Subsoiler or Middle buster for laying 1.5" conduit

[ChaddT]

Subsoiler or Middle buster for laying 1.5\" conduit

Hello all,

I have read through the middle buster/sub soiler threads quite a few times now and still don't really know what one would be better for laying conduit, water lines, wire?

I need to bury about 100' or so of 1.5" sch 80 electrical conduit down about 12"-14". I am thinking the subsoiler would be the better choice, anyone have any exp doing something similar?

Thanks,
Chadd

 

[Bird]

Re: Subsoiler or Middle buster for laying 1.5\" conduit

I've only used the middle buster myself. I think you'll find that the subsoiler will go deeper and that's good, but will not clean out the trench, throw the dirt out both sides, as well as a middle buster.

 

[Hoeman00]

Re: Subsoiler or Middle buster for laying 1.5\" conduit

In one word <font color="red"> TRENCHER </font>.
fast (less than 10 min.) and easy
A subsoiler won't cut a clean trench and u will have to make a tool to clean it out.
A middle buster will make a big wide ditch to get that deep (if it will go that deep) and will need multiple passes.

 

[Egon]

Re: Subsoiler or Middle buster for laying 1.5\" con

In agreement:

TRENCHER; that's what it is made for and rental costs will be well worth it.

Product is also of better quality as you will have a narrow proper depth trench with very little effort.

Remember to check for any other buried lines.

Egon

 

[patrickg]

Re: Subsoiler or Middle buster for laying 1.5\" con

I saw a home made pipe/conduit placer. It had a frame like a subsoiler/middlebuster but the thing in the ground was shaped like a pointy torpoedo with the prop section missing. Worked like the vibrating thing the phone company uses but without the vibration so requires more HP (tractor). It progressed along pretty well in damp soil with few rocks and could place water pipe, conduit or work from a roll of direct buriel cable. I was told that it was not good for real hard soil of where there were lots of large rocks.

I'd bet a clever lad could make an accessory to add on behind a subsoiler to lift the dirt and roll it to one side.

Patrick

 

[OkieG]

Re: Subsoiler or Middle buster for laying 1.5\" conduit

I don't believe a subsoiler will create a trench for you to lay conduit in to, as per Bird.

If you have read through the threads, you have probably run across several variations of adaptations to subsoilers for running conduit or continuous lengths of pipe. Patrick describes one variation in his post, above. But, there are others pictured in the TBN archives. These bury the pipe as it is pulled along behind the subsoiler.

Any device that will secure the end of your conduit behind the subsoiler tooth might work just fine. If the conduit has to be placed in fixed lengths, the subsoiler option could be more challenging than just renting a trencher.

OkieG

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Subsoiler or Middle buster for laying 1.5\" con

Having put more miles of cable underground than I care to remember, it's all about HORSEPOWER and soil conditions.
If you're in sand, a 25hp tractor can plow cable 18" down without any problem. In clay, plowing the same cable 18" deep can require a pair of D-8 Cats in tandem pulling a vibratory plow. If there are rocks in the clay, add a backhoe cause they still don't make a cable plow that can be backed up.
If you're thinking of any plowing setup, plan on running thru the ground first, just to see if you can make the cut. It's a lot easier to plow cable in already broken ground.
Trenching is nice, but it requires backfilling too.

 

[Steven]

Re: Subsoiler or Middle buster for laying 1.5\" conduit

this post shows an easily made device for waterlines and wire. forum post

 

[kyoders]

Re: Subsoiler or Middle buster for laying 1.5\" conduit

Chadd,

If you're doing sch 80, then it's in sections that need to be glued, right? I'm doing a waterline in 1.5" sch 40 PVC, so it should be similar, except I'm trying to go down 18". Here's how I had been doing it. I started with the middle buster, and usually did a second pass through to help pull out as much dirt as possible. I then used a shovel and cleaned out the trench by hand. This got me down to about the 12-14" you are looking for. I then used a subsoiler on several passes to get down to 18". Back to the shovel to clean it out. And I had to move the dirt away from the trench, becuase piling it near the trench caused my narrow tractor to ride on the piles, making it impossible to get deep enough. I did about 150' of trench this way, and it took forever, and the power unit for the shovel didn't appreciate it too much.

If you can, renting a trencher would be the way to go. Unfortunately, it wasn't terribly practical for me for various reasons, which is another story. My solution was to trade tractors for one with a backhoe. It seemed like a good excuse to get one /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif I've only had it two weeks, and it's rained for most of that, but the 40' of trench I've done so far tells me it was money well spent. But a trencher would probably be even faster, and a whole lot cheaper if you can get it done without several rentals (and rental yards gouging you for transportation costs).

Kevin