Two questions for anybody who lays underground cable?

Diggin It · Jun 16, 2024

We used to use Yellow 77. Stuff was fine when fresh, but it would get gooey later. Getting wire in was OK, but near impossible to get out once the goo set in.

We had a cable tugger. Had to be VERY securely mounted, concrete anchors, chained to a pole/post, etc. There was a thing we called chinese fingers that grabbed the cable head, then a rope though the conduit and wrapped around the tugger pulled in a sort of slip fashion. Operator adjusted the tension on the wrap to pull more or less hard.

That was back in the 80s/90s when telephone wire was more substantial .. 24G as I recall. 100 pair cable was quite heavy when dealing with a few hundred feet at a time. Then add two more for a total of 300 pair into a 4" conduit and around a few 90 sweep elbows. It took some doing.

oosik · Jun 27, 2024

I had to run power from the meter pole to the house. 80 feet and all dug by hand. What a real PITA. Thank God it was 42 years ago. I got it all dug and some fellow from the power company said - "it's only two feet deep - it's gotta be three feet deep". Another two days digging.

Anyhow - I ran the power inside rigid plastic pipe. One section at a time. At least I got the type that the power company required/recommended.

A string attached to a small foam ball. Vacuum cleaner sucked the ball & string down the section. String then pulled the power line.

All approved by the state electrical inspector and covered.