Sheared neutral

[hillbilly1]

This was an overhead drop from a disconnect on the service side, over to a barn 50’ away. They said a tree limb fell on it, breaking it loose. It broke all of the aluminum strands, but the steel core held. Looks like they were still using it for a while, as the steel strand was discolored from overheating. No burn marks on the hots. I would say running it through the insulator, instead of attaching to it, did the damage. The insulator was attached to a rotted 2x4 nailed to a tree half way down the run. Don’t know why they did that, span was high enough, and not over the drive.

 

[Fred B]

Without speaking to why when height was adequate, technically a violation of 225.26, but they probably thought they could bypass that by saying "It's not attached to the tree, it's attached to the 2'x4".

 

[hillbilly1]

Without speaking to why when height was adequate, technically a violation of 225.26, but they probably thought they could bypass that by saying "It's not attached to the tree, it's attached to the 2'x4".

Probably the tree swaying, may have caused a lot of the wire damage, especially when it was run through the insulator, not attached to it. What started out as a small wire replacement job, ended up replacing the fused disconnect, and the fuse panel in the shop as well! Also adding a grounding electrode at the shop where there was none.