My First Proper Menzi Muck Job

Introduction

This was my first proper Menzi Muck job. Before this, I had operated the A91 a bit on a bike trail site. The trail site was a great place to learn, with no time pressure and low consequences. This was very different. This was my first pole installation job. I was relying on the experience of the line workers to help guide me through the process, my job was to get the Menzi into position. When it came to moving the Menzi Muck around, I was still in the early phases of learning. It is funny to see how widely stanced I had the machine at all times. At the time, I didn’t know where the limits were, so chose a stance of max stability, which is less than ideal for a lot of reasons. I was not used to the air filled tires either, which allows the machine to lean.

First Location

The first pole was up a mountain road. Easy access up a 2-3 km mountain road until the last 100m. The ground was soft and marshy and the pole was perched on top of an outcropping of broken up bedrock and loose large rocks. Due to a combination of the terrain and where the other poles were, I had to position the machine below the pole we would replace, which can make the process more difficult, especially with longer poles (which this one was).

In Position for the first pole, early morning and in the clouds

Pole in position: the first site was rocky

Lineman climbing the pole

We were done by lunch, which was a great result for my first pole replacement. I was happy with that result, given my concerns from the morning.

Scouting and Moving

With the rest of the day, my task was to scout the next location and get the machine moved. The location was “right down the hill” from the first pole, so we went to the top to see the possibility of taking the machine down. Knowing that I had a much flatter but longer route as an alternative, I decided against taking the machine down the mountain into the valley.

The View down into the Valley

Menzi Muck on the trailer

The Second Day

The second day of this project was great. I had boosted confidence from the previous day and a 4km journey ahead of me, split equally: 2km on farming mountain road and 2km through some forest and up the marshy valley.

Crossing a creek

Once I got to the location of the pole, digging it out was a breeze, the material was nice, and the Menzi makes light work of digging in material like this.

Old pole removed

Note: This hole is large, I think there was a reason for digging it that big, I just forget what it was. I am writing this 5 years after doing it. Potentially removing old pole tops that had been burried.

New pole in place. It is secured to the horizontal peices to keep it from sinking

Working with lineman requires significant trust, careful actions, and good communication (any job will benefit from these though). It is important to lock hydraulics whenever possible, and to be clear about when you are going to move and how.

Securing the pole

The area after install

Closing Thoughts

I went into this project quite nervous. I was doing a precedure that I had not done before, with people I had not worked with before, in a machine that was unfamiliar to me. Despite that, everything went smoothly and at a good rate. I learned a lot. It is interesting looking back and seeing the things I would do differently now. We all start somewhere.