No mobile homes in the Philippines

[Bruce]

I have seen at least 2 large trucks here with rebar welded to the front bumper and then arched back over the cab / load as to gently raise and slide under the low hanging power / phone wires. Somebody was thinking!

Sure was, did you like the fireworks show of sparks??? :unsure:

No fireworks as the truck is isolated via it's tires.However, I assume that in the past, that truck or the owner of the truck had pulled down enough power lines that he thought to build the rebar sloping back to allow the truck to slide under instead of grab the wires and pull!

As I work with our power company almost every day I can tell you now there would be sparks if the metal was hitting live un insulated lines and the tires wont stop that.If the re-bar is covered in a plastic pipe then should be OK unless the wires clash together.Ask Tom

Since it takes 5,000 volts to ark 1/4".... and the average tires are 5" off the road and with 4+++ tires making road contact to further difuse the voltage, I don't think there would be any sparks as the route to the ground is a very poor conductor..... Now, I certainly would not want to touch the truck as it passed by....Here is a couple of questions for Ask Tom.... 'Does water conduct electricity? Is oxygen flamable?

[Jollygoodfellow]

I have seen at least 2 large trucks here with rebar welded to the front bumper and then arched back over the cab / load as to gently raise and slide under the low hanging power / phone wires. Somebody was thinking!

Sure was, did you like the fireworks show of sparks??? :unsure:

No fireworks as the truck is isolated via it's tires.However, I assume that in the past, that truck or the owner of the truck had pulled down enough power lines that he thought to build the rebar sloping back to allow the truck to slide under instead of grab the wires and pull!

As I work with our power company almost every day I can tell you now there would be sparks if the metal was hitting live un insulated lines and the tires wont stop that.If the re-bar is covered in a plastic pipe then should be OK unless the wires clash together.Ask Tom

Since it takes 5,000 volts to ark 1/4".... and the average tires are 5" off the road and with 4+++ tires making road contact to further difuse the voltage, I don't think there would be any sparks as the route to the ground is a very poor conductor..... Now, I certainly would not want to touch the truck as it passed by....Here is a couple of questions for Ask Tom.... 'Does water conduct electricity? Is oxygen flamable?

Hmm well as you know everything Bruce and you work with live linesmen each day I cant argue with you. Funny you know Bruce, I see sparks fly under safety working conditions and its usually when two live lines clash accidently and then what happens Bruce it blows the fuses in the houses at the same time,sometimes burning out the wires causing them to drop but hey what would I know,oh look at that my job for tomorrow, Energex (our power company) 05.30 start.Good thing we killed the power this day.

[Bruce]

I have a friend from the south of London. He is about 65 and an electrician and was 'apprenticed' properly in the old days. He worked for 20 years or so in South Africia as a foreman for a big electrical contractor.He tells a story (I am cleaning it up here) that he had a crew of Africian laborers digging a trench alongside a highway. One man had a pick axe and swung in down and hit a buried cable. The resulting dead short melted and blew off the steel head from the wood shaft. Along with a huge blinding flash of sparks.My friend said the last he saw of the 'laborer' was a set of white Wallabies running full speed down the road. The man never even came to get his last check, so it was assumed that he thought he had done something wrong!

[Tatoosh]

Considering the number of expats that would like to own a home but are worried about losing it if they break up with their wife, some sort of modular setup that can be disassembled seems like a great idea for a business. Learn the ins and outs of land ownership and leasing, so the wife or more likely her family can own the land but the financial source (husband) can hold a valid lease for it if he's worried. The house can be assembled on a permanent foundation. If he decides to go, he can take the house, leaving only the land and foundation. Or at least resell the house for use else where. Also given the variable quality of construction here, a high quality modular unit seems like an easy sell. I visited one building site. The hosts house was done and they were having a housewarming. But across the street the developer was putting up the next house. Another expat motioned me over and asked me to take a look at the hollow block that was stacked up waiting to be used. A couple of them had fallen off the stack and broken. Picking up a piece of the broken hollow block, I gave it a squeeze between my thumb and fingers. It crumbled apart. With just a firm squeeze. What a joke! I mentally made a note that if we use hollow block, we either make it or test it before it is used. No trusting the architect or builder's reassurance that they are using "quality" materials.

[Old55]

Shipping a single wide over to Philippines would in most cases cost more than a block house built.

[i am bob]

Shipping a single wide over to Philippines would in most cases cost more than a block house built.

HAHAHA! Somebody always comes out with the most obvious reason that the rest of us never even thought of!!!Nice call!!! :cheersty:

[Tatoosh]

Yeah, that is quite true. I was thinking of some sort of locally made unit with good quality control or some basic conversion of shipping containers that could preconfigured (kitchen/cr unit,open wall units)and then modified to individual requirements. Trying to bring units in from the USA would be very uphill. Maybe from China? They seem to be making everything for everybody these days and not quite so far to tote.

[Old55]

The real reason moblehome/trailers are not allowed in Philippines. Edited February 18, 2012 by Old55

[Bruce]

The real reason moblehome/trailers are not allowed in Philippines.

Looks like North Carolina to me! Nuttin' says White Trash like a single wide trailer! Hey... pull up some of Jeff Foxworthy's trailer pics....... :attention:

[Dave Hounddriver]

Nuttin' says White Trash like a single wide trailer!

I owned and lived in a single wide. Not once, but twice. First time for a year and the second time for 3 years. Both times right after a divorce where the wife took the nice house and left me with nothing. But my ex wives would agree with you about the white trash statement.But single wides today don't look like the old stereotypes. They look like this pic, they are up to 22 foot wide, and they cost about $150,000 Edited February 18, 2012 by Dave Hounddriver