Service drop wire buyers in Tennessee
Triplex and quadruplex service drop from utility service crews and meter work, bought in small reels, coils and cut lengths by size and construction. Small lots are welcome, particularly when the sizes are sorted before we look.
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.
Service drop is the smallest conductor on the system and by far the most numerous. Triplex and quadruplex assemblies run from a pole to a weatherhead or a meter at 600 V, in sizes from #6 AWG to 4/0. A crew uses a few hundred feet at a time and the reel goes back on the truck.
Because the quantity per job is small, the material accumulates in small reels and short lengths. That is the lot we buy: a shelf of part-used service drop, some of it still tagged, some cut and hand-coiled, all of it 600 V and nearly all of it identifiable from the print.
Forty small reels in a corner is a real quantity of metal and a real amount of shelf space.
Lot basics
- Construction
- Triplex and quadruplex
- Voltage
- 600 V
- Sizes
- #6 AWG to 4/0
- Conductor
- Aluminum, some copper
Triplex, quadruplex and what is inside
Triplex is two insulated phase conductors twisted around a bare neutral messenger. Quadruplex adds a second insulated conductor so it can serve a 120/240 V single-phase service with two hots. The neutral is usually an all-aluminum alloy and carries the mechanical load of the span, which is why it is never left out of the assembly.
Aluminum is standard on utility service work because of weight and cost. Copper appears on older services, on some commercial meter loops and where customer equipment calls for it. The two are easy to tell apart at a cut end, and they are priced very differently, so they should never share a line on a list.
Where service drop material comes from
Service crews replace drops when a customer upgrades a panel, when a tree takes one down, or when a service is moved for a rebuild. Each job leaves a partial reel behind. Meter loops on new construction consume full reels of quadruplex, and what is left returns to the store room with its tag and footage intact.
Contractors doing overhead-to-underground conversions collect it too, usually in mixed sizes. These lots are rarely large on their own, which is exactly why they sit. A shelf of forty small reels is a genuine quantity of metal and a genuine amount of space that could hold something else. Once the shelf is full, the material is worth a call.
Small reels, hand coils and cut lengths
Footage on a small reel comes from the tag or from weighing, since weight per thousand feet is consistent within a construction. Cut lengths are weighed as well. There is no practical way to measure a hand coil and no reason to try, because the scale reaches the same answer in less time. A bathroom scale and a short batten are enough for a hand coil.
Sorting by size is what makes a small lot quotable. A shelf of #6 and a shelf of 4/0 are different products with different buyers, and mixing them means the whole shelf is priced at the lowest common denominator. Size and construction come first; footage comes after. A mixed shelf is priced as the smallest size on it.
Palletize it rather than bagging it. Coils laid flat on a pallet and banded by size load in minutes, and a card on each pallet with the size and an approximate footage takes the guesswork out of a quote. Bags of mixed coils are the slowest thing to buy and the first thing to be discounted.
- Neutral messenger is part of the assembly
- Copper and aluminum never share a line
- Small reels are weighed, not measured
Questions sellers ask
How much service drop is worth collecting?
Collect it as it comes back rather than deciding reel by reel. Single short pieces are awkward on their own, but a shelf of them from a season of service work is a normal lot for us. The practical threshold is space: once the shelf is full, the material is worth a call.
Is copper service drop worth more than aluminum?
Per pound, yes, considerably, because the metal content is different. Copper service drop is also less common, so it is worth keeping separate and identifying clearly. Mixed coils of the two are priced as aluminum until somebody cuts an end and proves otherwise, which costs the seller.
Can triplex be used for anything other than a service?
It is sometimes used for short overhead runs to outbuildings, yard lights and temporary construction power, always at 600 V or below. It is not rated for direct burial and should not be used as a feeder inside a building. For those applications the correct product is a different cable.
How do you tell #6 from 4/0 without a tag?
Measure a phase conductor across the insulation and compare it with the print if any survives, or strip a short length and measure the conductor itself. Service drop sizes step in recognizable increments, so a caliper and a size chart settle it. Weight per foot confirms the answer.
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.
A shelf of service drop?
Tell us the sizes and whether any of it is copper, and send one photograph of the whole shelf.
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