I am driving around and I see that Hendrix wire installed everywhere

[bobbo]

Now I see a lot of that hendrix in normal arm and armless, instead of with a messanger. Do they put it on for trees? If you have that 15 kv insulation doesnt reduce your amp capacity? I notice if you dont drip loop a service, it will corrode where.the water collects. Now if you put that in the air and you skin the the ties and the shoes isnt it going to fail at the midspan? The water is going to hit the bare and collect at the midspan and oxidize the crap out of aluminum. The insulation is so thick its like a pipe so water and condensation is collecting. Rain has minerals, instead of wire in ten years you will have a white powdery oxide built up at your low point, like secondary. Is that really a good way to go? Taught bare and air dissipate heat and moisture, thus more amps less corrosion. I have seen old time stuff with tree wire, but t hat was long feeder and no skinning. And I have seen a lot of secondary mid span failure? Is there a reason why it cant happen to primary in the same scenario? Or do engineers have this thought out?

[Lineman North Florida]

We don't strip it to tie it in , we use the poly insulators, we do strip it to put on stirrups and make taps for jumpers for ampacts so if it's gonna get water in it and fail mid-span I imagine it would get in just as easily at a stirrup.

[bobbo]

Worked trouble for one leg out or a blow out on the triplex. When I would look for the trouble I always hit the lowest point of the midspan and yould look for a discoloration. Then you bring it down and the wire turned to dust. When you use that hendrix with that thick 15 kv insulation isnt all the water get trapped at the bottom of the u at the sag. I see it all over PA. Water traps in that insulation. I ve wrecked out a pot head at the bottom of the pole had gallons of water pour all over me. I mean if they just started using it, it will take a few years for it too fail. But when I worked trouble and no one drip looped the service, the failure would be at the midspan 99% I see in PA they skin to tie it. New York, I see coated ties and they will skin the dead end. If you got that really thick insulation you wont be able to see the wire breakdown, and it would act like a garden hose covering wire, where it would just hold water. Would you think? All the new construction is using hendrix cable in PA, Ny and New Jersey and I have never seen it anywhere else used like traditional bare wire. I wonder why? There cant be any capacity advantage. Maybe less outages with trees. I dont know why they use it? Less cover? Did they run out of bare wire? Whats the advantage?

[Lineman North Florida]

In our area heavily treed rear lot lines with lot's of overhang and canopy are the main areas that they like to put it in, when we go in to these alley's we replace poles transformers open wire secondary with tri-plex cable, insulated tap wire replaces old soft drawn #4 copper along with new animal guard on the pot almost guarantees we won't be back in there unless a big tree falls, only problem is it has worked so well that they have extended trim cycles and it is grown up real bad if you do have to go back. We started putting it in about 25 years ago and we used a steel messenger, every time a big tree fell it broke 2 or 3 rear lot poles so instead of a 2hr outage to put all the wire back up you would have a 10hr outage to replace several poles, so we went away from the messenger and started framing it conventional and have had very few problems since, that's the story down here in this part of the country anyhow.