The billboard would be able to raise and lower along the pole, which would make it so the people changing the sign wouldn't need to have a special truck with a raising bucket, and they wouldn't have to climb up any ladders. A large counter weight would be inside of the pole.
If the sign lowers all the way to the ground, then it won't require any of those platforms around it, and it could have retracting lights for when the sign is lowered.
Disadvantages are: The area under the sigh would have to be clear when the sign is lowered, and it might use more energy to move the sign up and down than the truck would use to lift and lower the people and supplies.-- BJS, Apr 27 2007 88 Examples of crazy billboards http://www.worth100...asp?contest_id=6908 [BJS, May 01 2007] Although I like the idea - a flapping billboard, as it were - you are switching out a single motor on the cherry picker for one motor on each billboard - aside from the cost, that's a lot more maintenance, especially for things that are out there in rain, sleet and snow.
If you're going to get technological about it, simply replace the billboard with a screen, and you can flash up whatever takes your fancy, no field trips required. Well, apart from maintenance when the rain, sleet and snow get into the works.-- DrCurry, Apr 27 2007 Shoot, skip the pulleys and build the sign like a trebuchet. The ordinary sign position would be vertical mounted on the vertical pole(s). When positioning the sign for maintenance, the people who need to change the sign would use some large hooks to pull the sign from vertical to the horizontal position, and then paint the thing from the ground level.-- pathetic, Apr 28 2007 It could use solar panels and a battery pack to power the motor (which would make it even more expensive to install, but probably cheaper in the long run).-- BJS, Apr 29 2007 It seems like most billboards are lighted these days, so power shouldn't be a problem.
A larger problem would be keeping the land below the billboard cleared. Rather than just access to the base of the pole, or a parking spot close enough for a cherry picker to reach the sign.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Apr 30 2007 The area below the pole would only have to be clear for the length and width of the billboard; thus it could come down in a back alley. A motor for raising the billboard could be kept on a truck and attached when moving it, leaving no machinery other than counter weights and pulleys on site.-- MrDaliLlama, Apr 30 2007 I guess I don't think of billboards as city things. I mostly see them along the interstates, which here in the American south means they stick above forests of trees covered in kudzu.-- Galbinus_Caeli, Apr 30 2007 If it has a counter weight, you could raise and lower it by hand without much effort. Either that, or a winch system inside the pole.
The mechanism would need to be locked up so that vandals couldn't get at it as well.
How would the system work for billboards on the side of buildings? go to a active screen?-- hooksta, Apr 30 2007 I like raisins, and any idea which incorprates them gets my bun. +-- bungston, Apr 30 2007 That would be a chelsea bun, I take it?-- DrCurry, May 01 2007 random, halfbakery