Skidding Under Power lines

[Tombstone]

I am cutting a 37 acre lot that is part of a much larger piece of land. It is seperated by power lines that run through the property. I will be cutting and then skidding across the lines to the landing. There is plenty of room between spans and all that. Are there any safety considerations I should take into account that I may not be thinking of other than the obvious. Has anyone else done this before? Just the buzzing from the lines is intimidating! ;D I was up there the other day and watched a lightining storm come in, needless to say I didnt stick around, lets see sitting on huge piece of steel underneath high tension lines......not so much

[beenthere]

Can't imagine there would be any problems, any different than driving under the lines on the highway or road.

[chucker]

Can't imagine there would be any problems, any different than driving under the lines on the highway or road.

times probably 8 with all metal and possible tire chains?? "ouch " lol should'nt ? be a problem ,but why take a chance with bad weather not lasting that long.... good time for a coffee break!!!

[630 Tigercat]

Ive had to drag under powerlines a couple of times.  Never really had a problem just make sure you dont tear up the right of way.  The power company will get pretty bent out of shape over that.  we've laid crane mats across if it were soft or even small diameter chipwood opposite of how your dragging across to prevent rutting.

[Tillaway]

Around here it is state law to contact the utility company prior to and every day you work near the high tension lines.  I have had yarders working under and around both the lines and towers.

The reason for the daily phone can is to let the power company know if something lands on the lines and trips the breaker to not turn the power back on and try to burn the offending tree out.  They can evidently clear a tree hung up by simply applying power.

[Ron Scott]

We skid and haul across them all the time, but don't fall any trees near them. We also don't work, load or place landings/decking areas right under them. You sure don't want to hit a line with your boom.

It's always a good practice to let the utility companys know if and when we are working in their right-of-ways. They will sometimes want us to fall any hazard trees near their power lines for them, and they will come out and turn the power off while this is done safely.

Awareness should also be given to gas lines as well.

[nhlogga]

done it before. no problems. i would agree with 630 tigercat and not rut them up. at least not too much. just make sure the poles don't accidently become bumper trees :D

[ely]

probably safer under those lines than anywhere else in the vicinity of them. the power lines usually have two sheild wires over the top of the phases. called the static wires or even neutral wires. anyway they are pretty good at transferring the lightning to the ground. just wouldnt want to be touching the poles or other equipment pertainimng to the powerlines while its storming or otherwise.

one other thing. depending on the size of the power lines and the humidity and the closeness of the lines to the earth. you may want to pay attention and not park any big chunk of iron like a skidder or a loader or even a pickup under or near the lines. as they can and frequenly do charge up like a capacitor if you will. waiting for someone to come along and discharge them.  usually only happens to me. but it will cause you to wet your pants. ;D

[Tombstone]

ely,

  That is some great information, thank you much! I plan on just grabbin my hitch and pulling across so there wont be much idle time underneath if at all.................if that were to happen I imagine i might do more than wet my drawers I would surely need new ones! :D

[mike_van]

One of the scariest things I ever saw in my 35 years with CL&P happened one hot summer day - The 345 KV line runs across our district, about noon it 'took a shot' We all got called to start patrolling to find what caused it. Out in one of the r.o.w.s, we found a poplar tree that had grown an inch too tall, and the line over it had sagged an inch too low because of the heat & load. The tree [what was left of it], and the ground around it for 50 ft were scorched black, like lightning had hit.  We had to cut the tree off at the ground.  One of the few times there I wished I had a desk job.  Between most highline towers is burried whats called a 'counterpoise wire' Bare copper that runs from tower to tower. If you tear it up skidding, would be a good idea to let them know.  I don't know where Tillaway is from, but here, no line ever got closed back in intentionally to try to clear a fault. You could have a wire down & kids riding bikes down it, how anyone could ever do that without a visual patrol is beyond me.   

[Fla._Deadheader]

Maybe things have changed since the 60's when I was a Lineman. The substation has/had relays that would trip when a fault was detected. After 5 seconds, it would re-energize the line. Still faulted, it would wait 5 more and re-energize. Still faulted, it would then stay open circuit, and the countryside would remain out of juice until we all did our search.

  I had pieces of GLASS, made from the 230,000 line that did this, right outside the substation.

  Parts of NJ are nothing but sand. Pieces were the size of my forearm, and over a foot or 2 long.

  I quit before the higher voltages became more common.  : ;D ;D

[Chuck White]

I had my WM LT40 set up under the high tension lines last summer and sawed out over 20,000 board feet of lumber and again this year and sawed out 7,500 board feet.

Any time we'd shut down for a break, we could hear the buzzing overhead.

The only thing we didn't like about it was that if you touched the truck, you'd get a static shock.
Didn't get a shock when operating the WM though.  I figured that was due to the WM being well grounded!

Chuck

[Tombstone]

been pulling hitches with no problems, other than being wet still!!

[markct]

as mike said the lines sure can do some incredible stuff to trees, we have a set of power lines going thru a right or way on our property, about 6 or 7 years ago in a big ice storm we were all awoken in the wee hours of the morning to a huge explosion sound, that was a large tree branch falling on the line and taking down the wire! it took till that evening before cl&p got the permits and all to move there oversized tracked boom lift in to go into the soft ground out there. hey mike whats with all the money they spent putting in access roads finaly after all these years dragging 10 wheel trucks thru the mud with a dozer? they came and put in just over 2000 tons of gravel in our land building a nice road up thru, thats surely alot of money they are spending all over the state. it is a nice addition to our property tho since now i can get to my firewood pile year round and also plan to tap more maple trees this spring since i can now get up there in mud season with that fine gravel road

[ely]

harold, the substations work the same way today only with a small bit technology.

on our transmission lines they are set like distrbution lines with what we call a 3 shot. if you get a fault like a tree that falls through the wires it generally will flash once and clear itself.
if it for sure hangs up it will hit 3 times before it locks out on the breaker.
if you are unfortunate enough to get a piece of equipment in contact with a power line, just stay on the equpment and the power will not get you. its when you step off that it kills you.
if you absolutely have to get of because of a fire or whatever, be sure and jump as far as you can away from the equipment.

when we work on the side trees in our area we call dispatch and have them put the line on 1 shot. just in case we get something into the line.

mike, on the topic of them heating up the downed power lines, it happens more than you care to believe. be aware.  like harold said, i have seen where 138 lines were down accross a creek in a sand bed. they kept heating it back up until the sand built up around the wire like glass, then the line held the rest of the night. rain the next day tripped it out again. thats when it was found.

mid 90s in southern missouri those guys would look for outages at night by throwing the lines back in on the distribution. crazy at best dangerous i promise. the smartest people are not necessarily in charge.

[sawmillsi]

Just saw these posts.

I work next to powerlines in australia every day.

we work in specially insulated elevating working platforms allowing us to approach to within about a meter from powerlines upto 66,000 volts.

we work around 11,000 volt lines most commonly (and low voltage - up to 1000 vots) and if the trees are above the lines we usually have the '3 shot' turned to one shot, meaning that the power company will only put through one spike of electricity to try and clear the lines, not 3.

won't stop us getting fried, but protects the lines. they are aluminium here in australia and melt through real easily.

gpt a picture, but can't remember how to post them

[Autocar]

We have a 765,000 volt transmission line just north of me and farmers have drag chains on all of there equipment and if you live so close they come into your house, barns, ect and ground everything. And like someone spoke about before don't park to close or your get a charge and a half !

[Bobus2003]

I did Powerline Reclamation work for 6 months last year with a Dozer and Disk, Disked under the powerline for 96 miles, making 3 passes, never had a single problem powerline related.. The buzzing is kinda intimidating at first, but ya get used too it.. plus its a cool way to tell humidity  :D

[sawmillsi]

i don't like working near the 66kv lines, the buzzing gets to me. strange, the trees that get to within 3 feet of the 66kv lines just wilt and turn brown - guess i'll do the same later in life working so close. beats mobile phone radiation for sure  :D

[bill m]

In my area the utility company will not let anyone work under their power lines unless they are doing work the utility co.

[Chuck White]

In my area the utility company will not let anyone work under their power lines unless they are doing work the utility co.

But in most places, the power companies don't own the property under their power lines, they only have a right-of-way (ROW).
So, in effect they have no control over what goes on under the power lines, as long as it doesn't disturb the lines or the towers!

[Bro. Noble]

I have to work under utility lines cause that's where our sawmill operation is.  They told me I shouldn't have put it there-----that was 15 years agoor more :D :D :D