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Thread: Broken guy link

  1. #1

    Default Broken guy link

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    We had something happen a few weeks ago that I have never seen happen before and thought I would mention it here. We re-conductered a 4/0 copper line and pulled in a double circuit 795 line and deadended on a concrete pole, on our downguys we have always used what we call guy links to join our guy breakers together which is nothing more than than a 8" piece of metal approx 3/4" thick, I've also seen them used on other systems between deadend bells and crossarms to keep the conductor a little farther out from the crossarm, anyhow we had one break on the A phase guy and it shocked B&C phase guys and stressed the concrete deadend pole so bad we had to change it out as it was shot. We noticed that all the holes in old ones were drilled and that these new ones are stamped, also noticed that there is no rating on these new ones where the old ones were rated at 18,500lbs stamped on the link. We are currently looking at going to figure 8's to replace these with, just thought I would let you guys know about these low bid ones that we got and what to look out for, the company might have saved a nickel a piece on these but if that deadend pole would have broke and put all that 795 on the ground it would have been bad, thank goodness the new wire wasn't hot yet.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    Hartford, South Dakota
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    2,413

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    Hey, thanks for bringing up a good point. Most of this material is not made here and as a consequence it is not stamped the way we are accustomed to seeing. Did you by chance ask the manufacture what the ratings are for that piece?

  3. #3

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    We had the same issue with some steel extension links on our new line. We used them off the crossarms and installed the bells on them. They broke at the pin where it was installed on the arm. It was 5/8" hardware. The line tension was around 1600 lbs.

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Highplains Drifter View Post
    Hey, thanks for bringing up a good point. Most of this material is not made here and as a consequence it is not stamped the way we are accustomed to seeing. Did you by chance ask the manufacture what the ratings are for that piece?
    The folks who are over standards said it was supposed to be the same rating as the old ones, but with it not being stamped on the guy link I have my doubts. We are supposed to have 2 different supplier's for each piece of hardware that we stock, in this case I think it was just cheaply made and without that stamp stating what it is rated for in lbs I wouldn't recommend using them to other people.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    Ontario Canada
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    1,284

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    I am not familiar with the guy link you are talking about, but for us we use a lot of 5` glass rods in our guying & we join them with figure eights with no problems

  6. #6

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    Yeah like Lewy we use fiber rods! Those guy links you're talkin about we call steel straps I believe? They were used on dead end bells but never seen'em on guys?

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    A lot of our newer hardware is coming from Mexico and China. I'll bet their quality is less than we are used to. But Warren Buffet likes the price.

  8. #8

    Smile Broken Guy link

    I know a awhile ago when I worked in Virginia, Dominion Power had a couple of double eye pole plates fail. I believe it was the lower eye, can't quite remember. After that they went to single eye pole plates. Never did find out if it was poor grade material or just one or two bad ones from a batch. They never kept us contractors much informed about anything anyways.

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rondo Talbutt View Post
    A lot of our newer hardware is coming from Mexico and China. I'll bet their quality is less than we are used to.
    This is the same thing I see here where I work. We've had poxybells that ends weren't crimped so the fell of, hotlineclamps with no tap bolts, bolts with no threads on and on. These things are rare but happen just enough to make you want to double check your materials.

    L.A.Martin
    Journeyman Div III
    CVEC
    There's no such thing as "The End Of The Line!"

    If you think you are worth what you know, you are very wrong. Your knowledge today does not have much value beyond a couple of years. Your value is what you can learn and how easily you can adapt to the changes this profession brings so often. -- Jose M. Aguilar

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