Cable laying conundrum....

[Deerherd]

A little help please......I need to lay about 1650 feet of TV/Internet cable and was looking for an attachment that would do the job. I couldn't find a ripper/layer combo like the one pictured below on the right but found the pipe/cable layer by itself. (first photo) It looked a lot like some of the homemade jobs I had seen and the description said that it attaches behind any ripper or sodbuster and lays water lines cable etc. Looked like exactly what I was searching for, so I ordered it up. It was $168 delivered. It didn't have any dimensions listed just "fits most rippers and sodbusters".

Yesterday I see the UPS guy struggling with a huge box and was wondering what the heck he had. After he unceremoniously dropped it on the front porch muttering under his breath about oversize items I opened it up. BABY JESUS! It was the pipe/cable layer and is about twice as large as I thought. It's a little over 36" high and 30" long and that's a 3 1/2" tube with a 4" flared opening at the top so it looks like I could bury about 25 cables at the same time.

The $100 Tractor Supply ripper I have that I was going to attach it to is too small so if I'm going to use this thing a new ripper is in order. Any suggestions as to an appropriate ripper to match? Or maybe I just try and locate a smaller layer/ripper combo and hang this one up for laughs. Thanks in advance.

 

[tcartwri]

google "cable trencher". Those rippers will cause you all kinds of extra work.

 

[Deerherd]

I already looked at all kinds of trenchers and I was trying to stay away from filling in a 1650' trench. The ripper doesn't disturb the earth as much and running over the raised ground to seal it back up is 100 times faster digging a trench, laying the line and filling it in. I just thought someone on here who has actually used this type of unit would respond. Thanks anyways and disregard the question I found what I needed.

 

[tcartwri]

The type of trencher you are looking for looks like a rototiller, but with a large circular blade like a rock saw. It cuts a slit no more than 1/8" wide. They use them for laying invisible dog fences.

 

[buckshot721]

We rented a little trencher for doing installing lawn edging. It makes a 4'' deep trench, to about 1/2 hr to do the whole lawn. But you have to fill in the trench. Worked so good buried my coax for my ham antennas in no time flat. Over 200ft of them!

 

[tcartwri]

I need to lay about 1650 feet of TV/Internet cable .

Curious as to how you're going to deal with the signal loss over this length of cable.....

 

[zzvyb6]

I ran 1000' of CAT6 undergroung with little signal loss. I was informed that its the number of connectors, not necessarily the length. If you piece togther 10 100' cables there is a lot of loss. Not so with my 1000' single spool. I use it for my outdoor cameras, etc.

 

[tcartwri]

Cat6 is capable of long runs, co-ax is not. Would be a shame to dig that trench and find out later.

 

[yanmars]

Cat6 is capable of long runs, co-ax is not. Would be a shame to dig that trench and find out later.

Hi: I used to lay underground telephone cable for Henkels and McCoy in the late 60s. We had a "similar plow shoe" but it took a D6 caterpillar or more to lay the cable in clay ground without rocks. I would think it would be a tough pull with a small tractor but we were going about 30 inches deep when possible. Our equipment was set up to do that type work and involved a multi size crew.
I will be interested in following your progress. Hope it proceeds well.

 

[DANOCHEESE]

Cat5 is speced at 328 feet. It will work out to 1000 with slow speeds. A camera will work OK. Coax all depends on the size of the coax. For 1600 feet I would reccomend one inch hard line.

With the chute you bought try and rip it a few times before you put the cable in. It will take some power to pull that chute. Find a friend wiht a tractor and make a plow train.