Pole pulling techniques

[Xlineman]

Do you use the boom or some other tool to pull old pole stubs?

[Fiberglass Cowboy]

The boom,although Altec says not to. They say to use the hydraulic pole puller attachment for the line truck,(combination digger-derrick,auger truck,pole truck,or whatever you call it at your company). Sometimes if the old pole wants to give us a hard time,we let the auger down,put it next to the old pole if possible,push it (the auger) down and grab the old pole in the claws at the same time,then winch up. This usually helps,if we have moved the old stub pole side-to-side,out-and-in, and still cannot yank it out of the ground. But yes, i "suppose" we are all "supposed" to use the pole-puller attachment.
Take care dude.... :cool:

[Edge]

"Do you use the boom or some other tool to pull old pole stubs?"

rofl we use the "other tool"

"But yes, i "suppose" we are all "supposed" to use the pole-puller attachment. "

our main polejack is made by Stihl the other one I think is Husqvarna ...

what ever you do be careful...

Edge

Get high or die climbing...

[Squizzy]

We have a seperate "pole puller" its basically a large hydraulic ram on a horse shoe shaped foot plate. It plugs straight into the cranes' hydraulics and you keep the crane on the pole as well ( if required ) on the pole pullers ram there is a a chain you simply choke around the pole get a good bite and push it up and put some on the crane as well. Did this on one job and the new 240/415V cable that had been directionally drilled in was actually straight through the pole! that got rather sparkley and noisey when the pole came out:eek:

[Pootnaigle]

With the trucks of today yer lucky if the dern things will pull a pole. what with all the sensors set to bypass at a fraction of what we usta do its a miracle if the things ever budge. I spoze progress has just overcome us.

[Trbl639]

Pole puller.............haven't used one in years....I think they have one at our training center...but in the field....

and the Altec's will bypass in a heartbeat on ya, so we may dig around em some to loosen em up.......but most of the time we use a Stihl/Poulan/Husqvarna.............

[Squizzy]

A pole puller is "compulsary" here and all Utility work requires the use of one;) depending on where you are and which crane you are using. Those areas that are all clay you just have to use one as the poles won't budge otherwise its start boring holes down the side of the butt then you can't use the pole puller anyway.....

[mainline]

When I worked as a contractor we had tel-elects and we just used to pull it into the boom tip winch rack it around a little bit and yank it out of the ground. I now work for a utility that has gone to altecs. You are lucky if it will uncradle much less pull a pole. We have had to start using the hydraulic butt puller because of the overload protection on the boom. What I wouldn't give to go back to tel-elect.

[neil macgregor]

jcb for us nothing else is quick enuf

[Trbl639]

When I worked as a contractor we had tel-elects and we just used to pull it into the boom tip winch rack it around a little bit and yank it out of the ground. I now work for a utility that has gone to altecs. You are lucky if it will uncradle much less pull a pole. We have had to start using the hydraulic butt puller because of the overload protection on the boom. What I wouldn't give to go back to tel-elect.

AMEN!! I had a Telelect 42 ft SBMH.....andd I didn't have to worry what I picked up with it...it'd handle a 100KVA and not even blink.....when we went to altec, the first I had was a 42AO, with the round boom and the first 25 I hooked up to, didn't think it was gonna handle it!!!! Got an L42M now...no lifting power a 50 is enough, although I d unload a 75 off a digger 1 day, when the crappy Altec digger wouldn't uncradle.but I can get in any bin and never get out of the bucket...even can open the passenger side cab door and rotate in and get a Hot Battery for my tool, or get a cold drink outta the ice chest on the front bumper:) but them Diggers we got are a joke!!!!

[duckhunter]

We use a pole puller from Tiiger Inc. If we get caught pulling a pole without it, we will be reprimanded. The pole puller works well. It has a grabbing plate on the back side of the pole so it pulls up better. Our mechanic had a stailess steel box made to hold it all and the box can be moved with the boom. It is not the pain it used to be.

[md2]

our new terexs have the stump puller mounted right to the out rigger. just swing over the boom and drop it off by the pole, now just need to come up with a good way to get the chain out of the bottom of the bin.

[Chipdiamond]

Over here in Aus we have our pole pullers made for us at an engineering place to get just what we need. we have got a custom one made for pulling transmission poles that has a 5 foot stroke. very cool but it has to have a separate trailer coz it is so big.

[Patriot]

The trucks we have, big name brand, couldn't pull a sick whore out of bed!

We dig two holes with the auger and then lift it out, or use the pole pulling ram!

[warpig]

jcb for us nothing else is quick enuf

That's a backhoe for those who have never been to the "green and pleasant land".

[Chipdiamond]

What would be the best off the shelf puller? our enginineering mob are like months behind and we need to get an off the shelf pole puller.:confused:

[graybeard]

The Tiiger that duck hunter talked about would be the best OFF THE SHELF puller you could get. We have the ones that came with the ALTEC digger and it works but the Tiiger is alot lighter and easier to handle and I don't think it can kick out at the bottom bacause the pole chain is at the bottom instead of at the top of the ram like what we have.
We made a pad out of 3 cross arms bolted together and that helped alot. The Tiiger has a U shaped base pad that you can get and I would think that would help alot.

[lewy222]

First off, I'm not an Altec fan but I've got to give our digger its credit. We hated to loose our Telelects and I still miss their buckets but our Altec digger has twice the balls (sure, only half the control) of the Telelect. I have never seen another digger that can snap a new winch rope pulling a butt...have you? All we have to do with this Altec is let out the winch,wrap a chain around the butt and winch up. No wiggling back and forth, no digging around it, just winch up!

[graybeard]

Consider yourself lucky.

[Pootnaigle]

Betcha if you tell the garage about your ability to snap a winchline they will do a check on the trucks hydraulic settings and lower em to jus enough to pull a sick whore out of bed.Its part of the new bulletproofing in Linework.
Earlier this week I added a block to our Terex digger and still couldnt budge the remainder of a 40 ft pole. ........... Bypassed and bypassed and bypassed. Had it checked by the hydraulic guys and they say its set higher than it oughta be.
When I fist started in this trade winches were mounted on the boomtips and claws were non existant. But even after the boom bypassed the winch would continue to churn. We routinely set 85 and 90 ft poles with em and never had a problem other than having to respot the truck after having dug the hole in order to get enough height to stand em up.Now they mount em all on the turret and itz a major pain in the butt to coordinate the winchline with the stinger.

[wtdoor67]

The winches that early on I experienced were able to overpower the boom. Our instructions with a pitman polecat was to use the boom first and if that wouldn't hack it then don't use the winch.

I worked on a crew once that bent the boom. It was funny to me as the trucky protested while pulling a pole that they might hurt the boom, but the foreman instructed him to use the winch anyway. After the boom was warped the trucky got a reprimand and the foreman nothing.

[johnbellamy]

Joy sticks, new controls, bypasses, bells, whistles, anything you could want, shit even got remote controls, not much of it worth a shit.


Backhoe, or excavotor is you only sure thing, pullin poles fu$k up the booms, pole claws, and your bull line, those heavy ass butt pullers ain't worth a shit either, just drive into the ground, if the ground is that hard, that butt ain't goin nowhere, especially them big ol cedars.

[lewy222]

Betcha if you tell the garage about your ability to snap a winchline they will do a check on the trucks hydraulic settings and lower em to jus enough to pull a sick whore out of bed.Its part of the new bulletproofing in Linework.
Earlier this week I added a block to our Terex digger and still couldnt budge the remainder of a 40 ft pole. ........... Bypassed and bypassed and bypassed. Had it checked by the hydraulic guys and they say its set higher than it oughta be.
When I fist started in this trade winches were mounted on the boomtips and claws were non existant. But even after the boom bypassed the winch would continue to churn. We routinely set 85 and 90 ft poles with em and never had a problem other than having to respot the truck after having dug the hole in order to get enough height to stand em up.Now they mount em all on the turret and itz a major pain in the butt to coordinate the winchline with the stinger.

I'm not telling the garage anything!! Our digger has a tip mounted winch and claws. What bug me the most about our Altec digger is that the boom only goes 80 degrees. The Altecs have quite a bit of hydrolic flow, the pressures are close to the Telelect but the electric over hydrolic controls make it hard to work with and they just have way to many self protect features. They may call them safety features but they are only designed to protect the truck...nothing safe about a truck wimping out with a regulator hanging over your head! If you can find a way around the stupid protection features, you have a halfway decent digger! The buckets are another story, they just plain suck. Biggest pole I've set with the Altec is a 70 footer and it did it no problem.

[lineman26]

try this trick for stubborn poles! drive a ground rod into the center of the stub your trying to pull. attach a grip to the rod and pull using the boom! you'll be amazed! Let me know how you make out! lineman26

[graybeard]

The grnd rod will work if its got a good butt. But if the pole is rotten it.ll just pull out. Two other tricks are to just hand dig down enough to get a wire rope cable with a shackle around it ( IF ITS BROKE OFF) and put the augger on the grnd. then winch it out. The cable seems to get a better bite without digging down as far and does not roll up like a pole chain.
Have also poured water around the pole to help, in the winter you can use RV antifreeze.

[Chipdiamond]

you can try if the butt is rotten get the auger and just dig straight through the butt when she is rotten this just rips her right out and you don't have a butt to worry about as it just gets turned to wood chips.

[oldlineman55]

I've seen teams work all day long to get trucks into right-of-ways to pull an abandoned pole, when we used to walk in, with two steel slings, a sledge hammer, two large screw lags, climbing tools, a hand saw, and a six ton jack.
We'd cut the pole off leaving a stump of about two feet. Hang the jack hooked on one sling to the new pole to a sling with screw lags to make it bite to the stump. We'd jack her tight as hell and beat the hell out of the stump and take another jack. We'd "worry" the butt out. It's actually easier than you might think. Of course we jacked a very large transmission pole stump out near a river bottom and the hole started caving in and the brand new foreman lost it. We let him worry about it for a while until he agreed to let us eat lunch and dropped the butt back in the hole. He relaxed so much I think he messed himself. :D

[mainline]

We actually convinced Altec to build us a boom tip winch on a digger, but it is still a gutless piece of sh^t. HOP,SOP, all equal no pulling power. What I wouldn't give to go back to the dumb old telelects. Hook onto the pole, jack it back and forth, and rip it out of the ground. The new Altecs your lucky if you can get it out of the cradle.