trenching 8 feet deep?

[MNBobcat]

I'd want it 6ft deep if it was any of my fields..you never know what you will do with that land in the future ..Land drainage..Sub soiling..fence posts..??

I ended up renting an excavator and dug it 5 foot deep. It may be overkill but its sure nice not to have to worry about it. The cable they ran up to my house is a mainline that normally runs to a pedestal. The stuff looked to be about a 1/2 or more in diameter. Can't be cheap. Not something I'd want to pay for if I had hooked it in the field!

 

[wedge40]

I know what you're dealing with. I'm a long way off the road and couldn't get cable here, so I had satellite for TV. After about 12 years I contacted the cable company again to see what could be done. I really wanted high speed internet and we will never get DSL out here. They said they would send an engineer out and get back with me. The engineer on the phone said it should be do able. I did have one huge advantage. I have a neighbor who works for the cable company as an installer. I ended up calling him, he measured from a pole and had some of his guys run from there to the house about 300' of the heavy duty stuff to keep losses low. They layed the cable on the ground and buried it later. I'm not even sure where the cable is, but I will need to find it so I can run electrical for the pole barn. I'm hoping a metal detector will find the cable for me.

Wedge

 

[Vern2]

I Think the only reason to go 8 ft is if you build a mother-in-law house with a basement on the lot. Other then that 3 ft would be fine.

Vern

 

[greggh]

I Think the only reason to go 8 ft is if you build a mother-in-law house with a basement on the lot. Other then that 3 ft would be fine.

Vern

Is that for the cable or the mother-in-law? :>)

 

[Brad_Blazer]

When my company buried fiber about 20 years ago it was buried at 4 ft. pretty much everywhere. It's never been cut in our area by conventional farm work. The contractor used two big (D9?) Cat dozers,one with a cable plow blade being pulled by the other. They used two Cats since fiber can't be vibrator plowed into the ground.

It's a myth that you can't use a vibratory plow for fiber optic cable. Of course 20 years ago it was very new and expensive and I'm sure they didn't want to take any chances. Vibration/shock will not "shatter" the fibers. Of course severe crushing, tension overload, etc. can cause damage. Some of our newer cables can be stapled to the wall with wire staples. The staple gun comes out about 5:30 into this video.
YouTube - Corning's ClearCurve? flexible fiber

 

[FlaDon]

I ended up renting an excavator and dug it 5 foot deep. It may be overkill but its sure nice not to have to worry about it. The cable they ran up to my house is a mainline that normally runs to a pedestal. The stuff looked to be about a 1/2 or more in diameter. Can't be cheap. Not something I'd want to pay for if I had hooked it in the field!

5' on a 45" frostline should be good to go. What people fail to think about when they bury shallow is that wire, pipes, cables can be forced up by frost heaves if not below the frostline. You might put it in at 2' but with a 45" line, you could see it come out of the ground in a few years. All by itself.

 

[Botabill]

Is that for the cable or the mother-in-law? :>)

That's too funny!!!

 

[uphill]

My local water utility ran a 3 inch pvc water line 750 feet across a field to my house and buried it exactly 6 foot deep. They used a 50 hp Ford tractor with a rear 3 pth trencher. It was slow digging.

 

[dave1949]

5' on a 45" frostline should be good to go. What people fail to think about when they bury shallow is that wire, pipes, cables can be forced up by frost heaves if not below the frostline. You might put it in at 2' but with a 45" line, you could see it come out of the ground in a few years. All by itself.

The electrician that did our house says that too. He thinks conduit comes up worse than bare cable also.
Dave.