things could hardly get worse for me at this time!!!

[Raivis]

We were woken up @ 3 on SUn. Morning to power surges and then it went out totally. Finally at 4:30 we get power back only to discover that half our house is without power! So we assume that the surges blew breakers completely . We get those, doesnt fix it ($70 down then, luckily we could return those.) Spend the afternoon trying to find prob, finally get electrician friend of ours out to look. Turns out the line that goes underground to our house is blown, needs to be replaced. Problem now is getting someone out here to fix it. I cannot cook, or shower (cant use hot water heater), very few outlets work, and no freaking AC and we needed it yesterday. I have no clue how long it will be before our guy can fix it.We get lucky to a point b/c he wants one of my in-laws jack russel puppies and might do the work in exchange for one (they are gonna sell them for $300) but we will be paying for the materials and it might not be until the end of the week or even the weekend before they can do it.I am so stressed right now its crazy plus I am still tired as hell from being awake from 3am to 12pm yesterday. Why is life so crappy? Seems like every time its going ok it turns to hell for me.any local vibers wanna lend a hand???

[kevera]

That sucks man.The key to it all is not to get stressed about it.It just makes things seem worse.Easier said than done,I know.I'm surprised the city isn't responsible for the underground wire,at least where I'm from they are.

[Sublimewind]

Wow, that sounds a bit fishy.... I would call the power company, they are responsible for the underground IIRC... It seems just to odd that if the line was "blown" that you would have certin outlets working, I could see possibly one of the "legs" going down and you would still have 110, but not 220, which would likely run the hot water heater and/or AC, but it seems really strange to me.... Call the local power comapany and get a second opinion, I mean it WAS there power that blew the line... Sorry, things are going so crappy, these things happen in life though...

[keithvibe]

at least you have your health... i'll trade ya a power outage for family member who has breastcancer and yet another that is looking at open heart surgery?want to trade?

[kunkstyle]

Do you still have power to the Wii and TV? Just because you can't shower with hot water doesn't mean you can't play Mario Kart. Sorry to hear about the electrical problems. Hope it gets fixed soon!

[WaveAction]

that sucks to hear, hope you get it fixed asap

[Raivis]

it was one of the legs that went bc there is an underground splice. its our problem bc the meter is on a pole in the neighbors yard (trailer park) so anything between the pole and our house is our problem. nope no wii or tv thats one of the outlets that is not working. we could move it but we are afraid of overloading one of the other breakers. on a good note im moving!!! bc we had to go into the other yard i happen to see that their trailer was up for sale. bonuses are: its a double wide so more room for the kids and all our crap, it has a working a/c (we have window units now), front porch instead of steps, and and extra half bath. its like right behind ours now so it wont be hard to move. as soon as our money transfers and we fix this electric problem we will start to move. any local vibers wanna help carry furniture over the fence??? we could have a cook out afterwards or something. too bad i don't live in the high vibe traffic areas like some of yall. i could move in a day then!!!lol

[lovemyraffe]

That sucks. I hope everything goes well.

[02csnow]

My question is - why is there a splice underground?Both legs, the neutral and ground should all be grouped together in one cable. So there should be no splice. Is it just your trailer with this problem or are the others?What all did your electrican friend do. Did he put a meter on the lugs inside the panel. Checked voltage, amps, and all that.Did you or he actually see the splice?

[Raivis]

my friend came out and put his meter on the panel box out side (just below the meter on the pole) and we had both 120 legs. when we put the meter on the two legs in my breaker panel only one had 120 the other had nothing. the wire at the box outside is bigger then whats in my breaker box.

[02csnow]

Well if there is a splice, it is not gonna be underground. It has to be somewhere where it is accessible. There is a chance that the meter has gone bad. When the power went out it may have sent a surge to the meter and blew something in it.I am use to working with more of the higher voltage and 3 phase, so I am not potsitive on all it. It is hard to determine the problem without seeing it. There is also a chance that the one of the lugs in your panel box could have broken up and has no contact to the bus bars.

[MRCN RCE]

damn dude, sorry about your luckbut congrats on finding a new place that's right next to you

[nygiantzz1]

Something doesn't sound right with the wiring to your trailer. As Mike was saying, there shouldn't be any splice underground or otherwise. Tell your friend (electrician) to run a new feeder cable from the pole to the breaker box. It will be the cheapest (and safest) way to solve the problem. Inspect all the legs at both ends for signs of damage (rust, burn marks, etc.) before you pull the new cable.

[Sublimewind]

Quote, originally posted by 02csnow »Well if there is a splice, it is not gonna be underground. It has to be somewhere where it is accessible. There is a chance that the meter has gone bad. When the power went out it may have sent a surge to the meter and blew something in it.I am use to working with more of the higher voltage and 3 phase, so I am not potsitive on all it. It is hard to determine the problem without seeing it. There is also a chance that the one of the lugs in your panel box could have broken up and has no contact to the bus bars.I was thinking that very same thing actually... I've found MANY of loose connections in plenty of places, heck, me and an electrician friend, both worked for a local company at one time... We went around to all of the electrical panels in the building (which wasn't a small task) and out of say 300 connections, we found 100 to be loose..

[Raivis]

we actually tested the wire not the lugits an illegal splice im sure but its 25 yrs old

[Sublimewind]

That sucks man, I would have your friend go through the panel anyway... I would also help move if it wasn't a 11-14hr trip... Love them mountains though...

[Raivis]

well good news. bout $100 later and 4 days but it is fixed. i finally dug up the break this morning. what happened was a tree root had broke through the wire casing and since roots carry water it ate through the aluminum. i think sund morening (3am) we had a surge and that was the final straw for it. so now thats fixed i just gotta sell this place now! im either selling or subleasing this one so i can move on up to a double wide!!! more room for playing wii!!!