Can the Brotek Ripper be used efficiently to dig trench for low voltage wire?

[montelatici]

"A 12v lead will only travel a small distance before droping in voltage way too much to be usefull."

The manual says 1000 feet max. and I only have to go about 100 feet.

 

[SCRich]

1000ft ?? 12v ? OK if they say so but I find it hard to believe unless it's a very very large gauge wire. 1000ft for dry contacts like a remote opener I can understand but to carry voltage without a significant drop in voltage I find very hard to believe but if it's in writing so be it.

 

[mpowrd]

If it's like the openers we're looking at for 2 gates we're building, the current will be low since it's only running a trickle charger. Any real amperage will be from the battery at the opener to the motor (short path).

I've even got a friend up here in our mountains that has his gate on a solar charger (no power running to the end of his 1/4 mile drive).

I plan on using my Bro-Tek ripper (with plow) to cut the trenches, then have my helper finisher up by hand. Sure beats digging 100-200 feet of trench with a pick, though.

 

[offcamber]

I would (and plan to) build something like this (sorry to whom ever I borrowed these pics from!)

That sparks an idea.....anyone thought of using a box blade with all but the center scarifier down all the way? I bet that would work for low voltage trenches. I need to reinstall my dogs invisible fence...I may try that to see how it works...

 

[RayCo]

That sparks an idea.....anyone thought of using a box blade with all but the center scarifier down all the way? I bet that would work for low voltage trenches. I need to reinstall my dogs invisible fence...I may try that to see how it works...

Please post the outcome of this. I'm picking up a box blade this weekend, , and will be scouring TBN for beginner tips and usage ideas.

Wouldn't it be all but the center scarifier all the way up so that you just have the center one digging into the ground?

 

[offcamber]

Please post the outcome of this. I'm picking up a box blade this weekend, , and will be scouring TBN for beginner tips and usage ideas.

Wouldn't it be all but the center scarifier all the way up so that you just have the center one digging into the ground?

Your right ,,,,reverse what I said...just the center one down......

May be a while before I get to it...got a list of more important projects ahead of that one...

 

[SCRich]

If it's like the openers we're looking at for 2 gates we're building, the current will be low since it's only running a trickle charger. Any real amperage will be from the battery at the opener to the motor (short path).

I've even got a friend up here in our mountains that has his gate on a solar charger (no power running to the end of his 1/4 mile drive).

I plan on using my Bro-Tek ripper (with plow) to cut the trenches, then have my helper finisher up by hand. Sure beats digging 100-200 feet of trench with a pick, though.

Yes I have seen the solar ones and was thinking of it myself since we maybe come in and out 4 times a day on the weekend, 2 times a day during the week so it's very low use.

Let me know how it works out. If the manual says so then so be it but I have worked in the electronics industry for over 30 years, it's a job and a hobby for me so I deal with it all day long. The gauge of wire will help current and I know a trickle charger is low current so you do not need much since it will not heat up BUT the gauge of wire also helps against voltage drop. The farther you go the more the voltage drops because even though wire the wire is straight it's still resistive as in a resistor. The larger the conductor the less the resistance, just like a water hose. So a 12v charger on small "bell wire" or such that is at home will not be 12v when it get's to 100 or 1000ft, I do not have a chart with me but there are charts that you can look up gauge and distance (one for AC and one for DC) and it will tell you how much of a drop you have. I am guessing your 12v charger will be maybe 9-10v but that is a guess not knowing the gauge. Now if they have made the 12v charger output 16v or so to "make up" for the loss then that would work. BUT that opens a whole nutter can o' worms when you talk about float charge voltages and boiling the material inside of the battery if it's too high. If you decide to only run it 20ft and they give a 16v charger to make up for drop from 100-1000ft then the 16v charger would make the battery fail a lot sooner than later. The heat generated will kill the gel or the lead acid material. I maintain several hundreds of batteries that start at 125lbs each, our chargers have little thermal probes that we attach to each battery case and the voltage goes up and down depending on case temp as to not to kill the battery ($800+ each).

 

[montelatici]

I received the gate opener today (waiting for the gate, posts and the PHD). It is a Mighty Mule FM502 (dual gate version). There is a relatively small (in my opinion) motorcycle type battery but room to add another in the battery box. With a ten watt solar panel you get 4 cycles (that means only opening and closing twice) in Maryland if you can get full sun facing the panel optimally. So, with a 20 watt solar panel and two batteries you could probably eek out 8 cycles with a close to optimum placement of the solar panel. Might be ok during the week but on weekends I would have to just leave the gate open, which may be ok. On the other hand running a trench for 16 gauge low voltage wire is cheaper (than solar panels) and the charger will probably allow for more cycles than I will need.

 

[SCRich]

Keep us posted on how it works out. A few weeks ago we had the rental trailer pulled out (40ft container). The builders had screwed up the fence and no one ever kept the chain up anyway so we did not plan on fixing the fence till' the trailer was hauled away "just in case". I am glad, I had to pull a post out for him to get in but now we are ready.

We are going to fix up the fence and I am going to try my hand at making stone collums (block/electricity/stoneface thing) once that is done we will be doing a gate. The run from the house to the gate is 350ft, I rented a trencher late August and ran 2in conduit and 1.5in conduit 50ft short of the gate at the tree line. I had to trench and lay pipe before the builder poured the pad in front of the garage. I plan on pulling 240v to the tree line mount an outside breaker box and take it down to 120v. From there we will run power to the gate and along the fence, 400ft one way and about 100ft the other. I am not going solar but I do want battery backup.

 

[montelatici]

You may want to consider that popular gate openers these days (from my recent research) are designed for low voltage power from a charger and use a battery. It was actually surprising as I too had thought that I would have to extend high voltage to the gate. This Might Mule was recommended by gate installers who find it easy to install, given that it is advertised as a DIY model. The same company make a line "for professional installation" and have all these notices about how the opener must be installed by a professional. But I could find no substantial difference except that they came with fewer attachment options and required more drilling and adaptation. They are marginally cheaper, but only 50-60 bucks on internet pricing. With accessories like touchpads, touchpad mounts, electro-magnetic locks and remotes a decent dual gate system runs nearly 1,000 bucks, so 50-60 bucks is neither here nor there.