Ditch Digger

[Ken45101]

I upgraded to a 400a service when I rebuilt my home. The power company required 5 foot depth to the top of the conduit.

I'm glad we don't have that. I dug the ditch out to the barn for water and electric. Bedrock at 40" all the weay.

 

[Smokeydog]

Utility company upgraded from overhead and put in over 1/2 mile underground on the farm, 13.8Kva 3-4’ deep and from the transformers to buildings 18-24” deep. Also ran a phone cable, 1” plastic water line, and extra 2” conduit. Part of their 3 phase power upgrade. No cost to me. Really increased power quality and reliability. Bad, land prices now sky high and subdivisions.

Using the extra conduit now to run fiber to the house. 2700’ They have already pulled mule tape thru the 2” conduit.

As cheap as conduit is I would consider running extra in any utility ditch.

 

[woody]

I'm not sure of the code when I was asking one power company said 24 to 48 inches but the company I get my power from says 36 inches so that's what I done and sent him pictures cause he had to approve it. I have 1600 feet of water line to the meter and we used a rented ditch witch it may be 12 to 24 inches deep. we tried to keep it 24 inches but some places didn't make it.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Water up here is at eight feet to avoid the frost.

Ours has to be at least six inches.

 

[Tony H]

Oh man, did you lay the wire in the ditch then slide the pvc down and attach to other pvc? When I ran my power from pole to pedestal (meter) then to house. I did it that way... There is no way I could have pulled that 850 cable thru 3" pipe.

 

[4570Man]

I'm glad we don't have that. I dug the ditch out to the barn for water and electric. Bedrock at 40" all the weay.

It’s usually not even that deep here. We end up concrete filling electric ditches half the time because we can’t dig them 24”.

 

[yanmars]

You are fortunate. My cost overhead is $11,500 plus the last 250 feet is underground in 4 inch PVC three feet deep. The underground is at my cost also.

 

[woody]

Oh man, did you lay the wire in the ditch then slide the pvc down and attach to other pvc? When I ran my power from pole to pedestal (meter) then to house. I did it that way... There is no way I could have pulled that 850 cable thru 3" pipe.

the power company is going to pull the wire, should be able to call them today and we will see when they can come out.

 

[woody]

Woke up Friday mourning to a problem, the rain we got settled the ground and pulled the conduit completely from the box. I thought well I am gonna have to dig it up and fix it anyway so I connected a strap around the conduit and used the tractor to lift it, while putting a lot of pressure on the conduit I kept tapping it with a hammer and by taking my time it slowly came back up to the box. I poured about 20 gallons of water around the pipe hoping it would wash more dirt under the sweep to hold it up. That flimsy metal nut (ring) just popped right off the threads allowing the conduit to sink.

 

[woody]

When I went back out this mourning and checked the conduit had dropped about a 1/2 inch or less so that means what I did yesterday worked. I took a female coupling and lathed off part of it making a nut that was about 1 inch tall and I screwed that on instead of the metal ring I believe this will hold while the dirt settles some more. I did hand shovel the dirt under and around the conduit before I covered it up the first time.

 

[4570Man]

My area doesn’t but some places require an expansion joint in the conduit.

 

[KWentling]

My area doesn’t but some places require an expansion joint in the conduit. View attachment 720642

That is required here too. I would use them even if it wasn't required.

 

[woody]

I don't guess I have ever heard of that.

 

[Boss 302]

Good job, great experience and saving money to boot.

 

[woody]

Okay the guys from the power company showed up yesterday and said everything looks good so they connected me right up I now have my power under ground from their pole to my house. I told them I capped the end of the conduit to keep water out until they got here and they said it would not have mattered and I asked if they were going to put a weather head on and he told me the company would not buy them, so now I have the conduit run up the pole and it is open on top for rain and squirrels to go in. never had underground service before so I guess we will see.