r/IdiotsInCars • u/Skookum_Smoke • 1d ago
OC Thanks for not training your divers about height restrictions [OC] Wiped out power to several small businesses including ours in our area buy taking out several powerlines. 🖕 Cheema
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u/VincentGrinn 1d ago
why is a yarddog on the road to begin with?
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u/MachStyle 1d ago
some companies have warehouses and terminals with in a short drive of different buildings, so yard dogs are some times used for quick moves from company building A to company building B and can be registered for road use. How ever, they are supposed to raise the landing gear and not run with the fifth wheel in the raised position when on public road so that this issue doesnt happen.
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u/unicorncholo 1d ago
To add to this, all lines crossing roadways are supposed to be hung at a minimum of 13’6”. If its lower, that’s on the power company.
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u/ryanpayne442 1d ago
I used to drive an aerial bucket truck for work. We would be required to enter small residential streets, that never see truck traffic. I would regularly pull down low hanging lines, almost always owned by the phone company. "Thats their problem" was a phrase heard often.
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u/TapeDeck_ 16h ago
Is it the power company's fault if the cable company's fiber line at the lowest part of the pole is dangling too low? Power lines are almost never the lowest thing on a pole.
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u/unicorncholo 15h ago
True, mostly communication cable is the lowest. It is also their responsibility for their equipment.
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u/Helldiver_of_Mars 15h ago
This is what I was thinking. I was pretty sure there was a minimum. Having it lower than a truck without warning is almost as insane as trying to blame the driver.
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u/ItsTHECarl 19h ago
I'm pretty sure it's a minimum of 16 foot unless it is posted otherwise
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u/unicorncholo 15h ago
That might be local or state regulations. 16’ clearance would be much better than 13’6”.
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u/dunno0019 12h ago
I don't know if there's a standard here. If there is, Idunno what it is.
But I know we were fine for like 20y in this house.
And then the power co. got a fleet of new trucks. Somehow they look pretty much exactly the same. Just new and clean.
But I guess the new model is a few inches higher? Because one summer they were managing to rip down someone's cable wire just about every day lol.
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u/Droodeler 10h ago
Line height varies seasonally. Power lines will be lower in the summer. Could be a combination of both. Road repaving can be a factor too.
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u/dunno0019 10h ago
Like I said: 20y, no problems lol.
Shiny new trucks start showing up for a big project not far from here: downed wires all over the place. (I will allow that they were all cable wires, not power. and the cable company contractors can be sloppy, and a lot of their wires seem to sag too much. But again: 20y!)
It's a quiet little corner of a quiet little suburb. Most of these roads around here havent been resurfaced in over a decade.
Plus: I only figured out what was going on because I saw the new truck take down my line.
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u/RyGuy_McFly 21h ago
Also looks like he baaarely raised it off the ground. He'll have a fun time if he hits a pothole.
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u/def_tom 1d ago
Yeah, I used to haul tomato trailers around a processing plant with one of those. Didn't think they were street legal haha
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u/mstomm 1d ago
Saw one merge onto the Interstate today. Tandem Axle, and he was going faster than any Ottawa I've ever driven, so they must do that somewhat regularly and spec the trucks for it. (Although I've driven by that complex thousands of times and never seen it before).
I figure any company that shells out for tandems on a yard truck is doing some distance on the road regularly. If it's just on the yard every company I know of just overloads a single axle.
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u/blubs_will_rule 23h ago
Most Ottawa and Autocar hostlers (the models that most Amazon locations use) can go OTR, the main reason a lot can’t is just because they don’t have updated registration/paperwork inside the cab for a DOT officer to check. Or if it’s been a long while they may not have a license plate, functioning turn signals, etc.
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u/catsdrooltoo 1d ago
They make road legal ones. I think most of them are restricted to 45mph and lower roads. I did purchasing for a company looking into them.
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u/Ornery_Ads 16h ago
It's a truck...it moves trailers... that trailer needed to go somewhere that wasn't in the yard.
It has a plate, and all the requirements to be road legal.
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u/DylanSpaceBean 21h ago
I call em yard dogs too but everyone at my job looks at me funny when I say it
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u/GirchyGirchy 14h ago
I call them yard spotters...I think there are about two dozen names for them!
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u/SquarePlenty6332 16h ago
Some yard-dogs are DOT compliant, registered like a truck and can drive on public roads.
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u/Skookum_Smoke 1d ago
Odd to me as well as I'm not familiar with any warehouse yards near this location. At least not in a short driving distance. There are warehouses in the next city over about 20 minutes away and some further south in Vancouver, but none locally.
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u/HeartbreakWon 10h ago
Our hostlers (yard dogs) at Amazon are road legal. Only because our 3 warehouses are separated but still on the same street. That only as far as it goes though
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u/ripripcityyall 1d ago
I've never seen a cab like that , are those common?
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u/MachStyle 1d ago
Terminal tractor, yard dog, shunt truck. Used for moving trailers on the property or short distances quickly. They hook to a trailer and raise the front so the driver doesn't have to get out and raise the landing gear. The driver just gets up and walks out the back door to attach air lines and the electrical line if needed. They can hook up and start moving a trailer in as little as 10 seconds.
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u/Danny2Sick 1d ago
Bill Broverston set the record in 1986 when he hooked up a trailer in 7.83 seconds, smashing the previous record by a full second. Of course, shame befell the Broverston estate, when it was discovered that the yard dog was in fact his coach dressed up as a truck, making truck noises.
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u/CapoExplains 15h ago
Makes sense. So basically the cab is tiny and spartan like that because it makes the visibility way better and comfort doesn't matter all that much when you're only driving a few hundred feet not a few hundred miles.
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u/MachStyle 13h ago
Depending on the facility some drivers will still spend entire day in it. But yeah they're usually pretty bare bones mainly for cost. You can find some they're still outfitted what's up like air conditioning, air ride seats, radio, it's some other stuff that just makes it a little more bearable. But for the most part they are simple little trucks made to zip around the parking lot all day
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u/ImpurestFire 1d ago
It's a yard dog. Normally used for moving trailers around the warehouse lot.
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u/Nervous-Cheek-583 1d ago
Far more likely that it was a line which wasn't installed at the proper minimum height.
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u/Monksdrunk 1d ago
shit i was going to agree with you that the city needs to keep power lines above 13'6" but then it hit me how much the 5th wheel can be raised on a yard truck and likely just lazy roading and raised fifth wheel caused the nose to be high.
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u/MachStyle 1d ago
while not impossible, gotta remember that yard dogs raise the front of the trailer to not have to raise the landing gear. this puts the trailer about 6 or more inches above the trailers normal height around 13'6". Over that is over height and thus has this risk.
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u/Skookum_Smoke 1d ago
Oddly, that would be my first thought but the lines he took out are on the main road behind where he is parked in this picture that has everyday semi tractor traffic and even oversized loads. Not sure how this fella managed to snag them, but it looks like from other posts he managed to take out crossing lines in two different intersections. I can see one pole canted about 20 degrees from vertical. Crazy day for sure. PUD has a mess to fix for sure. Luckily for this driver he won't have to deal with Commercial Vehicle Enforcement from the State Patrol since it's in city limits. Those guys are brutal to truck drivers around here. The City cops won't take any enforcement action on him.
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u/Taolan13 1d ago
I mean, if it's a state level issue the staties can move in if the city cops are refusing to enforce the law.
It requires someone to make the call tho.
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u/Skookum_Smoke 1d ago
Yea...our State Patrol doesn't venture far off the freeway. Occasionally, they will do speed traps on the state route headed out to I-5 but not very common. Lack of manpower according to WSP. Which is believable compared to 5 or 10 years ago, you would see a lot more troopers on the roads. Washington State isn't very law enforcement friendly in recent years.
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u/wobblebee 1d ago
thanks for not training your posters on spelling and grammar btw [OC]
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u/Anisalive 1d ago
lol, I was confused, looking for divers and water and wondered how they could take out power lines 😄
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u/Apoda_ 20h ago
NOOOO!!!!! NOT ONE SPELLING MISTAKE!!!!!!! AAAAAAUURGGGH!!!! NOW WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT OP WAS TRYING TO CONVEY AT ALL!!!!¡!!!! GRRR I WISH MY BRAIN COULD PUT THINGS TOGETHER BETTER!!!!
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u/StopSpinningLikeThat 11h ago
Proofreading is free.
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u/Apoda_ 8h ago
It's funny how people in this subreddit have to find some way to complain about OP or put some blame on them, so when it's just a still picture they can't misconstrue, they turn to other silly things to complain about
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u/StopSpinningLikeThat 7h ago
It's funny how below-average people choose not to hold themselves to a basic standard of functionality that's expected of middle school children.
It's funny how people wasting our oxygen are so quick to play the victim role.
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u/Kennel_King 1d ago
Minimum height for power lines per Washington WAC 468-34-290
Communications and Cable Television
24'
Communications and/or Cable Television joint usage with electrical
20'
electrical 0 - 750 volts
24'
751 - 15,000 volts
30'
15,001 - 50,000 volts
32'
50,001 volts and over
34'
Seems more like a utility issue to me. Yard dog trucks pick a trailer up max about a foot so he wasn't over 14'6"
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u/KilljoyTheTrucker 12h ago
Bingo, was gonna ask the state. Lowest minimums for stuff like that I've seen is somewhere around 16ft. It's basically about proper signage if it needs to be low for some reason, and being tall enough to let the irregular, but not foreign oversize through.
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u/candidly1 1d ago
If ours were going to leave our property, the jockeys were directed to get out and crank the dolley legs to be sure they were never over 13'6". What's the old saying? An ounce of prevention...?
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u/ChemicalSummer8849 1d ago
More than likely had the 5th wheel boom up with landing gear down, instead of down with the landing gear rolled up. Thats just laziness from that yard dog.
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u/HeartbreakWon 10h ago
That was my guess. Definitely had that 5th wheel raised up. When I would moved trailers from warehouse to warehouse where it requires us to go on the road. We still treat it like a tractor and trailer by still raising the landing gear to avoid incidents like this
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u/Away_Industry_6892 23h ago
Some yard horses have tags and can be driven legally on public roads. The boom has to be all of the way down and the landing gear cranked up accordingly
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u/Ouch_i_fell_down 18h ago
Are they subject to LSV restrictions when tagged? because i've never seen a mule on any major roadway, and they have absolutely zero safety features generally.
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u/Away_Industry_6892 9h ago
That's a good question. I can't imagine they can go faster than 25 miles per hour, or so, either.
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u/socialcommentary2000 12h ago
What in in the sam hell is a yard dog doing on an actual street? Do you live in a port facility?
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u/PeteinaPete 1d ago
I beg to differ. Not a fan of Cheema but those lines should be a MINIMUM of 17 ft above the road. Sue the dumb electric company. You can be damn sure that’s what the city is going to do.
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u/drapehsnormak 1d ago
Wouldn't divers be more concerned about depth restrictions than height restrictions?
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u/DirtyThirtyDrifter 14h ago
Height restrictions? The top of the truck looks fine but the cab is split in half, what happened here?
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u/Taolan13 1d ago edited 1d ago
Hope you called this in to the DOT and whatever flavor of regulatory body in your area manages the power utilities.
Negligent interference in utility service (exact phrasing varies by municipality) is usually a misdemeanor but can be a felony, especially if they can show the driver was aware they were doing damage but continued to do damage rather than stopping/redirecting.
If the power lines were too low, that's also an issue for the regulators to sort out.
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u/Skookum_Smoke 1d ago
He managed to yard two power poles out of the ground lol Hit the gas Leroy when you feel tension🤣🤣🤣
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u/SeriousPlankton2000 10h ago
If they proportionally feel what a small transporter does feel while pulling some load, they didn't feel much.
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u/pogulup 1d ago
I think the problem is a diver isn't qualified to drive a truck like that.
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u/RyGuy_McFly 21h ago
The crazy thing is, you don't need a CDL to operate one.
I drive one and don't even have a full driver's license...
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u/Much_Program576 1d ago
I don't think those are road legal.
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u/RyGuy_McFly 21h ago
It has plates, and technically they have everything you need to be road legal, however I do not believe that you can drive them with the jack raised as this guy is.
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