How I Replaced my Power Line from Overhead to Underground

hello and welcome back to my channel as you can see that telephone Pole's got quite a lean to it I don't know how long it's been that way and that's probably why my wire's so low but it's always been too low to put my RV under so I've always wanted to fix it and on this episode that's what we're going to do so I got to start by digging a ditch so buckle up it's going to be a wild ride okay first thing I'm going to do is drive some steak next to this pole and then I'll run a string line from this steak to my building and then I'll mark the ground with some paint to uh indicate where I need to dig the trench so let's run this to the building okay next time next step is to put a steak right here for this end of the string now the problem I got is my elevation is low in the middle and this String's going to be way off the ground but I'll deal with that when I get to it if you watch my video on me re installing my pump you'll know I bought the wrong paint to paint that pump cuz I like this color but it's it's for a inverted painting which is what I need now so that's what I'm going to use for this you know if it ain't one thing it's another I got this tiller on the tractor here but won't take me long song I can get it inside and switch them out let's [Music] go that didn't take long let's go dig [Music] all right I'm all set up here but with this tractor to start digging you got to turn the seat around so there's a little lever right here and now the tricky part is stepping in these front levers here push down these little uh extension legs all right I'm not totally centered up so use your bucket to help center you [Music] [Music] sh wow that was a little bit more of a struggle than I thought it was going to be almost too much for this little tractor to handle I'm I don't know if I've ever dug anything that deep with this tractor about as deep as it can go but I got it so now all I got to do is glue that pipe together put it in the ditch with a string in it and the inspector will be here at 10:00 in the morning tomorrow so not much left to do today but put that pipe together let's go for it all right I need to pull this string through the pipe after I get it all glued together so what I'm going to do is make a little pig so I'm going to cut up a whole bunch of this this and glue them together and then suck it through the pipe with a vacuum cleaner you know I've never owned a hot glue gun before but a few weeks back I said you know what I might need one of those so I think this is the perfect opportunity to try it out so let's see what it does all right let's see how this goes I've never never had a glue gun before so I'm just going to put a little bit of glue stick it on put a little bit of glue stick it on I need a way to put to uh attach my string so I'm going to run this little wire on and it'll be glued between this last one so we'll stick it here up against there and then glue this on then I'll make me a little Loop right here to tie the string to well let's see how this [Music] [Applause] works well that little pig test was fairly successful I'm pretty sure it will go through through 100 ft of this pipe if not I'll figure out some way to get that string through it so what I'm going to do is make this glue joint push this pipe out make another glue joint and just keep pushing the pipe out until I have all these things glued up I have my electrical PVC cement I bought this a while back I know it's pretty small little ball thing under the there I'll just keep putting more and more glue until I think I got it so let's see how it goes [Applause] what see if we can get this pipe in the ditch got it kind of reminds me of that gutter somehow I got to get this pipe in the ditch get it in its correct position mark it and then bring that one up and cut it and hope I don't cut it too short let's see what happens all right I want to mark it right here here I think I'm a little long but I'd rather be long than short so I'm going to cut it right there all right I know this is not super critical but I made me a little wrap around here out of a Dr Pepper box probably won't be able to cut the line anyway [Applause] [Applause] well started going off well I'm we're going to pull this board and drop this in the hole oh it's too short H just kidding just set this on here turn on my vacuum go feed the pig here we [Music] go got it well before I back fill what I'd like to do is strap this to the wall exactly the right height and orientation where my new can is going to sit and and that way it's in position to uh to receive my new meter box so what I need to do is pull this little stub off got it let me drop this little pig in and this little piggy went to the other end of the pipe no got my straps cut got some little spacers my two straps and a bunch of bolts okay this my expansion joint is going to go about right here so I got to make sure my first strap I think I'm going to put it right in in line with that so if I do that means I need to remove it maybe I'll go right below that and I'll put a strap just right below that all right uh what I'm going to do is put a bolt through here through here shouldn't have done that like that and then one of the spacers and then through the hole the washer my little my little spacer goes back behind here into the hole next thing you do is just put the next one on up here rinse and repeat so let me do it for this end I'm going to take this extra piece of pipe I have stick it on the end of this uh uh 90 coming out of the out of the uh ditch ratchet strap it to the pole so nothing moves while I'm back fing so I've already got my string run through it there we go yeah I'm going to have to uh make a little bit more of a spacer at the bottom so we can get a good tight fit against the pole but let's go ahead and strap the the top on and then I'll measure uh the block for the bottom cut me a little spacer now let's see if I can get this in there without anything falling in the hole now I'm ready to back fill all right well it's bright and early the next morning it's time to back fill now this first 30 ft is going to be covered with a driveway uh I'm going to pour cement and I really really don't know how long it'll be till I do that so what I don't want to happen is for it to settle after I've poured the cement and leave a void so for my best chance of getting the this not to settle so much is I'm going to put as much sand in here as I can and try to pack it down as good as I can uh it's such a deep ditch that packing close to the bottom is not really easy once I get closer then it's uh you know higher up then it's easier and then when I'm really high then I just drive my tractor over it but um let's start filling with sand and see how much I got it looks like kind it looks like a Whole Trailer Load to me but we'll see [Music] [Music] all right I'm going to get this out of the way well I got a little bit of sand in here to start with let me uh do some walking on this and try to pack it down the best I can and then I'll add some more sand I hope this is going to do what I wanted to do um I know I can pack this sand a lot better than I can uh black dirt so I think I'm doing some good only time will tell let me start packing [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right I got my piece cut it goes right here and then this will go on this but I'm going to leave this off just so if they would want to pull their wire with just this stb it won't mess this thing up but if they want it on I'll put it on when they get there now this is schedule 80 and it's got this line on it can't see it where you're at but they have to be able to see that line I put this on temporary if you recall now I'm going to take it off and put this one on it's also schedule 80 see the line I've already got my spring string run through my pieces so let me just glue them together oh put the line to the outside side and we are ready for them to kill my power now that I got my ditch covered up I got to get ready for disconnect reconnect day and I don't want to be stumbling around trying to figure out how to get all the work done because I want to get it reconnected the same day they disconnected so I'm going to get my so I have here I have my uh box that my meter is going to go in my meter box so what I'm going to do is get it ready for the two little uh connections that will be going to it so let me uh stand it up and then knock this out now that I have that cut out all I got to do is put this on and lock it in place all right we're going to put this in here there's some shadow lock that on and then a little protector there okay that one's ready now for the 2in okay rinse and repeat uh wonder which okay it looks like the inner one see if I can do this without destroying the outer one all right that's the innermost uh let me get another tool I'm trying to knock this ring out without knocking this ring out so what I'm going to do is just see if I can weaken this good got it now all I got to do is drop that in and put a ring on let's do that I've got this box uh all ready to go now let me go see what steps I can take to mount this box on the wall and be ready for that it's been several days since we back filled and leveled out all that dirt so now they're going to disconnect my power tomorrow so before we do that I got one last thing I got to do and that's run a second ground rod so I have a ground an old ground rod still here but they say I need two of them and they have to be 6 fet apart so I'm going to go on the other side of this door and put it in another ground rod okay I've got the tape measure laid out and that's sitting about 8 ft right there so that's plenty of room and I think where this Ridge is is where I'm going to drive it in that way in the future I'll know where that ground rod is if I ever want to get to it okay I'm all set up here I've got the rod started in a hole that way will finish Underground Level and I've got my drill here set on Hammer only uh it's going to be hard for me to keep this level but I'll do my best probably just do it by eye because once I get it in the ground it really doesn't matter because there's only such a small part sticking out so I'm probably not going to worry about it that much all right let's see what happens it's going might take a few minutes [Applause] forgot to tell you I bought this special adapter for this drill and it's like Hollow there and it just sits over the uh end of the pipe there probably could have made one but it was so easy just to buy one I don't know if this will help but it can [Music] hurt all right I think I'm going to stop there if they want it deeper I'll do it tomorrow well the day has finally arrived for disconnect reconnect the power company has just arrived so we set up the camera to get a few shots of their work the paperwork they gave me instructed me to run that string line through the pipe so we did so we did what they asked and then they didn't even use it they just pushed the wire in by hand oh well and then just like that they cut my power well the power line guys just left they finished running their wire for me to to hook up now so my first step is to get rid of this and get rid of this box take this off so we can run new ground wire hook up our new box our new cable and everything and then we got to call them back out turn the power back on so I got to do all this without power but I think I got it so let's get to it all right I took the uh took my wire off up there took all the loose everything's loose let's see if this box will come off the wall oh I don't have that nut off yet there now it's off oh don't have this off yet hold on a second I need a screwdriver and a hammer now let's see if it'll come off it's not breaking yeah this ground wire is giving me problems let me you want to undo some screws and then we can manipulate the wire got it all right now that my box is off I got to to prepare this box to go on so uh I took that connection I had and just reused that one so I'm going to level this off and then Mark my holes which I don't have a Sharpie so I have a great assistant and he's good at uh handing me things thank you well it took a little bit but we finally got this box mounted LOL came by so he lent us a hand so our next step is is we're going to put this expansion joint on and then figure out the length of our next pipe let me pull this up to the line Y so we don't forget that step okay okay L likes to do the math part so I like to let him 29 and a half remember that 29 and A2 plus two plus two 31 and2 31 and A2 when I when I when I point to you that means tell me plus two plus two 33 and A2 33 we're going to cut a piece 33 and A2 all right we're going to glue this last last joint put as much on the inside as I can and the majority will be on the outside watch your fingers they're going to get glue on them I think that'll work oh yeah oh yeah okay I don't know where I left off last but I had to stop recording and not show you every single step because I'm short on time because my power is off to my house right now and they said I can't call past 3:00 because that's overtime or whatever they said and I wanted my power back on as soon as possible so we got really close all I got to do is hook up my ground wire and put my straps on to hold this so I went ahead and called I don't know if you can hear the operator in in the background say I had a 17-minute wait time so while I'm waiting for them to pick up so I can order my reconnect I'm going to finish my uh wiring on this just got to hook up this ground hook up this ground hook it up down there and uh brackets brackets yeah thanks James uh and I think I'm just going to hook all that up off camera and uh bring it back when it's done [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] woohoo [Music] I'll pack this in later but I think that completes another successful video I really enjoyed making it and like I said earlier I'm sorry that you didn't get to see every single step of putting this all together we are we were on a time crunch to uh get this done so we could get our power back on and I just didn't want to take the time of setting up the camera and all that so anyway I hope you enjoyed it and if I'm lucky I'll see you next time on my retired life hear yeah scared the out of me [Music]

Channel: Stephen Moore-My Retired Life

Views: 3,272

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Id: SxK-P1nV0j8

Length: 36min 44sec (2204 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 02 2024