Thanks to Jim M for sending these pictures of a fine panel job.








What could they have been thinking?

You probably don't want to know what they were thinking!!! " homeowner how- to special"??
I have a question.. Out of that whole mess, on the left of the main breaker I see a split bolt connection of some sort that looks like it has seen some heat in the past... Is that...ER.... WAS that the neutral???

A.D

words escape me....

They might have been thinking:
Who cares - it's FPE !!!

The lengths some people will go to do something wrong....

I had no idea they even made bugs THAT big .

Mike (mamills)

'Looks to me like them wires are pregnant' I thought in my best hillbilly accent.

I don't get WHY they did it. It looks like the conductors are long enough to reach the terminals anyway. Sure the romex is a mess, but that part is manageable, if typical.

Im at a loss for words!

they were thinking since it's a FPE ,what do we have to lose!i've seen bad but this takes the cake i bet.are the service entrance conductors aluminum ?

Yes, that's aluminum.
I thought maybe this was somebody's crazy idea of pigtailing the breaker with Cu because of the lugs, but then i saw this.



The lugs are rated for the aluminum

Ooooh this is giving me flashbacks of LA county service work Someone sure didn't want to spend $40 on a new panel! Were the terminals in the main frozen and someone decided to let their creativity get the best of them??

What's under the tape?.
This looks terrible.

I'm not positive Mike, but it might be something like this splicer/reducer



I agree... This is sad looking

STRANGER THAN FICTION

Well obviously whoever did this was not a qualified electrician, this is what doeasn't make sense to me, Why the split bolts, why not reterminate in the lugs? If the lugs are frozen why not replace the whole panel? Why not replace the panel in the first place? the existing service was ripped out and the wire was replaced, why not do the panel why you're at it? Why replace the service conductors in the first place? Addition? additions need power, and I don't see any new black and grey FPE breakers in there, none of it makes any sense whatsoever

Is there any story behind this, or is it just an anonymous picture?

Panel relocation, for example when building an addition? And the service wires were either too short or too long, so they cut them. They kept the panel because they were doing a cheap job for the homeowner.
That's my closest guess.

At least the installer didn't use duct tape!