IAD Maintainence

[paddyc]

Hi guys
anybody out there have any advice on procedures for the maintainence of hot line 10/20 kv bucket trucks.
Apart from the pre-operational checks carried out by the crew and the annual electrical test do ye have any safety policies regarding
1. The testing and changing of hydraulic oil used

2. The logging of work done or work that should be done by maintainence
people e.g garage staff

we just got a new versalift twin bucket I.A.D our previous I.A.D is gone to greener pastures after 10 years of great service and we can not recall any
oil checks or oil change being carried out on it in that time and our company
do not have log books in place to record work done that the crew could refer to.Surely this is not right .I would greatly appreciate any advice on this issue

thanking you
Paddy C

[paddyc]

thought i would get some replys on this issue i have no other forum to turn to to get advice as I am posting from ireland and our company is the only company here that does rubber glove hot line working therefore i am on a bit of a limb regarding getting advice from experienced linemen as we are only practising this work since 1993 and have only 22 crews nationwide and i find powerlineman a great scource of advice although finding it hard to get a handle on your terminology.
Hoping to hear from someone soon on this issue as it is causing concern for my crew at the moment.

[thrasher]

I'm not sure what an IAD is, I'm assuming it's a brand name like Altec or Hi-Ranger in the US. Anyway there should be at least two manuals that came with your bucket (at least there are in the US). One is the Operators Manual and includes your daily checks, procedures to fly the boom before a man gets in it, load charts, etc. There should also be a Maintainance Manual that includes all the service requirements for the engine, the electrical system, and the hydraulic system. As far as records go, in the US any truck that requires a CDL (commercial drivers license) requires a maintainance history be kept for Department of Transportation officers to review to document that required maintainance has been done to the vehicle. This history is not on the truck but is kept at the company headquarters for review.
Hope this helped some, but when you come down to it different manufacturers recommend different procedures and frequency. Best bet; follow what the people who built it recommend, unless you have some specific issue that contadicts their recommendations.

[paddyc]

Thanks Thrasher for the reply as i said before different terminology giving me small problems we refer to our bucket truck as an IAD [ insulated aerial device] we currently use versalift twin bucket vehicles.
manuals did come with our new bucket truck this year but this is the first time we got our hands on the service manual, always seemed to go missing ,always got the operators manual so no problem with that .
my main concern is what is being done to the bucket truck when it goes to the work shop for repairs i believe strongly that any work done should be logged and signed off on by the work shop people and made available to the rubber crew after all we are the people with our heads in between 20kv day in and day out.
thanks again for your advice about the service manual and now that i have one maybe i can start making progress on this issue

[lewy]

I would think you would want to keep good records of all work done on all of your trucks incase you have any kind of incident that could be blamed on the condition of the truck. Without proper records somebody could be in real trouble.

[thrasher]

Versalift usually has a fairly detailed manual, so just follow thier recommendations. As for the records problem, here that's not an issue because the Department of Transportation requires the records to be kept for their review. If you don't have a similar requirement remind your management if the truck is every in an accident, even one not the company's fault, the opposing lawyer will request the maintainance records and if they aren't up to date and detailed the other lawyer will try to protray that as a contributing factor. One other thing, make sure your mechanics are certified to work on electrical equipment and know not to put wire re-enforced hoses in the boom of a bucket truck. Believe or not a few years ago a municipal sytem near us had a bucket catch fire when it brushed the 7200 and arced down the hydraulic hoses catching the bucket on fire. The operator survived but broke one leg and the opposite ankle when he jumped out of the bucket. The repair work had been down by an outside shop that usually worked on bull dozers and backhoes. So they used wire re-enforced hoses to replace two leaking hydraulic hoses in the boom.
Hope this helps, be Safe

[T-Man]

Our company has a complete Fleet maint. Department. All of our trucks are scheduled for routine maintenance on a regular basis. Our IAD's as you call them are all tested by our electrical testers every few months. All this is documented and recorded. Sorry for the delay in answering.