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2024-05-08 09:52:27
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 dannyabboud
 |  | Request: Manhole cover tips
< on 11/2/2004 6:06 AM >
|  | | | Anyone have any tips for opening a manhole from inside?
Thanks, Danny.
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-MisfitStyle-
        
| | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 1 on 11/2/2004 6:11 AM >
| | | | This belongs in Tutorials, Lessons, and Useful Info.
The only suggestion I can give is to push up on it as hard as you can. I've never heard of many people finding a different or better way of doing it. just be careful of what's on the surface  wouldn't want to get hit by a car or something
"I feel like I just got in a battle of wits with some kid in a helmet I found licking a window."
Need help? Please use the Contact a Mod forum — I'm slow to see PMs. |
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Inphenity
Gender: Male
| |  | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 2 on 11/2/2004 6:20 AM >
| | | | if its stuck because theres alot of dirt and stuff stuck between the collar and the cover then a few quick smacks with a rubber mallet might work ... i guess in a pinch you could use a maglight or something
... well yea actually this is a flashlight in my pocket .. but im still happy to see you |
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kc
Noble Donor
Location: Pueblo, Colorado
Gender: Male
"yah, im hangin the drywall at the new Mc. Donalds"
| |  | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 3 on 11/2/2004 7:30 AM >
| | | | yah, uh..puch it, and they open nicely. one thing i learned is to close your eyes when you push it up, unless you like crap in your eyes. 
Doing a job RIGHT the first time gets the job done. Doing the job
WRONG fourteen times gives you job security. |
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Freak
Location: Usually Alaska, now MSP.
Gender: Male
Hypocrite
| | | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 4 on 11/2/2004 7:47 AM >
| | | | Sometimes they're just unopenable, so don't wreck your back trying to open it A lot of the manholes on my campus are either paved over, welded shut, or just buried under a lot of dirt and rocks.
Turn off the internet and go play outside.
http://spamusement...hp/comics/view/137 |
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Mutt
Moderator
Location: Bunbury, Western Australia
Support your local Funeral Director ----- Drop Dead!
| | | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 5 on 11/2/2004 1:22 PM >
| | | | I've always wanted to bring a small dental mirror with me to use as a periscope. Better to have an idea where this cap is in relation to an approaching city bus tire. The possibility of that or other nasties keeps me fearful of popping covers from inside.
All men are cremated equal. |
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Grey_Fox
Location: London, ON, Canada
Gender: Male
I love me...
| | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 6 on 11/2/2004 6:55 PM >
| | | | I use a crowbar to open the manholes from a distance, because if you open the manhole by yourself you risk getting ran over. Using a crowbar puts you in less danger of getting turned into a bumper pattie, and months of physio.
"good old bunny and hand soup... just like mom used to make" |
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Freak
Location: Usually Alaska, now MSP.
Gender: Male
Hypocrite
| | | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 7 on 11/2/2004 7:23 PM >
|  | | | Posted by Grey_Fox
I use a crowbar to open the manholes from a distance, because if you open the manhole by yourself you risk getting ran over. Using a crowbar puts you in less danger of getting turned into a bumper pattie, and months of physio.
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So having a crowbar rammed into your body or thrown down the shaft at your buddies is better? I'd be interested in hearing your technique...
[last edit 11/2/2004 7:24 PM by Freak - edited 1 times]
Turn off the internet and go play outside.
http://spamusement...hp/comics/view/137 |
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Grey_Fox
Location: London, ON, Canada
Gender: Male
I love me...
| | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 8 on 11/2/2004 8:31 PM >
| | | | I have never figured that the crow bar would be rammed down at you because i open the cover where the cars bumper would hit it, therefore forcing the crowbar upward rather than down. and if it does not work proper, well most of my friends are assholes anyway.
[last edit 11/2/2004 8:33 PM by Grey_Fox - edited 1 times]
"good old bunny and hand soup... just like mom used to make" |
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-MisfitStyle-
| | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 9 on 11/2/2004 8:44 PM >
| | | | And how do you do that from the inside of a drain?
I'm really very interested in how you do this.
"I feel like I just got in a battle of wits with some kid in a helmet I found licking a window."
Need help? Please use the Contact a Mod forum — I'm slow to see PMs. |
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MacGyver
Location: St Paul, Minnesota
Gender: Male
"Someone go find me a paperclip, a D-cell battery, and a cheese grater"
| | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 10 on 11/2/2004 8:59 PM >
| | | | Sorry to those that have heard this rant before. I find myself driving this point home about once a month...
For practical purposes, it's never safe to open a manhole from beneath. From topside, you know exactly where the manhole is and what the conditions are like currently. From beneath a random lid, you have no idea if it's in a street, sidewalk, grassy field, or a freeway. Just because you can't hear traffic noises means absolutely nothing. Likewise, thinking you know roughly where a lid will be in the topside world is an extremely dangerous prediction.
I make a rule to never open a lid from beneath unless I know everything about it from above. In short, a good practice is to never open a manhole cover from below unless you have already opened it from above at least a few different times. This way you will be familiar with where the lid opens to and have some background experience about things that might vary in the environment.
There are several situations where doing something else is in order. If you're trapped in a drain with quickly rising water, your chances of survival could be better if you risk popping a random manhole than if you stay in the drain. If someone with you suddenly has a medical emergency, you would want to weigh that in. If you're just tired or someone is thirsty or wants to go home, find a safe way out. I don't want to have to read in the news about someone trying to open a manhole cover and getting killed or injured because a car came into the equation unexpectedly.
Here are some things that can happen to you if a vehicle is involved:
* getting the lid partway open and having your skull crushed by a truck or bus wheel that either drops partway into the already open hole or slams the partly open cover down into your body like a stovepipe damper.
* getting your arm and/or wrist crushed or amputated when a partially-lifted cover closes suddenly (and with great force) due to a vehicle's wheel driving onto it while your respective appendage is protruding through the crack or any other pinch point in the system.
* getting your collarbone/arm/wrist shattered by a partially-open lid being suddenly slammed downwards against a straining and locked elbow that is attempting to open the lid.
* having just about any of the above happen and then witnessing the cover shatter due to odd forces being placed upon it and having both a broken manhole cover and a vehicle wheel fall onto you, causing more injuries.
* falling down the shaft due either to pain or jarringness of one of the above mentioned injuries, or simply due to the surprise and shock of a loud clang or whump right next to your head caused by a loosened lid being slammed back home by a car tire.
* getting the lid open and slid to the side and sticking your head up out of the hole just in time for it to be clobbered by a car's bumper or wheel, which would easily decapitate you and/or crush your skull.
Keep in mind that while injury and/or death are pretty close to the worst case scenario, there are TONS of simpler yet still very unpleasant things that could happen to you. You could be arrested or reported by a police officer or outstanding citizen that happened to be standing within sight of the lid you opened and climbed out of, even if you don't get hit by a car.
Like a fiend with his dope / a drunkard his wine / a man will have lust for the lure of the mine
"If you are not part of the solution, you are not dissolved in the solvent." |
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Gatsby
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Gender: Male
Like all UER people, I've only explored your mom.
| | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 11 on 11/2/2004 9:47 PM >
| | | | I reluctantly agree, because the experience of opening one from below without knowing where you're gonna come out can be quite a rush. I've opened manholes thinking I was in a parking lot and found myself in the middle of a major intersection. Dangerous, yes, but I'd never want to lose the memory of those moments.
I only listen to 104.7 Poop. I'm always in deep shit, so I may as well listen to poop. |
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RevSM
Location: South Central Texas
| | | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 12 on 11/2/2004 10:23 PM >
| | | |
Wow, those descriptions are pretty gruesome as they should be. It needed to be said. I have only opened one particular manhole cover on several occasions. The only reason I did this was because it was the kind attached to a gutter box. I could see where the street was in relation to the manhole and thought it would be safe enough to pop it. Even in this case though, something could have happened. It could have been on the edge of a parking lot. Fortunately it was in the grassy front yard of a shop.
Tetanus for Breakfast!
http://www.shatteredshutter.com |
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BigPoppaMikey
This user has been banned. See the banlist page for more details.
Location: Milpitas, California
Gender: Male
Don't follow me unless you want to...
| |  |  | | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 13 on 11/2/2004 10:34 PM >
| | | | I agree with Mac. Unless you are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN of what is above you, you are playing russian roulette. You might get away with it five times, but on the sixth time, it's going to get your ass...
BPM
Wishing I was Jack Dalton just to have all the cool leftovers... |
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Inphenity
Gender: Male
| | | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 14 on 11/2/2004 10:54 PM >
| | | | i honestly thought that was common sense ... the only cover ive ever popped from below was above a gutter box .. and looking out of the box i knew exactly where i was
... well yea actually this is a flashlight in my pocket .. but im still happy to see you |
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FyRePhReAk
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Gender: Male
disassociative
| | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 15 on 11/3/2004 12:05 AM >
| | | | Dental mirror works wonders.
after walking 15KM underground I'm not overly anxious to retrace my steps.
if you're in a sizable drain (read: >1800) chances are about 50/50 of being under a parkspace (at least in Calgary)
last resort? not for me, a dental mirror shows that you're located in the road or in a field. popping in a road is always asking for trouble, but a field, not so much.
Walk away. |
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MacGyver
Location: St Paul, Minnesota
Gender: Male
"Someone go find me a paperclip, a D-cell battery, and a cheese grater"
| | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 16 on 11/3/2004 12:54 AM >
| | | | Posted by Inphenity
i honestly thought that was common sense ... |
I used to as well. Then I heard tales of adventures involving going up a random drain and popping a random manhole to get out. Over and over. It's seriously only a matter of time until someone gets creamed if people don't get a little more of that mysteriously elusive common sense.
And I didn't really touch on it, but RevSM is correct. If you can see out a gutter box or something to be able to get your bearings and know that you are in an area that won't see a car within the next few minutes, you're also probably pretty safe.
When people get overconfident or downright cocky and stupid and pop lids completely at random and with no outside knowledge or foresight that things get terribly dangerous. I'm seriously impressed that I haven't heard about more injuries or at least close calls given how many times I've read posts about people doing non-intelligent things.
Like a fiend with his dope / a drunkard his wine / a man will have lust for the lure of the mine
"If you are not part of the solution, you are not dissolved in the solvent." |
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Louie
| | | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 17 on 11/4/2004 2:16 AM >
| | | | Posted by FyRePhReAk
Dental mirror works wonders.
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sure, if the cover has holes in it.
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Skaught
Location: Calgary
Gender: Male
| | | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 18 on 11/5/2004 7:24 AM >
| | | | the city here seals some with tar.
We pop from below at least once per draining trip. We will usually look for cues like trees or grass and then just sit and wait for 5 minutes and listen.
If you ever come to Calgary then email [email protected] and you'll be made welcome, taken to locations and given free accommodation. We'll help save you the $$$ you spend on the flight over here :) |
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Captain Midnight
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
| | Re: Request: Manhole cover tips
<Reply # 19 on 11/7/2004 3:30 AM >
|  | | | If your trying to lift one of those big manholes, the ones that are like one and a half times the size of a normal one, you better be in good upper body shape. If your a weakling like myself, you may need two people to open it. One guy to push up, the other to push over. Get one guy low on the ladder with a 2x4 peice of wood about 2 1/2-3 feet long(conveniently found nearby in tunnel), crack the manhole open by just pushing up as hard as you can. The second guy has to be a little higher up on the ladder, that guy will look out the crack then decide if its safe to push the cover to the side. If there is no conveniently located 2x4, you can probably still do it, but it'll really suck trying to stand on the same rungs of the ladder with your buddy. PLus it also really helps if you can lean off the ladder onto a wall or somthing. Best tip... work out. pump your muscles up. So you can be big strong manhole pusher.
the night time is the right time |
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