What is the homeowners objection to your changing the drop to four wire quadplex or equivalent? If it is just the additional cost then he/she is being penny wise and pound foolish. If there are any livestock on that farm they are begging for stray current problems by using a three wire feeder. Stray currents can cost thousands of dollars in livestock production. Many years ago I was on a dairy wiring job when I noticed a cow trying to sneak up on her water cup. The poor thing was getting a shock due to stray current each time she tried to drink. Once I converted all of the feeders to four wire and got the utility to put in an isolation transformer production went up sharply. It took me a while to find and clear all of the old work that had been bonded to the neutral but once I did the only remaining stray current was coming from off premise. When I showed the Public Utilities Commission engineer the Amprobe clamp on current reading of the current flowing on the main bonding jumper with the service equipment open he ordered the utility to clear up the problem within seventy two hours. They installed an isolation transformer to separate the farms neutrals from the Multi Grounded Neutral of their distribution system. If we hadn't cleaned up the farms wiring first the utility would have claimed that the stray current was coming from the farms outdated wiring system.
