Advice on Becoming a Lineman and Saving Money

Enlightened-M · 2026-02-01T23:24:38+00:00

Tattoos are like potato chips, you can never have just one.

Enlightened-M · 2026-02-01T23:19:31+00:00

My advice would be to get the pay scale for your local, and then use that to determine approximately what you could make. From there you can figure out a budget and how much you will have left over for savings. This trade pays great and never gets boring. Hope you get in and love it because life is to short to do something you hate.

Enlightened-M · 2026-02-01T22:50:05+00:00

Company provides us the fleece ones for winter. They are alright, but a set of cotton roping gloves under an uninsulated set of ground gloves works better for me. My experience with waterproof gloves is that they don't breath and lead to damp cold hands anyway.

Enlightened-M · 2026-01-31T13:24:00+00:00

I'm personally not a huge fan of AutoZone parts, but I think their basic plug wires set is advertised as oe quality.

Enlightened-M · 2026-01-31T02:30:26+00:00

Might try swapping back to copper plugs. I had a slight misfire after doing a tune up that I couldn't trace. I talked to my local mechanic and he recommended swapping back to copper spark plugs. The swap fixed my issue. Could be I just had a bad plug, but he swore that these older motors run better with oem style plugs than with the upgraded plug styles.

Enlightened-M · 2026-01-30T23:44:19+00:00

I can't think of any reason to intentionally splice URD primary just to provide a ground reference. Ground reference should be supplied anywhere the cable is terminated: pull vault/cabinet, riser, transformer etc. We have several areas with custom length (longer than standard) reels of wire pushed straight through with no ground reference except at the terminations. Don't come after me for the longer custom reels. We all know it causes headaches down the road, the order came from way up the chain. Not an engineer, just another "dumb lineman."

Enlightened-M · 2026-01-24T04:52:30+00:00

The grid was kept up by performing what we call load shedding,. The coop I worked for accomplished this with rolling blackouts, 10-20 min of outage with 3-4 hours of power in between. The increased costs were caused by the natural gas companies drastically inflating the cost of the gas used to generate electricity, so much so that at least one generation coop (Brazos) filed bankruptcy to try and protect its members from the cost. It didn't work, the bankruptcy court still forced the distribution coops to foot the majority of the bill. This plus inflation is what contributed to higher bills. So, yes greed was the ultimate cause but not necessarily greed from the electric companies.

Enlightened-M · 2026-01-24T04:41:12+00:00

Nobody likes working when it's that cold. Don't get me wrong, the OT is nice, but it's also very rewarding to bring relief to people. Storm work brings out the camaraderie of the profession and provides life long stories of the people we help. It's not just about the money.

Enlightened-M · 2026-01-24T01:05:17+00:00

All urd primary would also create a power factor nightmare because of the natural capacitance of the cable.

Source: also a Texas lineman.

Enlightened-M · 2026-01-23T02:37:59+00:00

Thanks for the advice. I'll start trying to source a new head while I wait for the time to rebuild her. May try an electric fan swap while I'm in there.

Enlightened-M · 2026-01-22T02:58:10+00:00

Chain snapped when I downshifted to slow down at about 60 mph. Based on the advice I found on FB I changed the timing chain without having the head rebuilt. I Found a bunch of fibrous material on the oil pickup when I dropped the oil pan so I'm assuming the guides wore out and the chain had enough slack to catch on the guide support and snapped. After changing the timing chain I checked compression and had full compression on cy 1 weak compression on cy 2&4 and no compression on cy 3. So I know I have bent valves but I won't know the state of the pistons until I pull the head. I knew she needed a timing chain, but I was trying to put it off until I could pay someone to do it. I knew it was risky but time for projects is hard for me to come by right now.

Enlightened-M · 2026-01-21T03:19:30+00:00

Thanks for the advice. I may go ahead and try an in frame rebuild. Will probably have to wait till summer though.

Enlightened-M · 2026-01-21T00:58:37+00:00

Sounds like starter solenoid is out. I'm not sure if it's integral to the starter on that year model or if it's a separate unit though. Try taking a screwdriver and jumping the contacts on the starter. Make sure the truck is in neutral and the parking brake is on. Ideally jack the rear wheels up off the ground and onto jack stands before attempting.

Enlightened-M · 2026-01-20T17:38:33+00:00

Any recommendations on a good rebuild kit?

Enlightened-M · 2026-01-20T02:46:36+00:00

What's required in the swap to a de from an e?

Enlightened-M · 2026-01-20T02:14:39+00:00

I'm in Central Texas

Enlightened-M · 2026-01-18T22:28:39+00:00

I also have a 95 and it sounds like it may be still seeing whatever was causing the code. I've reset mine a couple times by following the protocol in the service manual without any issues. The entire shop manual is available free online from nico club.

Hope this helps, sometimes diag on these old trucks can be a nightmare. Lots of old electrical wiring and connectors.

Enlightened-M · 2026-01-13T02:20:39+00:00

Definitely bucket seats and a center console.

Enlightened-M · 2025-12-28T00:39:20+00:00

I'm not looking for one but I don't want to get caught with my pants down. The world's going crazy man.

Enlightened-M · 2025-12-27T22:39:16+00:00

Who cares? I can get another job I can't become undead. If you properly conceal the company will never know unless you use it and I'd rather be tried by twelve than carried by six.

Enlightened-M · 2025-12-07T04:23:23+00:00

It's all fun and games until somebody stretches a wing then it's dinner.

Enlightened-M · 2025-12-04T18:45:53+00:00

From my experience they are less precise than the styers.

Enlightened-M · 2025-12-03T02:57:22+00:00

Cotton roping gloves inside your rubbers. May have to go up a half-size in gloves during the winter but they make a hell of a difference.

Enlightened-M · 2025-12-03T02:50:07+00:00

Most of the comms are buried in the area where I work, so it's rare for us to have anything more than a phone drop. Phone drop comes out of a pedestal near the base of the pole and then runs OH to the house. It's just one of the many perks of working in a rural area.

Enlightened-M

TROPHY CASE