How not to pull ribbon cable

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armadillo_115

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Jun 10, 2015
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Virginia
I figured y'all might need a laugh so I'll tell on myself. Sorry for the length:

My ribbon cable and ground wire have not been buried yet.I had inserted it into some scrap 4" perforated plastic pipe near the driveway as extra protection in case some visitor drives across it by accident...so keep that in mind.

Today I decide to move my non-running tractor to the front of the house in preparation for felling a tree out back. I can do it by myself I say.Don't need help! So I hook a chain to the truck and start pulling it.Pull a little,walk back and adjust the steering wheel. Repeat several times.I pull it the length of the house no problem.
Did I mention that the side of the house is the only LEVEL spot? :facepalm

I don't need no help... remember? I can hand roll it down the slight decline.ONLY need to go about 15 ft. Grab a 4x4x8 to use as a wheel chock. So I lay the post about 3 ft behind the tractor,release the brake,and ease it back to the post/chock.No problem.
Repeat 2 or 3 times...working good so far. Heck...I got this about licked,I think.Only need another 3 or 4 foot and I'm done.Well ...................................
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One of the lower hitch bars catches the post and scoots it forward...tractor keeps rolling.... I leap onto the tractor to pull the brake.Except it happens to be the exact instant when a rear wheel decides to jump the post. I have one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the hand brake...my feet assume a near vertical position when that wheel bounces over the post.My head goes down into the foot well. The tractor is gaining speed as I bounce around like a Mexican jumping bean....

I finally get right side up and reach to apply the brake...but....

That darn hitch bar has snagged the ribbon cable and pipe first.Wraps around and starts yanking it out from under the house! I get the tractor stopped and go inside to check the damage.

The ribbon cable has yanked the VBox off the shelf and pulled it tight to the floor. The HDMI cable got snagged by the ribbon cable and broke the connector off inside the tv port. (Luckily it broke there inside of jerking the 39" flat screen off and breaking it too!)

I unhook the ribbon cable and pull out enough slack to unwrap it from the tractor.Then crawl under the house and push it back up thru the hole to the entertainment center.Whew...this simple tractor rolling job is getting tiring.

Upshot is...nothing appears damaged except the HDMI cable.I removed the broken end from the tv port with pliers and hooked up a new HDMI. :hatsoff2 That ribbon cable must be some pretty stout stuff.

Everything is back to normal except I'm a bit sore from learning how to Break Dance on a tractor.Oh...and the tractor is about 20 ft further down the hill than desired. :oldmad

I think I'll get a helper before moving it THIS time.lol
 
Thanks for sharing your adventure! I busted out laughing so hard that my wife looked at me like I was nuts! :D Seriously though, glad there was no major damage and that you are only sore - could have been much worse.
 
Thanks for sharing. GLAD you didn't get hurt!
 
LOl, your coax is probably now stretched to RG-59 size, haha!

Just kidding, or am I? ...

I don't believe it stretched the cable any,but it pulled out about all the slack in both directions.Another foot or two would have done some damage.Either break the coax connector on the VBox or break the cable ties holding the coax to the dish.

I will be keeping an eye on how it functions for a while.It could have nicked the insulation somewhere under the house while being pulled. The 4" pipe runs thru the access hole in the foundation...so the ribbon cable was protected in that area. Possibly the last 5 foot could have been scraped going thru the hole in the floor.

Pulled the tractor back up the hill with my daughters help this evening.

BTW; I picked up a used 3.5 inch schd40 pole (9 ft long) at the salvage yard today. Now I need a 3" pipe to go inside it for a strong dish pole. Also got some copper wire for grounding.
 
You didn't screw up you started a new project. Use this as a blessing in disguise when the wife is mad at you for something now you can go and get away from her.
 
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