What do you guys/gals use for re-connecing cable at weatherheads?

C

clemver

Member
Location
PA
Occupation
Electrician
Where Im at, when we do a service changes/upgrades, disconnect and reconnect at the weather head is on us. The POCO can't be bothered to come out to cut and reconnect.

Coming from a company where the owner swore by Insulated bugs, that's all I've ever used. Now that im out on my own, I want to start using crimps. Have a few questions on those:

-from what I've seen online the crimps are size specific. I know id be getting ones with either 4/0 or #2 on one side (really only doing resi right now), but the other side its always hard to tell what size POCO ran to the house. Do you typically just keep on hand an assortment of size?

-what crimper do you swear by? Manual is fine but if there's a battery powered out there id be interested.

-overall, what is in your hand when you go to crimp a service cable at a weatherhead? (What type of crimps, what type of covering, what type of crimper, etc)

Thanks!
 
I always use split bolts since they're only temporary. Crimps used to be cheaper once you purchased the tool but I'm not sure that is still true.
 
AC\DC said:
Linemans around here just crimp and tape tape-

Well, I found the time and effort it takes to do that. A Polaris is just as cheap.
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Interesting, I've been getting Polaris bugs for like $26 a piece, $75 to reconnect seemed unnecessarily expensive but maybe im wrong
 
POCO gave me the single-use bugs when I got my meter pan from them (PSE&G requirement). They cut them off and re-terminated two weeks later when they re-ran my overhead service drop because it was from the Eisenhower administration. :ROFLMAO: Their cost, not mine...

Polaris taps are a good idea, but you'll loose them when the POCO eventually notices and connects with their bugs.


SceneryDriver
 
SceneryDriver said:
POCO gave me the single-use bugs when I got my meter pan from them (PSE&G requirement). They cut them off and re-terminated two weeks later when they re-ran my overhead service drop because it was from the Eisenhower administration. :ROFLMAO: Their cost, not mine...

Polaris taps are a good idea, but you'll loose them when the POCO eventually notices and connects with their bugs.


SceneryDriver
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I used Polaris connectors once and since they weren't covered in tape I figured that I could reuse them. I left the linemen a note in the meter pan to leave the Polaris connectors behind and that I would pick them up when they were done. They must have had a good laugh becuase they were nowhere to found the day after they made the permanent connections. 🤣

If they were cheap I would use them all of the time for this connection. No taping, insulated, tighten in two seconds with an impact gun.
 
Little Bill said:
We can't touch the conductors from POCO here. Can't even pull meters.
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I've heard that from a lot of different locations. I've had to grind off barrel locks because we couldn't for the life of us get the POCO to come out and unlock them. Im talking waiting weeks for even a reply from them and getting nothing, or a "yup we'll meet you out there" and then nobody shows. Won't give us a key, and wont unlock them 🤷‍♂️
 
clemver said:
I've heard that from a lot of different locations. I've had to grind off barrel locks because we couldn't for the life of us get the POCO to come out and unlock them. Im talking waiting weeks for even a reply from them and getting nothing, or a "yup we'll meet you out there" and then nobody shows. Won't give us a key, and wont unlock them 🤷‍♂️
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I had a few similar problems. Called and scheduled for the lock to be removed during the week. I show up 7 AM on a Saturday to rip out the old service and the ring is still on the meter. We didn't have a grinder that day so we ended up cutting the meter pan cover off with a Sawzall and left the ring still attached. Another time the meter had one of those through cover locks in the cover of the meter pan. I had to use a 1 1/8" hole saw without the pilot bit to drill out the cover around the lock.

I feel your pain. :)
 
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