2001 - Volume #25, Issue #3, Page #6

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Old Plow Used To Bury Power Lines

Old Plow Used To Bury Power Lines TILLAGE EUIPMENT Plows 25-3-6 Overhead power lines can be a hazard, especially when you're moving augers and big machinery. But, as Brian Lesiuk and his father, Ted, learned, contracting with electricians to bury them could be hazardous to your pocketbook. "We wanted to bury the power lines around both our farmsteads," Lesiuk says. "Not only was it going to be expensive to have it done, but it was going to be months before the electricians could get around to us." Determined to get the job done for less, the Lesiuks turned an old moldboard plow beam into a trencher and buried about 700 ft. of wire themselves. "We mounted the beam on an A-frame we made to fit on the dozer mounts on the front of a Case 1070," he says. They cut off the moldboard so it didn't turn the soil and added a piece of pipe behind it that is bent backward to feed the wire down through. Using some 2 by 8 lumber, and some scraps found around the shop, they built a bracket to hold a reel of wire. He says it works great in most soils, but adds that in hard clay soils, he had to make two or three passes with the plow, laying the wire on the last trip. "We can put wiring as deep as 20 in. with it," he says. "The plow beam has a shear bolt in it. If we should happen to hit something, it won't damage anything." He says it's come in handy for other uses, too. For example, "Last summer, I used it to lay an aeration line to a manure storage dugout," Lesiuk says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Brian Lesiuk, RR 1, Gilbert Plains, Manitoba R0L 0X0 Canada (ph 204 548-2695; E-mail: blesiuk@mb.sympatico.ca).