Best Implement For Laying Electric Conduit Line ??

[JerryK]

Keep in mind that the trenching is the hard part. And you should think hard about maybe installing more than one conduit in the trench when you get it dug for future wires. Plastic conduit is fairly cheap. In case you want to install alarm wires, phone, Cat-5, etc in the future. Just my $.02 I've burried quite a few conduits in my lifetime with just a long skinny shovel... down about 18". I think they are called a drain spade. The one I have came with a short handle which I replaced for a longer one. Use a flat shovel to remove the grass and set it aside. Dig down with the drain spade for X feet. Install pipe, fill, pack, replace grass. Then do another X feet.

PS: if you want to do it in sections, X feet at a time, glue that length of pipe and cover the end with a plastic bag held on with a little electrical tape. Then when you get time to do the next section of X feet, the end of the pipe you had put in earlier is still clean/ready to be sanded and have the new section glued on. Don't have to do all 150' at one time...

 

[oosik]

Excellent point - JerryK. That is exactly what my contractor recommended when we dug the ditch. So I put 4" heavy wall plastic pipe from under the foundation to a capped riser out ~60 feet from the house. Its there - identifiable by the capped riser and can be used or extended should the need ever arise.

 

[Oldoak]

If I were to use three point hitch attachment like a sub-soiler or ripper, I would make two passes. The first pass to break through possible hardpan or tree roots and hook and pull up any rocks that may be in the path. The the second pass while installing the wire or conduit.

 

[crazyal]

When I did the electrical service for the house, over 300 feet, I had to use 350 MCM. The stuff doesn't like to flex much so what I did was dug a trench with the backhoe and then laid out the cable. I slid one piece of conduit after another onto the cable and then glued it together in the trench. I just had to be careful because the PVC glue would try to glue the insulation to the conduit.

 

[Oldoak]

crazyal, that is the same procedure I used when I ran a 100' electrical conduit and coax cable from our satellite dish to our house.

 

[RSKY]

I buried over 220 feet of half inch pipe making two small curves. Attach the pipe to the subsoiler and start pulling. Pull until three or four feet remaining and attach more. Keep going until all underground.

 

[Diggin It]

After today, I can say it works IF you want it shallow. I got down maybe 3-4" at most which was enough for my purposes. It would be far better to dig a real trench though.