Yeah, but suppose there's one tiny bare spot that you don't see? Is it worth the risk? Sounds to me like you've been lucky so far. Not real smart...just lucky.
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Yeah, but suppose there's one tiny bare spot that you don't see? Is it worth the risk? Sounds to me like you've been lucky so far. Not real smart...just lucky.
No, you said it right. You've been doing line work a long time. If I had a question about power lines I'd listen to you. Other people should too.
Good move.
LOL...we all pick on Oldtimer. He's used to it by now and probably knows better than to take it too seriously. If he doesn't turn himself into a crispy critter holding up power lines he'll probably be around for awhile.
RandyMac
Stiff Member
I took out a power pole in downtown Honeydew, with a '62 Studebaker pick-up, the giant blue arcs were impressive.
Let's see, that was probably about 197? They're going to fix that pole next week...as soon as they can get the aluminum extension ladder and find some dishwashing gloves.
RandyMac
Stiff Member
That was deer season of '71, late August I think. The pole was just West of the store, the old geezer, (Leland?), that ran the store was incensed. PG&E was in Petrolia, they got it done that day. I had sense enough to sit there until it was determined that the guy wire on the truck wasn't hot. Old man Hadley was the first to arrive, he had a few short phrases indicating my level of driving competence.
Samlock
Addicted to ArboristSite
LOL...we all pick on Oldtimer. He's used to it by now and probably knows better than to take it too seriously. If he doesn't turn himself into a crispy critter holding up power lines he'll probably be around for awhile.
No reason to bring on the Sexual Harassment Panda yet, right?
I hear Oldtimer, I trimmed powerlines too a couple of years. I've admired closely blue arches, st. Elmo's fires, plasma balls and other vivid excitements. I know that the tree guys working on lines are out to do some crazy things with the wiring. You kinda get used to them over the years... I wouldn't recommend anyone to do the same crazy things. People who do that for living are either professionals or crazy bastards, who think that mortality has something to do with buying a house. Listen to Spotted owl. Keep off the power lines, ok?
Spotted Owl
ArboristSite Guru
OK, lets call it what it is. You're a dumbass. Your, I've done this and had that happen, doesn't do anything for you other than for people who don't know a lot about this stuff. That kind of bragging gets you labeled in the trade as one to avoid at all cost. I believe the term familiar to most on this site would be, a Cull.
You say your not ignorant of electrical danger. The next line shows how much you are. There should be no risk to electricity. Either you know how to handle it and follow the correct procedures and steps, then the "risk" is eliminated and gone. Or. You don't and stay away from it and the risk is gone. Anything on either side or in between, is a risk and a darned healthy one at that. Is your "fiberglass tree trimming pole" tested and rated? Are your "rubber gloves" tested and rated? Do you know what the core of you stick or pole is made from. To say communications is always the lowest is a statement only a person with lack of knowledge(ignorant) or just a plain dam fool would say.
You may have been doing this for years and I'm sure you have. I do hope you kiss your wife every morning when you leave and every evening when you get home. Sooner or later you ain't gonna be there with this mentality. With your vast experience have you ever seen "covered" open wire secondary services? No combo, no obvious bare wires but those like to blow, and they do easily because the fault in the wire will be protected(by the covering) and unseen just waiting for you to do something stupid, like jam a "tree trimming pole" or forked stick up into the middle of something.
There is only one rule of thumb in electricity, and you should know this from your trimming time. IF IT ISN'T GROUNDED IT ISN'T DEAD., thus meaning it may be live and ready to strike or it may be live and willing to let you play with it this time, your choice. There's reasons line hands won't do things and they do it for a living. Go through the three years of schooling and 3 year apprenticeship, and the work experience before and after that time, then tell me how you think about this subject.
I'm sure you will keep doing this, in fact I have no doubt in that matter, and I do sincerely hope you have another 25+ years to keep doing it with. But. With your "background" in electricity or lack thereof by your miss placed confidence, you should know better than to be doing this. And you should for dammed sure know better than to be educating people about this stuff in ways that can very likely get them killed.
You do this all the time, would you have your kids doing the same? I sure as he** wouldn't, but then there is a difference between us. I'm not afraid to say when I don't know something and I sure won't teach and instruct something with life or death consequences, that I'm totally comfortable and knowledgeable on.
Next is just a general statement not directed to or at anyone.
In my experience and opinion, there are only two things wrong with ignorance. One, when you won't change that fact that you don't know, and continue on anyway when someone is trying to help and you know you need knowledge is the subject. Two, when you know, you don't know, and teach, advise, on a subject you are ignorant (unknowledgeable in) or continue to do things, in turn placing more than just yourself in any type, manner or degree of danger.
If you want to hurt or kill yourself great that's your choice, but nobody has the right to put others in the same boat with themselves in ignorance circumstance.
Owl
Oldtimer
Addicted to ArboristSite
Go piss up a rope.
Well, so much for your ability to take good advice. I thought you were a little smarter than that. Guess I was wrong.
RandyMac
Stiff Member
I quick check of the records, it was August '72, the summer I spent working on the new Mattole Cafe.
I shoulda remembered that, I spent a fair amount of time being enthralled by the bewitching Mrs. Bransetter.
At any rate, I left powerlines be if I could, those blue arcs are to be avoided.
I shoulda remembered that, I spent a fair amount of time being enthralled by the bewitching Mrs. Bransetter.
At any rate, I left powerlines be if I could, those blue arcs are to be avoided.
Oldtimer
Addicted to ArboristSite
115 people die every day in America in car accidents. So if I tell you to drive to the store, am I giving you horrible ignorant advice? Nobody is going to get killed lifting a phokken cable wire 6" with a forked stick.
That's what my dad drilled into us. He had a bad encounter when somebody energized a line they were working on. Two guys were killed, my dad had a nice burn on his knee and an exit burn on his foot. He was home for a while.
His job was figuring out the sag in between the towers at that time. I think. I was 5 or 6.
redprospector
Addicted to ArboristSite
Geez! And they thought I was a jerk when I told oldtimer to bite me in another thread.
Well, you can tell what kind of person you are dealing with by this post. Hahahahahaha.
You just can't fix stupid.
Andy
Brian13
Addicted to ArboristSite
Got called out for a tree fire one morning, during a bad storm. Fire was caused from branches arcing in the primary lines. Eventually the tree caught on fire and we got called out. We just watched and waited for FPL(Florida Power & Litght) to get there, not a lot we could do. Before the guy could pull the breaker there was a big blue flash and the whole neighborhood went dark. All that was rubbing against the lines was wood. I have seen both wet branches and dry branches make lines arc. Just because what you have is not supposed to conduct electricity, dosnt mean it dosnt have something on it or in it that does.
Yup. I figured he was old enough to have learned to listen to people. Apparently not. Not much we can do for him anymore. The word "cull" pretty much sums it up.
Spotted Owl, besides being a pretty good logger, has spent most of his working life as a lineman for a major power company. I'd tend to listen to him when he talks about the hazards involved with wires.
The problem with Oldtimer is that he'll probably go tell somebody else that it's okay to hold up a house drop with a pair of rubber gloves and a fibreglass pole. And they'll probably believe him. And maybe they won't get away with it. What then?
I saw electricians on the boat do some deliciously stupid stuff. Ever hear of a Megger? It's an ohmmeter made for measuring HUGE resistances, like the kind in industrial insulators. Millions of ohms. What it is is a little jack-in-the-box looking thing with two wires coming out one side, a crank on the other, and a meter movement in the middle. Used properly, you clip the probes at some distance from each other, turn the handle, and read the meter to measure the resistance.
Used improperly, you clip the electrodes to two rivets on a bare steel wall. One guy holds the megger while the other puts his hands against the wall. The first turns the crank, and the second holds on for dear life as he gets zapped with several thousand volts (at a tiny current, true, but still). Then they trade places. Lather, rinse, repeat until the shift is over or somebody thinks up something even dumber to do to pass the time.
Used improperly, you clip the electrodes to two rivets on a bare steel wall. One guy holds the megger while the other puts his hands against the wall. The first turns the crank, and the second holds on for dear life as he gets zapped with several thousand volts (at a tiny current, true, but still). Then they trade places. Lather, rinse, repeat until the shift is over or somebody thinks up something even dumber to do to pass the time.
redprospector
Addicted to ArboristSite
I ain't the sharpest razor in the package, but even I have enough sence to listen to good advice when I hear it, and Owl gave some excelent advice. I hit an unshielded guy line with a masticator once. :msp_ohmy: It jerked the service off of the house across the street. :eek2: I got out and unwound the cable from my drum.
The lineman that fixed it said I was the luckiest SOB he had ever met, my electritian buddy said he didn't have the heart to charge me to put the service back on that house. The lineman still calls me Lucky to this day. 
I don't mess with power lines, period. Those two guy's took the time to show me just how lucky I was. I doubt that it would bother Oldtimer much if someone paid the price for his advice, as long as it wasn't him that went home in a box.
Andy
hunthawkdog
ArboristSite Operative
my truck
I have a Mack 500 with a serco 8000 and to the back of the seat is 13'4'' weve caught a few lines I usualy make my groundy get on back and push em up with a stick if in doubt .a big load of logs and my loader can sit over 14'
I have a Mack 500 with a serco 8000 and to the back of the seat is 13'4'' weve caught a few lines I usualy make my groundy get on back and push em up with a stick if in doubt .a big load of logs and my loader can sit over 14'
