[TowerTalk] Insulators

[Jim Lux]

At 08:53 AM 7/20/2007, Ron Todd wrote:
>Does anyone know what the rating is on the insulators that the power 
>company uses so far as how much tention that can be put on them ?
>The ones I have are about 4 foot long.

Strings of cap and pin insulators like these:
http://www.berkshireinsulatorgallery.org/assembly.html
??

They're usually marked with a tension rating, which depends on the 
size and application.. However, some  thousands of pounds wouldn't be 
unusual: Consider it might be supporting 4 strands of a 2" diameter 
ACSR (that's basically a steel cable with an aluminum outer jacket) 
that spans hundreds of feet.  For non-US insulators, the load might be in kN

You can dismantle the strings to make shorter strings, by the way.