body in a folding chair, crate or some other way while doing this step. The connectors are then wrapped with electrical tape to insulate them from each other and the conduit walls. Note: Per the instruction manual, the neutral & negative wires on the turbine have been tied together since there is no separate neutral in an RV 12 volt circuit. I then thread the lower end of the top conduit section into the coupling and tighten up all of the conduit joints. Make sure that the guy wire that includes the thimble is oriented up; this wire will be attached to the gin pole. Attach the other 2 guy wires to their tie-downs using turnbuckles and carabiners. The blades are attached & the tower is now assembled, ready for gin pole setup.

The gin pole is a temporary device used to attach the 3rd guy wire to the pull vehicle while raising the wire above the tower base for leverage. I use a galvanized fence post that I carry for other purposes. The bottom slips over the tee off of the tower foot with the pole standing vertically. At the other end of the gin pole, a chain is secured which has 2 carabiners, one for attaching the thimble on the 3rd guy wire and the other to attach the pull rope and stabilizer rope. The latter is attached at its center and then the 2 ends are staked down with the 8" spikes on either side of the base, 15' to 20' apart.

The pull rope is threaded through a carabiner that is hooked onto the chain at the 3rd guy wire tie-down, then secured to the pull vehicle. After double checking everything, the vehicle is driven very slowly forward while close watch is kept on the tower as it rises. Once the gin pole is near horizontal. stop the vehicle. Do not over tension the pull rope. The tower should be near vertical and the 2 guy wires that are not attached to the gin pole should be barely taut. During this step, the stabilizer rope should prevent the gin pole from tipping off to either side, so that the tower is pulled straight up, but if someone is assisting, they can help guide the tower up so that it does not swing too close to the RV before the guy wires take effect.

Set the vehicle brake and return to the tower. Pull on the 3rd guy wire (attached to gin pole) and while keeping it under tension, detach from gin pole and attach it to its tie-down chain. Again, if a 2nd person is available, they can push against the tower, keeping the other 2 guy wires tensioned while the 3rd wire is re-attached. Check the tower for plumbness. I fasten a fence post plumb indicator to the tower pole to help in this. Adjust guy wires as needed using turnbuckles and, if necessary, the chain attachment points to bring the tower to vertical. It is not necessary to overtighten the guy wires or for the tower to be perfectly plumb. Remove ropes and gin pole and attach the turbine wire to the batteries. Pray for wind.

Lowering the tower is simply the reverse, step-by-step. Make sure the pull vehicle has ample room to back up toward the 3rd tie-down anchor. In either operation, it is not necessary for the pull vehicle to exactly align with the gin pole. Threading the pull rope through the carabiner on the tie-down ensures that the direction of the pull will be in alignment.