Power drop / line drop / data drop

pantheraba

More biners!!!
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Jul 31, 2005
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I have a small hickory (40 feet, maybe 14 in. DBH) to remove that has a power line next to it...2 feet away, the line to the house. I had the owner schedule a power drop for tomorrow so I can bomb some limbs rather that roping stuff...it has to be topped and limbed due to other nearby trees and fence.

There is still the phone and cable lines to consider...they are right next to the tree, also. My plan is to disconnect them, release them from the strain reliefs that hold them to the house, coil them out of the way across the street (their point of origin), and then hook them back up when done.

Is this how y'all do it? I can't see calling phone and cable folks to lower those lines, seems like way too much logistics.

Any advice?
 
I have used this approach in the past with success ... I usually drop phone and catv after the linesman drop and coil back main service... GOOD LUCK !
 
good plan gary. if its only a half day job i dont normally mess with it but if your working all day might as well
 
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Thanks, guys, that's the kind of stuff I was hoping to hear...about removing and replacing.

OTG -- hahaha, your are a madman. :lol:

Jerry, still working on the confidence to do it your way. I may pretend the lines are still there and see if I would have gotten away with it...or if I would have had to be like OTG.:P
 
To clarify...first move would be to rope the lines so they can be moved in either direction, sometimes those suckers will move quite a bit, no need to drop 'em. I've never had a powerline dropped by the power co, I don't think that it is a regular occurance here in the northeast, I could be wrong though.

The reason I have put a bunch of cable and phone lines back on is because I think my skills are much better that they actually are:|: oops, fock, fock, fock....get me a zip tie:D
 
I've never dropped one, had a lady shut one off though. I usually don't ever think of it because those kind of people never seem to be on time anyways. You end up playing the waiting game, and they have your balls in their hands. That's what happened with the bottom pic, they were suppose to come first thing, never showed. Luckily I had another 2 trees to do, so we did those first...still no show. We ended up having to go back, and it wasn't a short drive. That's when I was taking what I can get, about 55 minutes away. :X

How are the phone and cable lines attached? Is there a union you can unscrew?
 

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In my little town it used to be easy to set up as the company had an office here and we knew the linemen (all eat breakfast at same spot) .... things have changed alot the company dispatches from up north , the lineman failed to show twice as something more urgent arose ... now I price accordingly with main service intact ... although if they want to set up a drop I'll sell that way too ...
 
We get free drops from Duke Energy, you just have to schedule them 48 hours ahead and preferably first thing in the AM. Takes 10 minutes to drop and maybe 20 to un-drop.

Definitely take down Commo wires. If you break one your customer may have to wait a few days to get it restored... and that's obviously not good. Unfortunately, I know for a fact that can happen.
 
Power drops here are a major pita. I had a job last year where we scheduled a drop, the guy showed up 2 hours late to drop it, only to tell us that he couldn't do it because he didn't have the right tools. So we rescheduled for a week later. The next week, the same guy shows up 3 hours late, only to tell us again that he still doesn't have the right tools and couldn't do the drop. I lost that job purely because of the fecking power company, and was not paid for 5 hours of time I spent waiting. :X
 
Progress Energry.....no problem here

Charter cables sucks...I do them myself...same with phone
 
we rarely get the service dropped.
brendan, you know how the cable attaches to the back of your tv? same type of connector in the box on the outside of the house.
 
Cable lines are easy - telephone lines are more complicated. 3, sometimes 4 wires have to be disconnected and you need to remember how they were wired.
 
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Yep, this one has 4 tele wires...I'll probably take a picture. Cable connection is an "unscrew".
 
I just work around them... Every day..

Put up a few phones and cables before...
 
called the power company to boot a line. when i got there, they dropped the tree. not sure if they got money or not, buy I lost 600.00 bucks!
 
Alabama Power is pretty good about dropping services but they like several days notice. Sometimes you need it dropped NOW. For that reason I usually keep the tools in the truck to do it myself. I wait on them when I can, but if they're over thirty minutes late, I go ahead. They don't pay me for wasted downtime, and all my saws don't need sharpening while I wait on them.

As to phone/tv cables I usually drop them at the house end, but on occasion, it's been simpler to climb the pole and drop it from that end.
 
For someone with the knowledge and ability to do it safely, it sounds a lot wiser than standing around waiting for the dumb power company employee. Those guys aren't typically rocket scientists, and if they can do it then I'm sure capable of doing it as well with the proper training.
 
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