You can’t be ready if you don’t have the right
tools.
By Larry Kotars
(From Article that appeared in the
November 2005 issue of Utility Products)
One of the greatest lessons from the aftermath of
Katrina and Rita has been an old one. You cannot be
ready for disasters unless your crews have been provided
with the right, usable tools for making repairs and
re-installing power lines. Reports of the unpreparedness
of some utilities have been disturbing. Many (including
REA-CO-OPS and major, investor-owned utilities) have
had their tool sheds full of tools from more than
40 years ago. We have seen crews dispatched to Louisiana,
Texas and Mississippi with tools that are less than
adequate to complete a successful job. If every utility
takes the time to ensure its employees have the best
tools and products available, the job will probably
be done right, with no accidents and no unnecessary
downtime. Your customers love it when their power
goes back on in a timely fashion!
One company that has been making and marketing battery-operated
tools for 15 years (Huskie Tools) has been surprised
by the lack of good equipment for some utility crews.
As their national sales manager, I have been on site
and visited many utilities, to show them the models
we make for professional linemen. Solidly built tools
seem to be very low on the priority list of essential
equipment. Our company policy has been to design payback
within nine months for any purchased battery-operated
tool; we’ve always been a leader in innovation for
tools for utilities.
We are now on our 40th new product introduction and
the first to be mentioned should be the new In-Line
Tool. It is battery driven (especially useful after
disasters when there may be no power available at
the site you must work) and is an open jaw ND style
compression tool that offers a powerful six-ton output.
It will accept the full range of W-type dies. The
snub-nosed, double-groove jaw has a D3 nest die and
a BG nose die. It accepts all W and X type dies. That
snub-nosed design is smaller than the jaws used on
Huskie wooden-handled tools; it is ideal for work
in tight spaces. The swivel head design lets the jaws
rotate more than 180º, to suit the operator. There
is no need for another battery system because this
new tool operates on the same 14.4-volt battery used
for all Huskie Robo tools. And, just as for the rest
of our battery tools, energized lines will not affect
the operation or performance of this In-Line Tool.
Another interesting innovation is the Huskie REC-5ND
six-ton battery-powered Compression Tool with a 13/8”
jaw opening. The REC-5ND has a design with a snub-nose,
single groove jaw that uses D3 nest dies and will
also accept both W and X type dies. This tool is used
to crimp commonly-used service entrance connectors,
including lugs, sleeves, H-taps and C-taps. Smaller
than Huskie wooden handled tools, its compression
head rotates more than 350º. In addition to its rapid
advance feature, the new REC-ND has an electronic
counter that allows a service technician to read the
number of compression cycles the tool has made. Durability
of this tool has been improved with a new housing.
The sidebar handle on the RECX-585YC battery-powered
Scissor-Type Cutter allows the user to stabilize and
balance the tool for the best results. This cutter
has a 3.3” opening and is designed to cut copper and
aluminum cables, as well as lead sheathed telecommunications
cables. The extremely large jaws and scissor-type
blades mean easy cutting of large underground cables.
This tool also has a built-in bypass cartridge to
avoid cutter damage of those cables that are beyond
its capacity. The open jaw design lets the user scoop
up cables that are against a wall, on the ground or
in hard-to-reach places.
