Re-setting Electric Pole & Panel Pictures

   / Re-setting Electric Pole & Panel Pictures
  • Thread Starter
#11  
We then unscrewed the 200A panel, RV jack, and 120V receptacle from the pole and removed them all as a unit.
 

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   / Re-setting Electric Pole & Panel Pictures
  • Thread Starter
#12  
After I removed the two 2x4 braces, the pole wobbled all around by just pressing 2 fingers against the pole. I chained the pole to the FEL and lifted it out of the ground. The 1/2" block nailed to the pole gave the chain something to grab onto without slipping when lifting upward.
 

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   / Re-setting Electric Pole & Panel Pictures
  • Thread Starter
#13  
Once I had lifted the pole out of the ground with the FEL, I was in a bit of a pickle. I couldn't lay the pole down on the ground using the tractor because the bottom of the pole would hit the radiator guard on the front of the tractor when leaning the pole forward. Therefore, I leaned the pole against this tree.
 

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   / Re-setting Electric Pole & Panel Pictures
  • Thread Starter
#14  
I then inspected the empty hole that the electric pole was in. The hole had been dug only 8" in diameter. Since the pole is 6X6 (5.5" square), there was only a maximum of 1.25" between the pole and the side of the hole on each side. There's no way you can tamp in dirt on the sides of the pole with such a narrow clearance. Dirt had only been tamped around the pole at the top 4 inches of the 2 foot deep hole. There was not even any dirt touching the pole the bottom foot of the hole. This pole would never have stood straight up once the 2X4 braces were removed. I was very glad I had decided to re-set the electric pole.
 
   / Re-setting Electric Pole & Panel Pictures
  • Thread Starter
#15  
Now the real work begins. I wanted to dig the hole as deep as I could dig it. I was thrilled when I was able to dig 4 ft deep before hitting rock. Being able to set the post that deep made me really happy. Not far from this spot, we only have 6" of dirt on top of the solid sandstone base. When finished, the hole was 12" in diameter at the top and 18" in diameter at the bottom of the hole. The inverted bell shape is supposed to help resist the freezing and thawing effect that will push a pole or post upward and out of the ground.

Digging this hole was very difficult work! The bottom foot of dirt was packed hard. I had to dig the bottom of the hole while on my knees. That's why I'm wearing knee pads. It was tough to scrape the sides of the hole with the post hole diggers in order to enlarge the hole at the bottom. Today I bought a digging bar. It sure would have helped last week when I dug this hole. But that's the way things normally go. I work myself to death and then go buy the right tool after I'm done.
 

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   / Re-setting Electric Pole & Panel Pictures
  • Thread Starter
#16  
Here are two of my helpers. Look at how helpful they are being. They are not dead, I promise.
 

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   / Re-setting Electric Pole & Panel Pictures
  • Thread Starter
#17  
Now I had to figure out how to move the pole from leaning against the tree to lying on the ground. I tied a tow strap around the post and put 1 inch boards around the conduit to protect it from being broken.
 

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   / Re-setting Electric Pole & Panel Pictures
  • Thread Starter
#18  
Here I am smiling at the camera. Y'all can thank DW for this shot.

The stuff on the ground was left on the property by some real nice folks.
 

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   / Re-setting Electric Pole & Panel Pictures
  • Thread Starter
#19  
I tied the tow strap to the FEL and pulled the pole away from the tree. In the position shown, I decided to lift the bottom of the pole by hand to see how heavy it was. To my surprise it was very light. I figured out later that the pole weighted only about 80 lbs without the electrical gear attached.

We laid the pole on the ground and removed the meter box. I intended to cut off 2 feet from the conduit above the meter box and re-assemble the meter box, mobile home panel, RV jack, end 120V receptacle two feet higher on the pole (to account for the hole that was 2 feet deeper). However, we noticed that the conduit was glued to the threaded plastic collar at the top of the meter box so we couldn't re-use the collar. Consequently, we removed the conduit from the pole and put all the electrical pieces in the truck to take home with us. We would purchase the required parts during the week and return the next weekend to re-assemble everything on the pole.
 

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   / Re-setting Electric Pole & Panel Pictures
  • Thread Starter
#20  
I put 4 inches of gravel in the hole to drain water away from the bottom of the pole. We then carried the empty pole by hand and placed it in the hole.

Next I poured some Quikcrete in the hole and tamped it firm. I then poured more Quikcrete in and tamped some more. After pouring in an 80 lb bag, I poured in 3/4 gallons of water. I repeated the process until I had put 3 bags in the hole. This filled the bottom 2 feet of the hole. I wished I had one or two more bags of Quickcrete. However, I had not expected to be able to dig a 4 ft deep hole.

For the tamp, I used one of the handles we removed from the post hole diggers. This tool was woefully inadequate and about wore me out. The handle was barely 4 ft long so I had to tamp one handed until the hole got shallower. The tamp was also only 1 inch wide. The digging bar I bought today is 6 ft long has a 3" tamp on one end of the bar. But that didn't help me last week.
 

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