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stretch
05-12-2006, 12:19 AM
we had a terrrifying experience in our hydraulic ewp the other night, two of us with comined 3o years exp were up moving 2kv conductors to new pole. we were using chain blocks to liftup conductors, we were facing away from pole pumping up the blocks there was some bouncing,when we started to move, the controls had caught a hanging insulator and procedded to drive us up into the crossarm, as i could not access the energency stop/engine stop buttons which was jammed under insulators we were left being driven up at a tremendous force, the top lining of fibreglass on bucket stared to explode and shards of fibreglass was everywhere we were literally going to free climb that pole to get away from the stuck bucket which was going to snap we yelled to our groundman to turn the engine off which he did in real smart time we had this xarm and pole bands at all crazy angles the pressure was incredible and we were seriously jammed not going anywhere every time we moved bits would creak and crack so we called another bucket in to save us as cdd (contol decent device) was out of the question diue to instability of stuck bucket.
what a relief to get to the ground (praise god)
we changed controls to bottom and procedded to try to remove basket to no avail so we utilised the other bucket, we had to smash the insulators which took a few good swings with the results being a big explosion of glass and the bucket finally jolting free with a tremoundous bounce.
having a groundie saved our skins a competant one at that. :)
could have been a lot worst and praise the lord it wasn't

DiscoDan
05-12-2006, 05:51 AM
Like an old lineman "Fitzy" used to tell us "always leave a way out". I had an old trouble bucket back in the late 70's w/a mico lock that let go, no chocks so I jumped out onto phone, and watched the bucket roll down the hill until the upper boom hit a lg. limb in a tree. Scary shit, good thing you're OK.

Dan

Squizzy
05-12-2006, 10:06 AM
Good to hear that you managed to escape any injury in that incident. I was acting ground man for the guys as i was getting over a fractured ankle, the guys were working up top. The leading hand had only just turned up and they were right next to the LV when the (hire) bucket decided to slew into the mains, they tried to stop it with the controls but it was too late the mains all pushed up on the fly jib and the bucket still forcing its way accross. I made for the ingnition and the PTO at the same as the leading hand he got there alot quicker than me and jumped in and hit the clutch,PTO and ignition as the bucket still had preasure in the conservitor it would have kept going. As it was the we used a ladder to get the guys down when they would stick their heads up that is. The mains had pulled tight and snapped a consumer pole and cracked a another pole, the mains were also about 2 inches apart on the fly jib. Rather scary , we were breaking up 3 tranformers that were in paralell ( two 315kVA's and a 200kVA) a dead short would have produced some large fault current and may well have if the leading hand had not have beat me to it. Also learnt that if you can't react quickly through injury don't go in to work.

dave948
05-12-2006, 10:27 PM
Watched a digger truck take out a police detail cruiser because the MICO lock failed. (glad it wasn't my truck, we were all taking coffee break along with the cop on the side of the road. Got the cop car and 3 cars stuck in traffic.)

I also had a Ford / High Ranger catch on fire while I was up in the bucket. We had two trucks working the pole and I called the other bucket over and jumped in. The ground man put it out with an extinguish before we made it to the ground. (this truck was 6 to 8 months old when this happened)

I'm a 2nd generation lineman, that was trained by my father. I remember alot of the old times were very leary of bucket trucks. They saw quite a few people hurt or killed in them in the late 60's early 70's. Most stories I remember were Telco workers trying to lift or hold lead cable, leaking torch filling the buck full of gas then lighting off, things like that.

I don't think my father was ever comfortable in a truck. He was always the guy on spikes.

stretch
05-13-2006, 04:25 AM
i would rather be climbing but the companies going soft on all our new apprentices who only know how to use a travel tower. the new guys only climb when there is no vehicle access and usually it is one of the old hands anyways
who does the job. well thats the ways things are going there will be no such thing as a ballerina pole chairs and a hauling line soon.
our apprentices the company are hiring generally from a non english speaking background who are good at there maths with a engineers certificate from there country but with no ciommon work sense. very weak minded when it comes to lifting ladders and chainblocks more suited to the office they are.
they have made the entrance exam too hard for the average joe to get on. thanks for your thoughts and everyone seems to be a bit more weary when working aloft since this incident :)

BigClive
05-13-2006, 12:40 PM
Had water get into proportional contol joystick on bucket before and cause undesired movement. Sure makes you panic!

One unit had a very nasty tendency to "self adjust" while we were working. You;d hear the engine rev-up and the thing would suddenly move. Got into habit of hitting emergency stop if I heard it revving up itself.

Other than that it's just been explosive pipe failures blowing a shit load of hydraulic oil all over city pavements. :)

On one occasion after we had got the guys in the stuck bucket down with another unit, I was apporached by an old lady....

Her:- "Excuse me, there's oil all over the place'"
Me:- "Yes, we're waiting on cleanup granules to get delivered."
Her:- "But what about the pigeons."
Me:- "No. We've tried them but they're not absorbent enough."

And the bitch reported me!

Squizzy
05-14-2006, 08:16 AM
Her:- "Excuse me, there's oil all over the place'"
Me:- "Yes, we're waiting on cleanup granules to get delivered."
Her:- "But what about the pigeons."
Me:- "No. We've tried them but they're not absorbent enough."

And the bitch reported me![/QUOTE]

HA HA HA thats funny, some people have no sense of humour!