Don't try this at home

[Tom King]

I was going to put this in the WDYDT thread, but it was last Friday.

Pam and her Sister had just buried their Mother on Thursday. 

Pam's Sister's Daughter Carey has been in the hospital for a long time.  They had given up on her, and were sending Carey home on Friday.  Carey has worked for my Nephew for years in his jet ski business, so she lives not far away from our place.  BIL and SIL had just bought a new RV, and hybrid F150 to pull it with.  They asked Thursday evening if we had anywhere they could set the camper up so they could be close to Carey.  They pulled in Friday afternoon.  They could have stayed in our rental/guest house any other time, but we have renters in it for a week starting earlier that day.

I had an RV electrical box from years ago when Pam showed dogs, and we spent show weekends in the camper, but I needed to move the box to a better location.  Some property that came with our rental house has another electrical service that powers some sort of a little office building.  The only thing we've done with that service is put a chest freezer in the office building, and put the service in our name.  I never thought about it.

Carey died at home soon after she arrived there while BIL and I were setting up their Airstream that they had never used yet.  Everything worked, and both air conditioners had cooled down the camper by the time SIL had taken care of what she needed to late that evening.

Finally sitting in my chair at the house, I get a call from BIL saying the power was out.  I went the couple of hundred yards over there, and troubleshot the electrical.  One leg coming in from the Power Company was dead, so I called Power Company repair.  They arrived a little over a half hour later, about an hour before dark.  When they pulled the meter to check what was coming down the pole, one side of the meter socket crumbled out in pieces.  The meter base was shot.  It might have been from the 1950's.

They didn't have a meter base on either of the two bucket trucks that had showed up, and said there was little chance of finding one after closing on a Friday.  I told them about the girls burying their Mother yesterday, and Carey dying a few hours ago.  I said I didn't want to get them to move.  BIL was powering the Airstream with the F150, but that was not a long term solution.

I asked the guys if they would reconnect the wires they had cut coming off the overhead lines if I replaced the meter, and they said they would.  I had the meter base on the scrap metal pile that I had pulled off the rental house when I upgraded the service from 200 amps to 400 amps.  The power company guys said they wished they could help me, but they really weren't allowed to.  They watched as I worked.

The old meter base on the pole was a 400 amp.  The meter base I had was a 200 amp.  The hot wires were plenty long enough, but the ground wires, coming into the socket from the top and bottom were too short by a couple of inches.  I had to take some conductors out of the 400 amp aluminum service entrance wires to fit in the 200 amp sockets.  

I needed to lift the breaker box to get the ground wires into the lug sockets, and would leave the breaker box hanging on the wires. Even after that lifting, the conduit connecting the two boxes was too short....  I couldn't lift the breaker box by myself.  The power company guys tried to help but could only get it up about halfway.  There were several wires in conduits down in the ground.  I told the guys I knew they weren't supposed to help, but if the boom on that truck happened to be under the breaker box, and lifted up, either something good or bad would happen, but it would be my only chance.  In about 5 seconds, all I heard was, "Yes Sir".  They had a strap they used.

It took me about 15 minutes to get the hot wires trimmed, and in the lugs.  They hooked the wires back up overhead, and plugged the meter back in.   Everything went to work like it should.

I tried my best to give each of the three of them a hundred dollar bill, but they wouldn't have it.  They all shook my hand and left.  

The freezer is still working, and the Airstream is cool.  I plan to put a whole new 200 amp pole there with a permit, conduit, and everything proper when I get the chance.

This is the first time I've had to sit down and type this out since then.

 

[wtnhighlander]

Tom, there has been a lot of grief in your family of late, and you are an awfully good "in-law" to do so much to help them keep it together. God bless you, and all of them.

[Mark J]

+1

[Chestnut]

I"m sorry to hear about your families difficult situation. It's nice that the utility guys were willing to help out and get things working, that doesn't always end up being the case.

That is a beautiful looking rig, the camper not your meter socket and box job. Your part looks like a good fix for the situation, that old equipment looks like it's seen a hard life in the sun.

[Tom King]

Looks like it had taken a lightning strike too.  That breaker on the right is blown apart, the black wire burned in two, and a hole blown through the inside cover over the breakers, and it was well rusted so that happened a long time ago.  I don't think there is anyone alive that knows the history of it, or why it was originally a 400 amp service.  I don't think I had ever opened the cover on that box before.

Thanks for the comments.  I just keep doing what needs to be done.  Some days are more of a fight than others, but it often seems like I'm getting help.  Nothing but dumb luck that I had that extra meter base.  

I think they slept for over 20 hours in the camper that night, and well into the next day.

[Ronn W]

You gotta do what you gotta and you did it well.