gunner - hot stick

Come on Lloyd, tell us why you'd need a

Jim Stewart fired this volley in news:k1o8m9$4r0$1 @dont-email.me:

I'm truly "in the boondocks". My power line to the shop is the only highway between two big oaks on my power easement. Like clockwork, about every six weeks, a squirrel decides to make a "reconaissance stop" on my line transformer, and blows the cricket -- not to mention his brains.

Where I live, a "single residential/rural" customer outage takes up to five hours response-time.

I'd like to be able to "respond" myself.

LLoyd

Damn, 550 bucks for a hastings telescoping unit (ST-240), pricey buggers.

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com fired this volley in news:f46c4e63-783d-4329-8b39- snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

yeah... $87.50 for the part. The rest is liability insurance.

LLoyd

Would a fiberglass ladder let you use a shorter hot stick?

Dan

" snipped-for-privacy@krl.org" fired this volley in news:9f168321- snipped-for-privacy@s15g2000yqo.googlegroups.com:

Only if you hold it.

LLoyd

Should you get a hot stick, also be sure to get proper HV gloves as a second line of defense and the proper equipment to test both regularly like the utilities do. Becoming a charcoal briquette or worse to save a few hours is something to consider.

Pay a visit to powerlineman.com and skim through their accidents and near misses section for some reminders on why you may want to rethink used gear.

"Pete C." fired this volley in news:503fd42d$0 $15398$ snipped-for-privacy@newsreader.readnews.com:

Thanks... I have the gloves, and a HiPot tester.

The service on our road is "only" 15KV (well... 14.7), according to the power company.

Lloyd

Yea, it will "only" blow your arms off, rather than kill you outright...

"Pete C." fired this volley in news:503fde0a$0$15464 $ snipped-for-privacy@newsreader.readnews.com:

If you find me with no arms and no legs lying in a pile of leaves, just call me "Rustle".

LLoyd

Ask the power company to put in an extension and give you the key. Tell them how much money it'll save them by not having to respond all the time. Money talks. I see these here for the "fuses" on the xfmrs, with locked 'shovel handle' resets at the 7' level, so I know they exist.

Otherwise, just borrow a set of gaffs and a belt to climb it yourself. It looks like fun!

-- I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty. -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Count Diodati, 1807

Too bad -none- of the current CONgresscritters are willing to do that. -LJ

That must be why they're all getting $350 for gaffs.

-- I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty. -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Count Diodati, 1807

Too bad -none- of the current CONgresscritters are willing to do that. -LJ

Larry Jaques fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Now, that's an idea! I'll ask. I've never seen one of those in these parts.

Lloyd

Can you string a rope or other alternate "highway"? And perhaps talk the power co. into putting squirrel stops on the line (which won't stop the little buggers, but might encourage them to use the rope).

Tim Wescott fired this volley in news:dNmdnXeDZ_

another idea. But you'd have thought they'd have done that after about the fifteenth call! Again, I haven't seen those... didn't know they were available.

LLoyd

He's dating a 40 foot woman?

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

Come on Lloyd, tell us why you'd need a

You're thinking of the movie: 'Attack of the 50 Foot Woman', which was filmed in California, in 1958.

If they're out that often, the Power Company should be ready to talk remediation and avoidance - it probably costs them $500 every time their phone rings. Some of those HV Fuses are $50 to $100 each.

They make big plastic rings for around the power lines, kinda like the "Cone Of Shame" for dogs. That kind of stuff will discourage the squirrels from taking that route.

Then put up some nice 2X2 lumber below the power lines as the Fast Easy & Safe path for the squirrels to take.

Then get the Power Company to change out those fuses for a circuit breaker - they do exist, but they usually don't want to spend the money putting them up for nothing. AND put another of those circuit breakers out by the road where the line to your property branches off the main line.

And better yet, they have Radio Remote Control breaker operators for both the local and remote breakers, you don't have to do anything other than call them up and tell them it's tripped out.

They can "Pull the Lever, Kronk!" and turn off or reset the breaker all the way from the Dispatch Office. If you get real popular with the Linemen, they can kill the remote switch out by the road and kill the entire line, then you get a clearance number that it's cold...

Then you can safely knock the remains of the squirrel out of your equipment with a simple fiberglass "Clearance Stick" - and they are a whole lot less expensive than a full on Hot Stick, meant to make sure that the drops are high enough where they cross the road.

You call them back and report the short is cleared, and they remotely reset the breaker by the road, then reset the one out at your end of the line. All done, lights back on, nobody had to come out. And they didn't have any Liability concerns about you messing with their fuses. And even if they left a spare set of fuses up on the pole (for you), they'd still have to come out and put up more spares before it blew on you again.

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