cable laying

[schmism]

I know trenchers and vibatory plows usually pull there pipe/wire thorugh the ground, so the more pipe you pull in the harder it gets...

big profesional rigs (i see pulling fiber conduit) carry the spool and slit it into the ground so they dont pull any of it through the ground... just open the ground and deposit the wire/pipe.

while i saw a silt fence installation tool on the back of a TC33 the other day up at the dealer (blew the front hydrolic cooler hose, actually had to help the guy open the hood, cause he didnt know how)

so has anyone rigged up a ripper tooth to deposit wire a few inches below the ground. cable TV is usually only a couple of inches deep, and im considering putting a couple thousand feet of radio fence in for my dogs.... it would be real slick to rig up a ripper and a spool of wire, and just start driveing around the property.... (btw the search on this site sucks)

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Yes, several of us have used Sub-Soilers to install cable, pipe, & hose under ground. I've posted photos of mine several times. Some people have pulled pipe, others, like me, installed a piece of pipe on the back of a sub-soiler that had a 90-degree bend to it and fed wire and hose down through the pipe as we drive so you can lay long distances without actually pulling the wire through the ground.

You may want to do a search on the topic. Try using search words: Sub-soiler cable layer

 

[schmism]

perhaps i should have been more specific.... ive searched... didnt come up with much. what i did find was like this thread...

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...-buster.html?highlight=Sub-soiler+cable+layer

is basicly worthless as all the links and pics dont work anymore

for instance

cable layer in the search returns "cable, layer" not "cable layer" so any thread that had anything to do with "cable" got included.

even more fun "cable plow" (81 threads) somehow 99% of those have nothing to do with what im looking for. (for instance drop the same thing in google and click images... hear i did it for ya )
cable plow - Google Image Search (is exactly what im looking for in google... not so much on TBN)

so ya there you have my mini rant on the "worthless" search "feature" of TBN.

back to reg programming of

cable laying
cable plows
cable sub-soiler
cable trenching
3pt wire puller (search just drops the 3pt part, but hey now i know how to strech fence wire?!?!)

 

[Bob_Skurka]

OK well you tried. So here is mine.

Mine is a Howse brand unit that is convertible from a Sub-Soiler to a Middle Buster to a trailer hitch. It comes with 2 bolts that must be used to attach the blades but I found them a PITA to use so I just substituted 2 short top link pins so it only takes a few moments to change a blade.

On the back edge of my sub-soiler blade I drilled two holes. I used simple hose clamps to hold a plastic pipe to the trailing edge of the sub soiler blade. To use the cable layer you simple run the cable down through the pipe and out the back, it can be tied around a stake that you drive into the ground. You simple drive the tractor forward with the sub-soiler blade down and feed the wire (or hose) through the pipe. I've also seen people use muffler pipe instead of the plastic pipe I used. Using muffler pipe would give you a larger radius curve and might allow for a semi-rigid pipe to be buried, or at least a large diameter hose.

 

[Neophyte]

I have pondered this one before.

I would use a conduit 90, either schedule 80 rigid PVC or metallic. It would give you a nice even sweep. Make sure you use a bushing on the top side of the 90 to prevent the conduit edge from cutting into the cable. One better would be to mount (duct tape) a funnel to the top of the conduit to help feed the cable into the 90 while protecting it from being cut by the conduit edge.

Also, you could make a simple bracket to mount off of the ROPS (see attached). This would feed the wire directly down to the 90. If you didn't feel comfortable with modifying the ROPS in this manner, than you could build this bracket off of the cable plow frame.

One other note. Before plowing in the cable, I would make an initial pass with the subsoiler by itself to make sure you have a clear path.

Once the cable is secured on the one end, this should work very well and should be very inexpensive to accomplish.

 

[Eric_Phillips]

Schmism,
What size wire are you going to pull for your dog fence? We actually spent the money for Invisible Fence at out last house and when we moved I took the transmitter. The wire they had used was about 12ga. Seeing some of the generic fences around they look like 18ga or smaller. Just curoius what you have found.

Eric

 

[schmism]

the wife just ordered the fence kit like 20 min ago.

ill be putting in ~1500 ft of wire... most of that i hope to find in a 1000' spool of ~16-18 gauge single strand coated wire.

i think the kit comes with like 20 gauge. its not big stuff. berry depth of 1-3"

so im working on an idea based around something like an upside down cross out of some 1/4 (2" wide) plate. the "wings" are used to skid across the ground with only 1 or so barried in the ground. My cable layer will consit of some 3/8 soft coper tube brazed to the steel plate, with in a gental 2" radius bend at the bottom and a flare at the top.

this whole device will bolt to the back of my back blade.
ill use the float on the 3 point so it follows the countour of the yard better (thus the use of wings) and reley on the 400 lbs of the back blade to keep the 1" barried.

something like

edit... id make the wings adjustable so i could varry the depth based on need.

 

[kennyd]

Here are a couple pics of one that I made...
The "tooth" is just a box blade ripper that you can get at TSC for $20.00.

 

[jimmysisson]

One other note. Before plowing in the cable, I would make an initial pass with the subsoiler by itself to make sure you have a clear path.

**************
Hmmmm, you must live where there's rocks??? That's a very good suggestion.
Jim

 

[Neophyte]

Kennyd,

Nice setup. Good idea to adapt the trencher to your 2" receiver hitch, which matches up to your iMatch. Did you make the 2" receiver setup or did you purchase it?

Good idea to use a conduit 90, it has a nice even sweep.

What type of wire were you pulling in the picture? What was the project?

Did you have the reel on the tractor or did you have someone feed the wire into the conduit as you trenched forward?

How did it work? Did you have any problems? Would you do anything different?