Aerial spacer cable buyers in Tennessee
Covered conductors held apart on spacers under a messenger, bought with the hardware that makes the system work and the reels that outlast it. The messenger and the fittings usually decide what the bundle is worth.
Send us your reel list
Six details are enough for a first review: what the cable is, the metal, the size, the footage or reel count, the condition and where it sits. Photographs can follow by text or email. There is no fee and no obligation, and nothing moves until written terms are agreed.
An aerial spacer installation is a bundle of covered conductors held apart by molded spacers and hung from a messenger, and the wire is only part of what makes it work. Take the spacers away and what remains is covered conductor with an unusual insulation profile and a set of hardware with nowhere to go.
Most of what we buy comes out of older installations being rebuilt. The conductor is frequently sound while the spacers have gone brittle, and the lot that reaches the yard is a mixture of usable reels, salvaged spans and a crate of fittings somebody could not bring themselves to discard.
Lot basics
- System
- Covered conductors on spacers
- Voltage
- 15 kV and 25 kV classes
- Messenger
- Galvanized or alloy strand
- Lot includes
- Conductor, spacers, ties
A spacer system is more than the wire
Spacer cable uses two, three or four covered conductors held at fixed spacing by molded polyethylene spacers and suspended from a messenger strand. The spacers keep the conductors apart without crossarms, which allows a narrow right of way and a low profile through trees. The messenger carries the tension; the covered conductors mostly carry current.
That division of labor is why the hardware matters at resale. A reel of spacer cable conductor without spacers is covered conductor with an unusual insulation thickness. It can still be used, but only where someone holds the fittings or is willing to string it as tree wire on conventional construction. The two products are quoted on different scales for that reason.
What older installations leave behind
A good deal of spacer cable in service dates from decades ago, when the system was adopted for narrow rights of way and wooded subdivisions. When those lines are rebuilt, the conductor often comes down in long spans, still bundled, and the spacers come down cracked. The conductor outlives the hardware by a wide margin.
That produces a lot holding two values. The conductor is priced on footage and cover condition. The hardware is priced as hardware where it is identifiable and intact, or as aluminum and steel scrap where it is not. Listing the two separately is what gets a fair number for both. A crate of fittings is not a rounding error in these lots.
What a spacer cable lot should include
List the conductor first: construction, size, voltage class and footage per reel, plus whether the cover has been checked for cracking. Then the messenger, which is strand and is bought on size and grade. Then the hardware, counted rather than weighed where it is still serviceable. Lengths per span matter as much as total footage, because the spacers are set for them.
Photographs of a spacer still on the conductor, the messenger end and the reel tags answer most of what we would otherwise ask. If the lot is being taken off a line, say whether the spacers were cut or unfastened, because cut spacers are scrap and unfastened ones can sometimes be reused. A photograph of one spacer answers most of that question.
Messenger condition is easy to overlook. The strand carries the whole bundle, and a messenger corroded at the ties or kinked by a falling pole changes what the conductor is worth, because the spans cannot go back up without it. Photograph the messenger ends as well as the conductor. A messenger that has been cut is sold as strand on weight, which is a different sale.
- Conductor footage and cover condition
- Messenger size, grade and length
- Spacers and ties counted, not estimated
Questions sellers ask
Can spacer cable conductor be used without the spacers?
It can, on conventional construction as covered conductor, provided the insulation profile suits the hardware being used and the voltage class matches. What it cannot do is work as part of a spacer system without the spacers. If you are selling conductor only, say so, and we will price it as tree wire rather than as a system.
Do you buy used spacers and ties?
Yes, when they are intact and identified by size and conductor configuration. Spacers are molded parts with a limited life in sunlight, so we check for cracking and for the locking tabs. Cut or sun-cracked spacers go with the aluminum scrap, which is still a sale but a different one.
How do you identify spacer cable on a reel?
By the insulation. Spacer cable conductor carries a thicker wall than tree wire and is printed with the system it belongs to, along with the voltage class and size. Where the print is gone, measure the wall at a cut end and compare it with the spacer groove it was designed to sit in.
What condition should salvaged spacer spans be in?
The cover should be continuous and still flexible, with no cracks at the bend and no abrasion through to the conductor. Spans that were dropped rather than lowered usually show kinks that rule out reuse. Coil them loosely and keep the messenger with the span it came from.
Send us your reel list
Six details are enough for a first review: what the cable is, the metal, the size, the footage or reel count, the condition and where it sits. Photographs can follow by text or email. There is no fee and no obligation, and nothing moves until written terms are agreed.
Spacer cable coming off a line?
Tell us the voltage class and the footage per span, and photograph the spacers as well as the reels.
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