Patent ID: 7007438

Claim:
A method of supporting power lines from a vertical pole, the method comprising the steps of: providing a wooden crossarm member defining upper, lower, inner, and outer surfaces and first and second end surfaces; providing a crossarm bolt assembly; providing a plurality of insulator pin assemblies, where each insulator pin assembly is adapted to support one of the power lines; providing at least one brace assembly comprising an upper bracket assembly a lower bracket assembly adapted to be attached to the vertical pole; forming a main bore in the crossarm member, where the main bore extends between inner and outer surface and is adapted to receive a crossarm bolt; forming a plurality of pin bores in the crossarm member, where the pin bores extend between the upper and lower surfaces and are adapted to receive an insulator pin; forming at least one brace bore in the crossarm member; providing first and second nail end plates comprising plate member defining an inner surface and an outer surface; forming a plurality of nail projections on the plate member such that the nail projections extend from the inner surface of the plate member, and each nail projection defines a width dimension; displacing the first and second nail end plates towards the first and second end surfaces, respectively, such that the nail projections enter the wooden crossarm member; extending the crossarm bolt assembly through the main bore to secure the wooden crossarm member to the vertical pole; extending each insulator pin assembly through one of the pin bores formed in the wooden crossarm member; securing the upper bracket assembly to the at least one brace bore; wherein the nail projections are arranged such that the width dimensions substantially prevent splitting of the crossarm member caused by loads applied to pin bores of the crossarm member by the power lines through the insulator pin assemblies.