Being a Lineman - Episode 9
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 19. 05. 2020
- Hey Everyone!
Often times when restoring power, access can be one of our biggest barriers. While this call wasn't bad... worst case, we could have changed the transformer using a gin pole.
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Music courtesy of:
Corncob country by Kevin Macleod
CZcams audio
#Bobsdecline #Beingalineman #Lineman
Hey everyone!
This call was actually back in February. I didn't have much footage for this one, but with a little bit of editing was able to put together a quick video about our night!
We Loveee backlot! đŹ
Cheers all! đ»đ
You guys don't use capstans?
S4e4e
Imagine the homeowner waking up to the plow in the backyard, priceless!!!
Man I real feel bad about the things I've said when my power was out.
You taking your personal time to upload these videos is extremely generous. Currently awaiting (hoping for) semester 3 of my utility technician program, but due to this virus, everything is all screwed up. Been watching since 2017! Thank you for vids and stay safe!
Yea this virus really is holding things back, being ready for your 3rd semester is a pretty good guarantee that they won't forget about ya!
Thanks for sticking around the channel all this time! đ
The snow removal who knows what's underneath. Beep beep beep beep beep. Just what everyone like to listen to lol. This is what happens behind the scenes that most people don't know or understand what you go through to get things done at the sper of the moment. And not much of a thank you
How could anyone sleep through that lol
Earplugs
Especially if the power was out and it's sooooo quiet...
Some people like me sleep like a rock lol. I would easily sleep through that myself. I even slept through an A/C install in my house. came off night shift and they started the install at 8am, made sure they had everything they needed and headed off to bed. Slept through my neighbour having 2 large trees removed too recently, I do recall getting up to pee and hearing the chainsaws going and went back to bed, woke up later and the trees were gone.
Well, if the house is still warm or heated by other means? The rest of the neighbors agree to wait until morning? Then by all means the work could be scheduled for day light hours? With folks working from home now & the constant need for power? Having the neighbors agree to a long duration outage might not be something they want to entertain?
I could, I've been in and near noisy environments all my life. My brain just tunes out inconvenient sounds when it sees fit. Blessing or curse, you decide.
Thank you for posting these, it's really interesting to see how involved jobs like this can be, and how rapidly you can get it fixed. I would think there was a dispatcher or duty manager at the office or on-call that would co-ordinate plows, cranes, other crews.
I've only seen those machines a couple of times (I do pole surveying and inspection) but I never realized they could have a bucket for someone to go up in or that they had that far a reach. I've just seen them used to bring in and set poles. That's an even neater, more versatile piece of equipment than I thought.
And I share your feelings about backlot work. I get why they put the poles there, but it's so much easier to work on them along to road or if there's an alley, haha. Especially when people put bushes or gardens or sheds around the poles and block easy access. (I've even seen people DIY their own "sheds" around the pole with it sticking out of the "roof." Twice believe it or not. I was glad I wasn't the one who had to tell them those structures needed to be removed for pole work, because I would bet they threw a fit.)
I have a whole new appreciation for linemen. Thank you for all you do!
Yall Canadian Linemen are studs!!!! Makes me proud to be an apprentice! Keep up the awesome work bud
Cheersđ» where bouts you doing your apprenticeship?
Awesome content as usual! Would love to see more backlot stuff. Easement work always takes some creativity and thinking on your feet
That backlot machine . Very cool piece of kit
Definitely comes in handy!
this is awesome, I always wanted to know more about how it all works and after watching many videos my curiosity has been fed :) thank you!! :)
Always learn something watching your vids. Thanks for taking the time to put these together ! đ
Thanks man!
Thank you for this great video! Keep em comin đ
Thanks man!
When you hear the snow crunch like that, yeah it's pretty damn cold out! Thanks for doin what you do in all freakin kinds oof weather!!
Man, I hope you're paid darn well for this kinda work. Hero in my book.
Aaron another good one! Haha I feel like I tell you all the time but our job is just amazing and you do a great job covering it man! Stay safe bro!
All good man! I love hearing from you Luke! Making these videos takes a ton of my personal time and it's hearing feedback from guys all around the world that give me the motivation to keep doing it!
I appreciate the feedback and interaction with all you guys a ton!
I hope you guys earn a good living. We need more videos like this so the public knows what's involved in power restoration.
That's a nice backlot machine, I wish we had one that you could hang a pot and be in the bucket at the same time.
You earn every bit of your payday sir... much respect đđ stay safe
Neat little crane!
Another great video. Iâm an electrical contractor but always enjoy working along side utility companies
Thanks Joe! And likewise đđ I've learned a ton from other trades that we have the pleasure of working with on a weekly basis. Cheers!đ»
Bobsdecline - Lineman blogger Iâll make a video for you one day.
Underrated channel
This is scott anderson (aka) cheeseburger from Texas , love your vids brother keep up the great work !!!! 30 below damn !!!!
You'd think all them loud trucks would wake up the whole neighborhood!
The worst are the hydovacs for digging buried cables! đ
What a dumb place for a pole sometimes I see poles in the most craziest areas just makes me laugh lol đ
I have video of the crew in Anderson,Indiana using one of those robots in my neighbor's yard to bring in a transformer to swap out. It was amazing to watch it work since that was the only way to get back to the pole.
surely with an essential service the car can be towed.............
Thank God for rear easement machines. Old hats had a set of blocks and armstrong power lol.
Our generation is definitely spoiled! Even when I started the was no such things as battery tools and back lot machines . I'll take it tho . đ
Hey there from Australia. Great vids love your work. In Rural Aus if we canât get crane access we use a â Horses Headâ and electric winch. Basically a pulley block strapped to the head of the pole an a electric winch strapped to the pole base then you can winch it up the pole. Quite effective. Do you guys use anything similar. Fyi love that little mobile crane.
We have a very similar setup actually. We have used anything from a vehicle, captan hoist, winch or even multipart block and tackle. Our Gin pole is what is chained to the top of the pole and a block then hang from that. We then either run a block at the butt or use the multi shiv and boost by hand.
We just got that little crane a few years ago! Have used it many times now!
Thanks for making this shit. Grabs my attention and educates me while I wait to go back to school (PLT). Keep it up boss
Thanks Lukas đđ hopefully you don't have to wait too long until things are up and running full speed again!
75kva pole Jin with blocks no bueno..... capstain aka man in the can. Iâve also done it with a butt block pole Jin and run a rip to the road and use the Jin on the bucket or line truck out in the road. Great job brothers!!!!!!
That's right eh! The typical block setup wouldn't be rated enough.
We do have some blocks good for 2000 lbs and I would have to check, but I think one is good for 5k. And we do also have a capstan (first time I've heard "man in the can".)
We used to use our muskeg with a butt block for hoisting 16 foot steel xarms for river and highway crossings.
Nice video. Nice job
Thanks!
back lot we called it backyard bucket
đđScotland lineman, keep the lights on brother.đđ
Awesome hearing from a brother in Scotland! đđ
Things that surprised me;
1)A customer calls in saying my transformer is arcing and my power is out then just goes back to bed! what were they thinking? no big deal someone will come to fix it tomorrow. (even using the online form to report a problem it requires your phone number and specifically states to be available you might be called for more information if needed)
2) a power company that operates in a place with snow for 50% of the year doesn't have its own snow plows.
3) You couldn't call a flatbed tow truck to move the car out, park on the other side of the road (within sight of the house), and then move it back when you're done (if they can remove cars that are illegally parked in a weird spot without damaging them it should be a breeze to remove a car from a straight driveway).
4) you didn't disable the backup beeps in the middle of the night (maybe on purpose to wake up the car owner?)
5) that you had to call the snow plows, I would have thought dispatch would take care of that
Move the car for her with one of those big trucks? There is work to be done!
I want to sleep like that homeowner. I want to so bad.
2:34 Bring the crane and they shall move. I'm sure the noise will wake them up.
I hope you take a decent break after being out all night. Im an auto electrician by trade here in Sydney, Australia, basically managing electrical breakdowns on heavy vehicles, prime movers, vehicles such as your truck but mainly in the transport and logistics industry. If a trailer loses its lights or a truck needs a starter or alternator, or a hessian bag on the road catches the tailshaft and then catches rips all the adjacent battery cables to pieces (yeah it's happened) or there's an electronic fault with the engine control or any number of the modules in modern trucks, that's what we do.
I'll do a normal 8 hour day, plus any OT, then if I'm on call I'll do any breakdowns. Anything after 10pm where I'm out for more than an hour and I make sure I take a 10 hour break which is mandated. So if I get home at 2am after 2 or 3 hours out on a job I'll start at 12pm.
Thatâs awesome, she got her driveway plowed for free
After working a call like this one. Would you still have to go to work the in the morning or would you get the day off?
There a whole list of rules on that stuff ! The short answer is if you work all night you get 8 hours to rest đ
@@Bobsdecline Here in PA worked for Worst Energy (First Energy) 16hrs on 8 off.
Awesome video, man! Quick question for you. Did you have to get permission from the home owner to get all the equipment on the property? Im assuming if she wouldnât answer to move her car, yâall just went ahead and killed it đ
We didn't actually, tried some hard tho! As much as I didn't want to scare the homeowner by knocking on her door in the middle of the night... She came out around 8 in the morning while we were packing up and was very friendly.
Sometimes it's easier to beg forgiveness than it is to ask permission.
Bud especially when itâs 2 in the morning and -20 below zero lol
@@kylesnyder7251 ..Yup. Been there, done that. Got the icicles hanging from my beard to prove it.
I would have liked to have seen your âback lot machineâ âŠ. We dont have one
Awesome content man !! hoping to get hired here soon after just completing school and love to watch how itâs gonna be on the job. This gives me a really good idea of how itâll be and gets me exited ! If you donât mind me asking how much are they typically paying in Canada ??
Thanks man! I'm happy to share!
I try not to get into wages too much... It's especially tough speaking for Canada. Our economy and cost of living here on the East coast is much lower then the West. Most companies offer competitive wages for the area you work . There are contactors in my area with less experience making a higher wage then myself, but don't have the luxury of being home every night with guaranteed work either. There are pro and cons to each opportunity you'll encounter! Just follow the path that best suits your style đ
Bobsdecline - Lineman blogger heard that!đ€đŒ Iâm sure after grinding for a few years your priorities tend to change. thanks for the reply and much respect!đđŒ
could use just existing leads with the secondaries still attached to go back directly into the secondary bushings?
or did you have to increase the can leads accordingly to the kva of the can?
only wondering because i saw new leads on the new can.
are those csp transformers?
thank you
Awesome video! I have a question during a trouble call are you allowed to make any call necessary regardless of cost? 2am plow/crane I can imagine isn't cheap.
Yes and No ... If our Supervisor feels we made a bad decision we will likely hear about. It all depends on the size of the outage, cost vs time saved, liability crew availability etc...
I do occasionally assist with job planning and organizing in the summer while the supervisors are off on vacation, so have a bit of experience with what acceptable limits are. There is also always a supervisor on call for when drastic decisions are made or large expenses. Usually there isn't any problems with what our guys decide in the field. Often time we can also recuperate costs from insurance should the outage be the result of a vehicle accident or someone's intentional negligence
@@Bobsdecline makes sense we usually follow the same rules but we are limited by what the customer wants to do. My line of work I take over after the utility. Customer owned HV switch gear. Installation and maintenance. Love your videos!
Oh nice man! And thanks!
Do yall hang large KVA transformers for few customers to account for cold load? I couldn't imagine the cold load issues we would have if it ever got that cold here lol
not a lineman yet,
But gonna be.
Step 1: get the losers out of your life.
Step 2: relax lol
Do you have any advice on driving the bucket truck? Iâll have to take my cdl class a license during my class and just wondered if you had any advice on driving it, tips, tricks etc.. Iâve drove big enterprise trucks before is it kinda similar? Expect for the towing part. Didnât know if buckets are automatic or standard.
I've your used to driving large vehicles there's a few things that may be different.
The truck will likely be much heavier not only from the boom but also as is full of nuts/bolts/wire etc.. It will affect things like soft ground,hills, turning.
There may be a larger overhang on the rear Axle's from a customized bumper. If you cut the wheels from a stop, it may swing out and scrape the car beside you. Especially a pole overhanging on a trailer.
One more thing, as I mentioned all the nuts and bolts.. it will be your responsibility to make sure that all those tools and parts are secure while driving. You don't want tools or parts flying off the truck while driving. Full circle check before leaving.đđ
Bobsdecline - Lineman blogger sounds good man! Iâll make sure I do those things! Our instructor gives us practice time we will have a bucket trucks in our class we get to practice on, so that should help a lot before we have to take our test! Sure heâll make sure weâre ready before hand.! But wanted some more tips! I appreciate it greatly. Start next month ready to get things going!
Awesome man! Thanks fro checking in!đ
Maybe doing a video on different trucks and equipment (off road machine)
Does your power company have the crane built into the pole digger truck.
How does the power company decide transformer size? 200 amp service is pretty standard in most residential setups (48 kva potential max load, never seen in real life.) Even so, I've seen instances of three and four houses on a 10 kva transformer. Seems undersized.
do you get to know a lot of the other linemen in your area well by working on the jobs?
More so when I was working on the crews. Even on a two man crew you were often paired up for large jobs. I already know most of the guys very well, but certainly don't see them as much as I used to
Itâs ârear property â not back lot. đđ€Ł
How many KVA is that transformer? What does it weigh?
What was the voltage going into it ?
That backlot machine is pretty amazing. Quite the lift for such a tiny machine.
It's a 75Kva transformer, it weighs around 1000lbs. 7200v going in and 120/240v on the secondary.
Definitely impressive how much that little thing can lift - ya wanna make sure you pay attention to your leveling and load charts for sure!
We have had to just have police call for flatbead rollback truck to come move a cust cars bc no answer dr. At 2am
It's a tough call sometimes! When there's big outages sometimes ya gotta do whatever you can to get the job done!
You guys donât have a pole mounted man in the can (capstain) pole top Jin with 5 shiv blocks??
Hmm maybe what we have as a capstan is different .. shoot me a pic when you get a chance!
so you're telling me , -30 , NO HEAT , power dead , snowplow in the backyard , with a farm tractor non the less ( super loud ) and they STILL slept through it !?
Bobsdecline, can you explain why some pole transformers have a red light, next to the LV bushings, that glows?
Some don't appear to have the light, and on most that have it, it's not lit. Is this a warning light?
Aaron,
I hope you donât mind if I answer this one?
The red light next to the secondary bushings is called a load light. Yes, itâs a warning light that the transformer had seen a short or overload condition since the last time it was reset. All new transformers come without the light. Only the older models have the light. Eventually the bulb will burn out on itâs own. Years ago lineman used to get called out after hours to reset the transformer (turn it off & recycle it & turn it back on. Turning off the load light). That causes a momentary outage for everyone downstream of that transformer. The utility companies got tired of nuisance calls to reset the light/pay overtime for the lineman to do the job. I knew some guys that used to smash the light with a heavy hammer-LOL!
Thanks for jumping in John! đŻ
Aaron,
This is your blog not mine. I only jumped in after seeing lots of other posts & this one question was hanging out there. I suspected youâve been very busy with work, family & life. I could never do a blog like yours. My hats off to you to pull this off. I look forward to each of your posts! You use enough detail that someone not in the trade could easily understand. I was off this past week on staycation. I had time to answer this one. I hope I didnât offend you? I hope the explanation was accurate? I answered the best way I could?
Best Regards.
Not offended at all John! Infact I really appreciate it đ! There's been a ton of great questions in the comments and it's really tough to keep up! Things have been especially busy with my young fella back in school. Since I've started this channel, I've learned lots! Many great minds with loads of experience ...
You answered the question perfectly, feel free to chime in anytime!
What ends up happening to the old transformer in a case like this, is it repaired and redeployed?
Some of re-furbished , most the old ones with PCBs are scrapped
That xfmr they took down will most likely be refurbished since it was just a bushing and the fact that it's a 100kva which is pricey
When you say 75kva transformer , is that 75kva per phase or over all 3 phases ?
It is the total amount on the transformer. That is just a single phase transformer, so... 312.5amps capable, at 240V
What exactly caused that secondary bushing to burn out like that
It was a fairly old connection.
The direct cause would have been a week's worth of -30°C (windchill) putting some major load stress on it
.
The indirect cause is it was likely loosen as well over time from vibration and expansion in the metals.
Most of the time when you see this the main lead in the mechanical connector is aluminum which doesn't remain tight over time
As far as the indirect reason, did you guys replace that connector with one that better suites that kind of extreme exposure- like one made out of steel
Or is there a better solution
Considering how cold it gets up there
Yes the ones we use now are made from a blend of metals that form a metal pad. We crimp a penetrox infused lug onto the wire and then bolts the connection to the pad with lock washers and 2 seperate steel bolts. We have very little issues with the newer style
Awesome, thanks for the replies. I know a lot of young apprentices and students like myself watch your channel for real world problems being solved so itâs cherry on top to get additional questions answered. Best of luck, and stay safe as always
If given the choice, lineman apprenticeship or substation technician apprenticeship?
They are both great job! I personally would stick to lineman, as there is much more diversity. Depending on your area, you may even end up doing substation work as a lineman.
While being a sub tech can be a bit more relaxed most times, it's nice being a lineman and having work sites along the coast with awesome views rather then always heading to the sub yard
@@Bobsdecline thank you sir !
What's a secondary bushing?
The primary comes in the top of the xfmr and steps it down to the secondary bushings which is your 120/240 to feed your house
After all that do you get a paid rest day?
I can't remember if that was a weekday or not, but we would yes. There a pretty big list of conditions, but "hours of work" is closely monitored in recent years for safety
What kind of Schedule do yâall run? Are you a trouble man only or do is this all on call trouble you show
I work a regular 8-430 shift and respond to trouble around the clock.
During my regular shift if there are no trouble calls I look after all the customer service work orders- concerns of trees/locating buried cables/street lighting/substation inspection/switching and load balancing/oil sampling/safety inquiries/ as well as a never ending list of odds and ends of maintenance on the lines.
A lot of what's show in my videos is after hours because the crews are all home and there's often more down time as I wait for backup. It gives me a chance to capture some of what we do without interfering with my schedule đ
Oh cool. I work for an EMC and we pull call once every 13 days. I guess all the after hours trouble is just money in your pocket.
Is there such thing as too cold to work?
A couple times a year we'll shut things down because of extreme cold. But if there are any outages or emergency calls, we respond of course.
If i understand correct, you were in someone's back garden to work on a pole in an other garden. Strange place for a pole.
I had a home like that in a development built in the 1950's. I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time. But then people put up fences, planted trees, installed pools. garden sheds, etc.
Not use a davot and six sheave blocks lol
Man that's a lot of effort for a 1am call on a winter weather day. How come you didn't just open the cutout and come back in the daytime? Especially if they can't be bothered to move their car...
Are you gonna have any more new videos O yes or no
For sure man!
We get emergency calls to do some more videos of your mercy calls
This is one perfect example of the true life of a lineman, getting called out in the wee morning and having to deal with a situation like this. Had to be a 75 KVA transformer and not a 10 or 15 , got to love the OT but you earn every dollar of it and then may have to turn around and go back to work in a few hours . nice backyard machine --- woo hoo
Yea this one was brutal at first! You can tell in the first few clips my face was frozen and still half asleep đđ
Yeah a little 15 kva or something would have been nice!
@@Bobsdecline ... you mentioned earlier that after a long night shift you get 8 hours off to rest. Seeing as something like this took till sunrise and then you had to pack up plus head to the shop / yard, it's probably close to 7 am by then. In this case do you get a full day's pay for the off time (regular daytime hours) or do you have to report in for that last hour of the day then do another night shift? (on call)
Why put powerlines in peoples backyards ?....lol !
Exactly!!! đ
Why do you call your videos Bobdecline
Bobsdecline đ
That makes more sense!
It's just a user name I've had since the internet began lol . So it's kinda my "OG". Didn't want any numbers in my user name or anything that made a specific claim ( like "Powerline guy" ) or something. ... It kinda has flow to it I guess lol . I get asked a lot đ»đ€·ââïž
Bobsdecline - Lineman blogger The Canadian electrical Technology course that you took was that a brick and mortar school or was it online
Brick and Mortar;
Starts off at an actual college where the application is received. The school then follows somewhat normal student selection process. Only difference is physical and medical testing is involved along with academic.
Once accepted there is approx 10 weeks of class work broken up into block1A intro and block1B with about 9 months of pole climbing/framing and training crew work in between.
Through that time you are mostly in the hands of the Power company that looks after that area.
Still considered a student of the school in which you applied, this allows for an actual pass/fail system. I feel it helps filter out guys/girls that aren't passionate about the trade.
Once that process is complete at a passing grade, we then received a certificate and apply for a position at either the company that was involved in the training or any other of course
Here in CT. They would order up a generator (s) to feed the individual houses affected until daylight hours. Pick up as many customers in the least ammount of time. The company hates to pay guys for rest time.
Bet the people in their homes, tryin' to sleep weren't happy with all of the noise
KidozyGAME they would be even less happy waking up freezing! Ha ha, they should just be glad that the power got restored!
Climb the pole and be finished much sooner.
not gonna lie that slowed down video makes me sick