Telephone pole as part of skyline?

  • Thread starter Thread starter CoreyYLTG
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CoreyYLTG said:
I'm more worried about pulling the pole over than I am about blowing a switch gear or a transformer or anything.
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Ahh. I reread. I thought you were talking about using it as just a tie in somehow but now I get you are going to load it up as a skyline.

As for the jostling. It's just been my experience that nothing good comes from shaking power poles.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #27
SeanKroll said:
Can you just get a small crane to lift you, dice it down, and clean up as usual?
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I can't. I don't need to lift anything but the span from the tree to where I could park a Crane means a 100 ton machine, of which there is only one in the area that does tree work. It would be weeks before I could get it, and this tree is coming down tomorrow.
 
You are obviously by far a better climber and tree guy than I'll probably ever be, i just have a few questions to help me learn. You said the tree has a horizontal crack (like a crosscut), which then splits vertically to the ground? Or is the tree split vertically like this? I understand its dead too, but why not just pull it together and just go from there? Are the roots questionable?
84088.jpg
 
I'm with Stephen and Justin on this one Corey, I'd have to see it. Forty five feet from ground level to the neutral is a long way, I can't think of any distribution poles in my area with that much clearance, most of the three phase feeder poles here are 45-55 footers set six feet in the ground which puts the neutral/secondary twenty something feet high. If by chance you get the primary together, blow a fuse or lock out the feeder, your profit margin is going away in a hurry, not to mention the extra danger for you. One more hazard to think about, if you were going to climb the pole to set your high line and the pole is pressure treated (green) your gaffs better be sharp, those poles super hard.
 
Just remember if something goes wrong the power company or telephone which ever will hold you responsible for the damage .
 
What Al said, even if everything goes good and you get reported and they show up it isn't going to be pretty.
 
What you can't say before hand is the effects of shocking and vibrating the pole.
A small jerk on one point can easily be amplified by the length of the pole and the wires. Moreover, if the motion comes close to the resonance frequency of a component, it could become devastating, even if all the system is sound and well assembled.
Remember what pounding wedge can do on a dead tree, or even the chainsaw vibrating the trunk.
 
Some of you guys have had the privilege (?) of making mistakes I have not made yet...your exposure to those situations is much higher than mine. I hope I am as successful at getting through it as you have been when I confront that beast some day.:O
 
Watch the oscillation of the pole. Climb the pole with your hands, with a chocking lanyard.

Keep tension on your climbing system the whole time, slipping and falling onto your climbing line will be bad news.
 
CurSedVoyce said:
I know there are 15 customers up the street from where I am working today that have acquired that knowledge in recent times.... :/:
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:D When I was Troubleman, I had a guy drop a big pine limb across all three phases of primary, burned them and the neutral to the ground and put a pile of customers in the dark. Even though it was a stupid move and it scared the snot out of him, nobody died. I promise you he'll never forget the sight and sound of the breaker reclosing on that line four times before the fire in the wire finally went out. What really blew me away was that this guy was using a chain for a lanyard, no joke.
 
Chain lanyards work great in palm trees, particularly buzzin em from the top down in a hurry.

Dulled many a Super 2 chain while flippin down spinnin round n buzzin.

Everything has its place in certain conditions n situations according to Judge Murphy.

Jomo
 
A pole will normally snap off right at ground level because in that area the pole is more subjected to rot than any other place .The guy anchor could fail also with a good snap .
 
i thought it would be a good idea to use a pole to mount my grcs on to pull a tree. It was pretty low, only a few feet off the ground. it was a bad idea. Definitly caused substantial movement. I dont even think we were pulling that hard. i imagine every pole is different. Its just a dead tree stuck back in the ground. All worked out but I wont try it again.
 
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  • #45
Well it's done and over with. For what should be obvious reasons I didn't take any pictures of it, but I did get busted by a Duke truck driving by. They didn't make a big stink about it but they didn't seem exactly thrilled either. Hopefully I won't hear from them later.

Went really smooth, I tied on to skyline from the top of the pole and rode out to where I needed to be on a micro pully. I used the cam from my buck strap to keep the pully from sliding back to the pole. I never had to climb up the climbline, which helped keep things smooth. The top came down with three cuts and then a few pieces of wood and then came down.

I don't think I explained how the tree broke very well last night. It didn't split up the middle, so I couldn't just strap it together. The crack ran parallel to the ground about 60% of the way through the trunk. It was a dead white ash if that helps paint a better picture.

All in all I think it was a bad idea and don't see me doing it again or recommending it to anyone as an idea. With hindsight being 20/20 if this comes up again I will tell the customer that we need to wait for a Crane. The customer should have had the tree removed a long time ago, and this was only a big issue now from putting it off so long.

In other words I think I took a risk to save somebody from themselves and even though it went off without a hitch I don't think it was worth it.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #46
To be honest I'm a little disappointed that I did it, if that makes any sense.
 
Al Smith said:
A pole will normally snap off right at ground level because in that area the pole is more subjected to rot than any other place .The guy anchor could fail also with a good snap .
Click to expand...

True of treated wood or steel, corrosive forces in the dirt are many orders of magnitude higher than in a live tree's canopy!

Making tree roots that much more amazing being able to thrive n grow in an environment highly corrosive to everything else with few exceptions.

Galvanized drop forged Chicago 3/4 inch eye bolts in the ground encased in concrete failed me at only 5 years old.


Steel in soil is subjected to a range of corrosive forces quite unlike those experienced in atmospheric exposure conditions, and the performance of steel in-ground is not as well understood as is the durability in above-ground applications. With more than 200 different types of soil identified in North America, corrosion rate in soils is varied and hard to predict. Steel requires oxygen, moisture and the presence of dissolved salts to corrode. If any one of these is absent, the corrosion reaction will cease or proceed very slowly. Steel corrodes quickly in acidic environments and slowly or not at all as alkalinity is increased. The corrosion rate of steel in soil can range from less than 0.2 microns per year in favorable conditions to 20 microns per year or more in very aggressive soils.

https://www.galvanizeit.org/hot-dip-galvanizing/how-long-does-hdg-last/in-soil

Something electric goin on IMO.

Jomo
 
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