Forum: Troubleman's Forum

I know that this doesnt happen too often,and I know the feeling a guy can get when this happens,but i wanted to ask anyway.....it makes me laugh thinking of some of the stuff that can be found when working alone like going up a pole at night cause the customer had flickering lights.....you cant see...

This is intendend for you trouble man,either a 1 man or 2-man truck......isnt it a pain in the you know what..........having to hide,or lock up that#4 stranded and so on..........placing it into a bin and constantly moving it back and forth........the days of having it on a reel or rolled up in the...

Had a call from an electrician,problems with high voltage your thinking neutral problem.All 3 legs from there Transformer 520 522 519 phase to phase of course.This is coming from a step down bank from 13.8 to 2400 to there switch gear.then on the low side there tub is there voltage.What do ya think...

Just curious about what kind of appliance whould you guys usually ask a customer to turn on if you were on a call and seemed to be getting good voltage,orginally you got the call as a dim lights order.Everyone is different and will ask the customer to turn on a certain appliance,to check...

As a troubleman, the company I work for gets calls on underground lines of no power. The dispatchers sent me out to find the cause. I normally work alone. After looking around the riser pole, and finding no cause, the dispatchers will tell me to check existing or to install fault indicators. Please...

Just to be up front I am not a lineman, sorry if I offended anyone but thought you guys could help. I work for a company that collects data for windloading off of joint use utility poles. We need to know when a pole is: unguyed line angle over 5 degrees unguyed dead end unguyed 3 phase slack...

At our service center we rotate troublemen. He will be on-call for the week. Than the next guy takes the week after that. The rotation is about 5 guys long. I'm just an ap-3 getting ready to be trained on shooting trouble. The trouble men share one truck. I constanly hear them fussing and...

The traffic signal peds are always on as if someone is pushing them what could be the problem:confused:

Ok Guys I need a little help ! Has anyone had trouble with salt water pools having voltage in them? I have 3 Salt water pools on the same line that have anywhere from 3 to 5 volts in them. If you put your hand flat on a wet deck and touch the water you can feel a little sting. It is an urd area and...

How many times have you been giving a street address and name,you get there and find out that everything correspondes,but your still at the wrong location....larger cities mostly ,I figure.

Heres one that I may go to hell for,had a lights out call,it winded up being a security light at a church,the priest said that he couldnt get any help for weeks,he wasnt in a great mood,well we replaced the bulb and eye.After that was done I told him that the next time his light goes off,to call...

Anyone have this situation and what else would you do.Had a lightning strike knocked out 2 fuses,one on the main line the other @ a dip pole.Closed in the main line and went to dip closed in the fuse on the dip.Door opened up,didn't really blow,just melted slow.Another lineman called me we looked...

One day while doing trouble,I found myself in a customers backyard,there was a pedestal/handhole.and I believe there was a break in the line.....taking a amp reading to determine which leg was bad,and pulling on it until it broke,now I was ready to dig it up and splice the urd drop,while doing this...

Ever work alone and be sent into the worse area that you know of.......no,Im not going to make this easy....this happens at night,lets just say in the morning around 4 am......and its friday/sat morning.....geez everyones awake and they give you a look like uzz aint susposed to be here...alone...

Just wondering,from anyone ......when was the last time you were on a call at an old house and found those green-ish or clear glass fuses..........interesting how the older generations could make anything they wanted work.......almost anything.........

I cant be the only one that has seen this happen,so Ill give you the short version of the story as I remember it,and see if others have had similar situations.Years ago we had a tropical storm blow in which was called Allison,it produced more rain then any hurricane I have ever seen...a day or two...

Every good trouble man has extra fuse barrels,extra meter jaws,off sized bolts ,ect..other than on your vehicle where do you keep these parts,things such as Southern State barrels...Is there a place you keep these items or do you kind of keep that secret,what rare items do you consider valueable...

Would someone like to explain the theory behind street light or watch lights staying on all day with replaced photocells. Open neutral i suspect but explain the theory behind the electronic cell

I know there are times when a troubleshooter or a 1 man crew leaves the customer without finding the problem,its fustrating,not being able to help.Blinking lights are the worst ones,some seem to lead to a neutral problem,and some not.To the naked eye all connections look good,could it be a lug on a...

Just curious, how many Utilities out there charge to remove balloons/debri from lines that come from car dealers, etc.? We have a car dealer out on the hwy that we are constantly having to remove there d*amn balloons! Nobody seems to want to send them a bill! I guess I shouldn't bi*ch too...