Trenching for burying electrical cable

[rlee6]

Has anyone used a trencher before? I need to bury an electrical cable. I asked Home Depot Rental, where I am going to rent a trencher, but they said it would vary. I know it would vary with soil, depth, etc. Can anyone guestimate how long it would take to dig a trench that's 2.5' deep 100' long? I am in Florida and as far as I know soil is sandy to the depth. By the way, the are is cleared of all vegetation. Thanks.

 

[Gator6x4]

I would guess approximately 2 hours would cover it. Your soil is sandy and you can make good time. The most time consuming part is covering the ditch.

 

[jwstewar]

Like you said, depends on soil, depth, etc. But is also depends on the trencher itself. When I put a water line in for the house I used a Ditch Witch. Went about 200' in about 4 hours. Then when I did the water line to the garage we rented a Vermeer about the same size as the DW and it took me at least 6 or 7 hours to go 100 ft. That Vermeer just wouldn't dig, the stored said it had new teeth, but I don't know how it could have. BTW, also used the Vermeer at my F-I-L that same weekend and it wouldn't dig there either.

 

[JoeR]

20-30 minutes to trench 100'. If you are using a self propelled trencher. I had no problems in sandy soil and no roots. Most of the walk behind rental jobs max out at 3 feet, so 2.5 will not go too fast due to the depth. You will also notice the UF feeder cable will be kind of springy. At least 10-3 is. Have a couple of pieces of a small brick or block to hold it down so it stays at the bottom of the trench when you backfill. A job like that overall would take me about 2 hours total as the previous person stated. Nowadays, I hand trench for distances up to 100 feet, then I wish I had a trencher about half way through. I look across the pasture, and think 100 feet is not that far away. I stupidly start digging by hand! I have done this three times now! I keep forgetting how far 100' is to dig by hand! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Joe

 

[Farwell]

Joe,
I had a 180' trench dug with a walk behind self propelled trencher and it took about 20-30 minutes to trench about 2.5 feet deep. My soil is 1 foot of top soil over sand. The hardest part was getting the trencher off of the trailer with out getting killed.
In the type of soil we have I think that the dig time would be less than one hour for an inexperienced person.
I also dig trenches by hand but have never had to dig a 100 footer. I usually take a few days doing the digging, dig when I get in the mood. Do not know why but my old body does not mind hand digging at least in the soil on my property.
Farwell

 

[forgeblast]

Joe, i was laughing when i read about how far 100' feels. Living in PA we have dirt with rock, and then a bigger rock under that rock. i am almost done digging the trench, but i have gone through one landscapers pick, broke a handle on my shovel, and bent the long digging bar i have. Its been a nighmare, but there is nothing else short of a backhoe that will get through the rocks. I cant wait until i have that conduit in and get the sub panel put in.
later all and be glad your not diggin in pa.
forgeblast

 

[npaden]

forgeblast,

sounds like you need one of these!

Or if that isn't enough you could bring in a bigger one:

/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[bbabineau]

here's another suggestion for such a long trench mega trencher

 

[KubotainNH]

/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Yikes!!!

 

[dooleysm]

I saw another set of pictures of that monster. Those pictures showed where that thing had scooped up a Cat D8 and it got wedged in the conveyor belt that carts the dirt back away from the digging teeth.

Unbelievable.

 

[texasjohn]

rlee6, I'm burying a 3/4" plastic black pipe with an electric fence charger wire in it to a depth of about 1.5 ft using a "subsoiler." PM me for details if you wish.... This is in hard clay with some rocks and a 50hp tractor.

It is possible that you could go 2.5' in pure sand with sufficient tractor power, particularly since it is vegitation and rock free. Alternatively, do you really need to bury it that deeply?

 

[rlee6]

Local code says either 1.5' in conduit or 2' direct burial. Since the distance is about 100', I would rather bury directly than pulling wires through.

I have a 35hp tractor but no middle buster. Do you think it will dig 2' in sand without problem? Thanks.

It will cost about $200 for trencher rental. Since a middle buster costs less than that, if I can manage digging 2', I will buy the tool than spending the money on rental.

 

[texasjohn]

Hmm... well, horsepower is a little light. I actually use a chisel point, not a middlebuster... am just trying to get something as narrow as possible, yet strong, down while carrying a chain that I can attach the pipe to. Physical pull from pipe is negligable, I was very surprised. I guess 98% of the effort is in pulling the chisel point forward. If it is sand all the way, you can make several passes to loosen up the sand before attaching the pipe. Staying in the track is a little difficult if it is not a straight line pull. If you know somebody who has a chisel plow you can take all but one of the shanks/points off and be ready to go to work. The point is, you are only trying to get the pipe down to depth desired... not dig a trench (think inside the trench)... so you just need something that penetrates to depth and that you can tie the pipe on to.

My guess is that you will spend maybe $250 to purchase the tool... things always seem to take a little more than one expects. But then you would have the tool and I've found it to be real handy.

I tried a trick that worked AMAZINGLY well. The idea is to get a nylong (strong) string from one end to another of a plastic pipe. Then, to pull the wire thru using the fish string.

In my case it was either a 2 or 2.5 inch PVC schedule 40 pipe. A friend said to just get a shop vac and blow the string thru. Well, I now know that would likely have worked... but being hard headed I took a small plastic pill bottle that was a little smaller than the ID of the pipe, drilled a hole in the end, put the end of the string thru it and knotted the string on the bottom. Thus the open end of the bottle faced away from the direction of travel down the pipe and the string goes into the open end.

I inserted the bottle into the pipe, pushed it in with my finger, grabbed the ball of string, turned on the shop vac and pressed the blowing end on the pipe. WOW... It felt like I had a monster in my hand... the string tugged and tugged wanting to run down the pipe... almost burned my fingers... blew out the other end in just a couple of seconds... length was about 70 feet.

I recently have enhanced the technique by inserting grease into the pipe just before inserting the wire to be pulled.... makes the pull much easier... but messier /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[flusher]

Last May I rented a Ditch Witch 1330 walk-in-front trencher from Home Depot to dig trenches for electric conduit, water lines and gas pipe. Total length was about 1100 feet and took about 8 hours. The electrical conduit and gas pipe trenches were 24" deep. The water lines went in 18" deep trenches.
The main electrical trench from my service pole to the outside load panel was 330 feet and took about 45 minutes to dig.

The 1330 is a 1000-lb machine that is hard to maneuver since it doesn't have a true skid steer capability. Be prepared to muscle it into position at the start of a trench to get it lined up. That was the hardest part in using that particular trencher.

 

[donais]

i have a d/w 1030 ad it will do 30 inches. im in sandy dg-ish and did 30 inches about 100 feet in around 20- 30 min also at the old house i did 50 feet in cobble root dirt in about an hour, jon