Have you ever?

[reppy007]

This is mostly for the retired guys,but its everyones website so the question goes to anyone...have you ever drove your vehicle and noticed something on a powerline and had to turn around and check it out....with or without the wife? I have,guess its the lineman inside.Today I saw these gray spacers between phases...this happened to be a three phase circuit with 600 primary and the spacers were located on a corner,12 kv delta....well one pole was a 50 footer and the next was a 40 foot pole....the wire between the poles wasnt any longer than 15 feet long......then later I saw this long highside....12 kv again....turned around and found out that it was a terminal pole......now get this.....the highside had to be 12-15 feet long before it was connected to the switch......oh well,I just dont see why they didnt mount the switch higher....back to the question.....have you ever?:D

[bren guzzi]

Plenty of Double takes. Seen stuff. Done all over the world that baffled me.

I've gone back for a second look many times.

[loodvig]

Yes I still drive around and look up! I have seen open fuses, limbs on wires, phases off the glass, etc.

[thrasher]

I do it so much that before my wife passed away last year she was doing it sometimes on a long trip if she wasn't driving. She could actually spot broken braces, bad crossarms, and really sloppy work making a three phase bank. She couldn't tell an open cutout but most other things she would at least know something didn't look right.

[reppy007]

I do it so much that before my wife passed away last year she was doing it sometimes on a long trip if she wasn't driving. She could actually spot broken braces, bad crossarms, and really sloppy work making a three phase bank. She couldn't tell an open cutout but most other things she would at least know something didn't look right.

Now that is funny:D...pretty cool actually.....I know my ex-wife would ask me what are you doing? Well usually I wouldnt say much,but she knew I was looking at the powerlines or something. She actually understood a little about banks....Ive been known to draw a few for her,,,,,,she sais she understood.....but doing it is a little different as we all know....What I wished I would have done is.....when she wanted to have sex....I should have pulled out some transformer drawings and said I was busy:D

[T-Man]

That happens to me all the time. We'll be driving along and I'll point out a Hawk on the primary arm and my wife says how do you see that, arent your eyes on the road? I say I keep my eyes on the road but I notice the fourth insulator on that arm and see its a bird. I see a lot of braces off too. Blowm HVLAS, all sorts of stuff. I guess I patrolled the lines too many times. . . .

[reppy007]

Its funny that we do that in a way,even on a vacation far far away....when you should be sitting back enjoying a drink or looking at the mountains/ect....but no....we look at lines that others built.....do you think a lineman that says he doesnt look is lying?.....no lineman dont lie.:D

[reppy007]

Today I noticed another one....didnt turn around though...cause I wasnt alone.....but I noticed a circuit coming out of a substation...up onto the pole without switches....I had to look again cause most do have switches on that first pole.

[T-Man]

Today I noticed another one....didnt turn around though...cause I wasnt alone.....but I noticed a circuit coming out of a substation...up onto the pole without switches....I had to look again cause most do have switches on that first pole.

Not sure that is true, I did some training in northern Wisconsin and all the feeders leaving the stations did not have switches or disconnects at the station riser. I thought it was weird, but that was their standard. I think they have changed that design since. I'd like to be able to isolate the station cable and test it if I have a feeder out. Switches make that easier.

[Hebrew]

Was out with the wife and saw one conductor look strance coming off a switch.Went back and had a look.We use these Burndy stirrups on 336 and come off the stirrup with 4/0 copper onto the disconnect.Conductor had broken off at the stirrup and was being held by the disconnect terminal.Some guys got a late evening doing repairs.The wife grumbled a bit as we were going back home.

[reppy007]

Was out with the wife and saw one conductor look strance coming off a switch.Went back and had a look.We use these Burndy stirrups on 336 and come off the stirrup with 4/0 copper onto the disconnect.Conductor had broken off at the stirrup and was being held by the disconnect terminal.Some guys got a late evening doing repairs.The wife grumbled a bit as we were going back home.

She grumbled...:D....I know the feeling....funny how you can be away from the trade and notice things that you may not have noticed when you were in the trade.....I get those somethings not right feelings and have to take a look......there was one time when I was working for a contractor,we started at 8 am but Id show up around 630 am,being a working foreman....well I already had my paperwork done so I went to look at a job that I had.....it turned out to be a CT job so I called the foreman for the utility to let him know.....He said it was before 8 am and that I wasnt susposed to be working......so my answer to that was ....I aint working.....Im looking:D

[bobbo]

I pull guts all the time when I am working that are so old. After all the corona and weather of fifty years it turns into a grey, chalky, kind of ugly kind of thing. And its always next to something brand new installed. The first guy could have forgot, the next guy was just too lazy. Seen arms without braces. Seen plenty of pins where they forgot the nuts. seen backyard poles where the secondary is wrapped around the pole. Seen where the cutout is on the canside here. Seen a lot of stuff thats just embarassing. Seen a few times a can on the backside of a single phase dead end. With a guy splitting the of a two bushing primary can. I canted my take off pole to the dead end. This young guy "we dont do that **** here". I guess he never heard, take off faces the dead end. I heard that for twenty years. As long as everybody gets there check its alright.

[reppy007]

Another one I spotted.....a 167 kva overhead on a pole top switch.....I was somewhat busy and didnt look at the highside...if you catch what Im getting to.....does your company install transformers on pole top switches?