OT, What Should We Do???

So, as you all know we have the power line for our house running right through our meadow, where my wheat is going to be.

So, today I had mom call 811 to have them locate the line, the lady said that they will find it with "very good" accuracy, but they have no way of telling the depth.

So, we called Northern Lights, she said that they don't do that, and that we needed to call 811!!!

Sooo, mom told the lady what 811 told mom, and now the lady is talking to her supervisor to see what they can do to help us!!!

The line has been see multiple times because of how shallow they buried it. I have my plow set up so that it IS power proof, but we all know how well that goes! Our new regulations say that they have to bury it AT LEAST 18 inches, and the three of us know that it isn't that deep, so the neighbor suggested that IF I "find it" with the plow, it is basically their problem! Bryce

Leave the patch in grass and farm somewhere else.

Around here 18" is the minimum they can bury them, my cousin found out the hard way that the local electric co-op didn't bury that deep in a couple spots of one of his fields, his hired man hit it with the deep tiller he didn't get hurt at all but the computer in his 9560R has been giving trouble on and off ever since. John Deere won't warranty it since he was honest and told them what happened and the electric co-op won't step up to the plate on the bill either.

I think I would just drill a strip, no plow.

Even so I"d keep after them to bury it at the proper depth, just because they didn"t the first time.

Bury it deeper Bryce.... just in case it freezes!!!!
Sam

Back when I was a contract locator the law stated the line would be marked + or - 18" on either side and it was up to the person doing the work to hand dig and verify the location, the depth is not given because the utility has no way of knowing if someone has either added fill over the plant or has removed dirt covering the plant. If it is a 13.2 or a 14.4 primary that you plan to cut don"t bother wearing clean shorts because if you do survive they will not be clean after. even a cut secondary if you pop the transformer will cost around $4,000.00 to repair and your neighbor is wrong you will most likely be billed for the repair. Greg, ex contract locator,DTE, Consumers Power, GTE.

They can tell approx. how deep, but for some reason they won't tell you. Possibly that it could vary from place to place, and you can guess the problems that could cause. I did get a locator to tell me on a phone line at an exact point that I needed to dig across, but he said you never heard it from me.

Around here the service wire to the customer is the consumer's responsibility, and it is the builder's responsibility to have it installed not the utility. If you dig it up it may be on your dime to fix it, and it may be your responsibility to put it deeper if you desire.

WGWKy2's advise sounds very good. Especially as you already know the line is shallow and you have posted so on the internet.

In my area I'm required to get utility lines marked before digging near them, and then to only hand dig near the marks. It's only the utilities problem if the lines are not where they were marked. That could be difficult to prove after you have tilled over the marks and most of the field surrounding the power line.

I would not trust your neighbor's advise that you hitting a marked powerline won't be your problem, unless he's willing (very doubtful) to pay all your legal expenses, emergency repair expenses, and medical expenses. He and many other people probably won't be very happy with you after their power goes out for half a day or more either. How many homes, farms, and businesses are supplied by the power line?

How high is the voltage in the power line and how dangerous is it? If you do snag a high voltage electric line, to avoid electrocution, for sure don't touch both the ground and the tractor or implement at the same time. Other people on this forum may know for sure, it might be safest to just stay in the tractor seat until the power company confirms the power is fully disconnected.

Good luck and please stay safe.

cant you leave a strip in hay over where the line is like 10 or 15 feet? just not worth getting killed over.If the line is actually above ground in places I would have the willies even using the mower to cut hay.
I would get it covered up then leave it in hay.

how many years has the line been there? who knows how deep it is now, erosion somebody moving dirt who knows what.If it was me , have them locate it and dont get within 20 feet of it. On the flipside if you hit it your knocking your own power out for awhile.

What is a insulator ???? NOTHING .... If the voltage is high enough it will jump,shock&cook what ever is near. Just follow my rules and you will live a long time. If I can see it or smell it I can work with it , if not DON'T F WITH IT! Call someone who can do it with proper tools. I'm with the ones who say leave the ground around it be. Your to young to be a crispy Bryce.

You evidently have never seen a ten foot ball of fire come out of a broken electric line. I sure wouldn't want to hook onto one with a plow. Be safe and stay at least ten foot away from it on either side.

Well, we are the last ones on the line, so it goes from the poles, into the ground, and then through the woods/creek/meadow/lawn to the house. Should be all that big of a line, and it has been cut before with a backhoe and we didn't even know it! Bryce

Bryce, check out the link below, not as many electric but you will get the drift. Greg
Underspace

I think that is going to be my plan. I will more than likely stay away from it, but I am FOR SURE going to use me plowing as leverage to get the job re-done right! Bryce

i'm curious as to how you set up a plow as power proof!

Well, I have got basically a 4 inch wide rubber band, that will go through the clevis on the plow, and through the clevis on the tractor, Steel - Rubber - Steel, won't conduct.

It is actually part of a lifting strap, and is about 4 feet long, it is rated at 12,000 lb "max working load" 18,000 lb breaking strength!

I am not sure if it will work or not, but right now I am pretty sure I will never find out!

Still havent heard back from the Northern Lights Lady, would be surprised if she DOESN'T call, there is a reason we call them "NO-Lights"... Bryce

The code for that would be 18 ". The responsibity for dameage depends if the power company ran it or a private contactor. The actual depth depends on how many points the inpector checked with his stick ruler.Call 811 and ask who is responsible if you hit it.. Usually they just give point of entry to the property.

i would have them mark it then dont plow over it, the lines her are both above ground and below, supposed to be 18 inches too, i have a pic of the line, which i found while cleaning a manure pile with the tractor, and a clump of grass growing horizontaly to the line in the same shot

Hope your locating folks are better than those around here. When we had problems with the feed going to Dad"s shop, the guy came out to locate it so they could install a larger cable. Dad told him he was way off where he put the marks as Dad was there the day the cable was buried, but the guy said his marks were right. Needless to say, the guys who came out to put in the new line hit the old one, right where Dad told them it would be. Given that they then had to not only repair that one so we weren"t without power until they got the new one in, and still had to put in the new wire, they weren"t very happy about the whole deal....and even less so when Dad told them that he had notified the locater that he was marking the wrong spot...........

In other words steer well clear of the marks the locater makes, just to be safe. In Dad"s case the guy was nearly 14 feet off to one side of the actual cable he was supposed to be marking.

If it"s buried primary cable, carryng primary voltage, do not think of it like ordinary 120V-240V residential circuit. If a person hits primary, it will not just spark, like a person might think. It will be a 12-gage shotgun blast, it"ll rock your world. You might not survive. Your plow is not power-proof.

Dig around the marked area by hand if it is really not that deep should be easy to find.

I think its been said enough regarding the power, only thing I can add is its nothing to fool with regardless of voltage, its that simple.

When I was a youngster, pre-school I am sure, one of my parents showed me a news paper photo, of all that was left of a kid that climbed a tower and connected with some high voltage, what was in the photo was a burned pair of sneakers, the only thing left was the rubber soles.

The description of how you modified your hitch, may just be plausible in theory, but its never been tested. I would not want to even remotely consider testing something like that, being connected to it.

Years ago while on a job, myself and the teamster foreman/steward were discussing high voltage accidents, and he said he was on a job, (NYC) and they were doing some demo work in a tunnel, one of the laborers was using a jackhammer, not sure if it was a 90lb or what, but he hit a 440 line, and that was it for him, blue flame came out his ears, he witnessed the mans death on the job. i think the only way any of this ever sinks in is with graphic depiction. Speak with an RN, Doctor or any ER people that have dealt with injuries or death caused by electrocution, its a nasty kind of injury, it will burn the h$ll out of flesh in an instant, or kill in the same time.

You do not ever want to find that line with your plow, if you do, its very likely the tractor will become energized, it creates heat quickly, those tires may succumb to pyrolysis, and blow up. If its a primary or higher voltage, it will jump when, where and how is nothing that can be predicted or determined in this situation, like I said you do not want to be sitting on a tractor in this situation.

Here's another scenario, one I experienced, unfortunately as a kid much younger than you. We had a ford tractor dealership, large shop, concrete, steel and concrete block building and it had unit heaters suspended from the bar joists above to heat in the winter. Those old unit heaters were wired directed at the thermostat, not low voltage control wire like today. Some %*$$#@! jerk had removed the thermostat cover, leaving 3 splices of wires exposed, no wire nuts, no cover, just in the open. Well being a helpful person, I enjoyed being at the place, someone needed a lens for the welding mask, shield, helmet etc, and I knew there was a stack of them on this little shelf on the steel column, above the thermostat I did not see, the one with 220 volts, connected to the unit heater. Well I reached up to grab a lens and I contacted the 3 splices, it froze me up, can feel the electricity in my body and it was not exiting, I can't even recall its been so long, but my wrist was burning, smell of burning flesh, I was magnetized to the column and it took 2 people to break me free, they both got nailed with 220 while saving me. Had I been alone, I would have died a slow agonizing death or crossed that voltage across my heart if I had touched the other hand to the column. It seemed like an eternity and I could do nothing, it was not like a pop and you get thrown, or break away, it was a poor replication of an electric chair, maybe one meant to torture. Power is NOTHING to fool with EVER. I use the excuse today to explain the way I am LOL, not sure if something like that caused me any damage but the 3 small scars on the inside of my wrist, which you can barely see, are a reminder.

You need to see that line to work around it, not sure what can be done, hopefully it can be worked out, located, depth lowered or what have you, to make it safe to work around.

I have a food plot patch under 115,000 volt lines, and in the summer they sag down, when its hot and humid, needless to say I do not go near them, when they sag. The distance seems to be close to the safe limit then. Better to get any work done there when its cooler and dry. During hunting season, I remember walking under them and raising my rifle a bit, I can get a static spark going from my forefinger to the trigger guard, voltage like that would vaporize you. Its part of an ag field, and many a tractor has been in that part of it, but it still creeps a person out to be near the low portion of the conductors, (wires).

Well you've heard the horror stories, be safe and don't fool with that power for any reason !

(quoted from post at 01:43:58 04/03/14) Well, we are the last ones on the line, so it goes from the poles, into the ground, and then through the woods/creek/meadow/lawn to the house. Should be all that big of a line, and it has been cut before with a backhoe and we didn't even know it! Bryce

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Sounds like it's an electrical service line, not the main power line. You will be on the hook for the repairs if you damage it. But that won't concern you if you're dead or severely injured. I sure wouldn't bet my life on your home made "shock proof" hook up.

Have them locate the line. They'll tell you not to disturb the ground a certain distance on either side of the mark. If you hit the line anywhere in that area the repair is on you no matter how deep or shallow the line is.

Everyone is being polite because you're young. I'll say what everyone is thinking....
Plowing over a known shallow electrical line is stupid. Don't even think about it.
I'm not trying to be mean. Just being realistic.

Or maybe a Bryce Crispy, get it?

What is da problem?....You only need to plant that wheat 2" deep :wink:

They can tell approx. how deep, but for some reason they won't tell you.

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BS.
Wife was a cable locator for a few years.
You must[b:172151ceff] hand dig[/b:172151ceff] 18" on each side of the mark.
Depth is never mentioned because there are too many ways to be wrong, stones, erosion so forth.
If you tear through there with a plow especially after calling a cable locator and rip the line out you will be held liable.