What kind of tool to lay landscape light wiring?

[proudestmonkey]

I am planning to lay wiring for landscape lighting, and eventually an invisible dog fence. I need something that will dig a trench a few inches deep, and a few inches wide (in other words, nothing as big as what a backhoe would dig). I am new to the whole tractor thing, but wonder if there is something that I could get that would allow me to just drag it behind the tractor and go. What do you think? Any thoughts would be really helpful.

 

[Sully2]

A "subsoiler"...

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Better than a regular sub-soiler you need a fancy one to do the job right!

Go to the hardware store and buy a small piece of plastic pipe with a right angle bend, 2 large hose clamps and a new drill bit (about 5/8"). Drill 2 holes in the trailing edge of the subsoiler, one near the bottom, one about 10" up from the other hole.

String your 2 hose clamps through the newly drilled holes, and use them to clamp the pipe to the trailing edge of the subsoiler.

Now mount the subsoiler to your tractor, run some wire down through the pipe on the back and stake it off at the beginning of your wire run. Drive forward with subsoiler down and it will automatically bury your cable while digging the trench. Be sure to slowly feed the wire while you drive.

Modification costs =
$2.00 for the plastic pipe (muffler pipe works well too)
$0.99 for a 2 pack of hose clamps
$1.50 for a new drill bit (cheapo)

Cost of not having to manually bury cable
and telling your wife it was your idea so she thinks you are brilliant /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif = Priceless!

 

[RonR]

Or you can buy a box blade with scarifiers. Drop one scarifier modified as Bob suggested, though the trench will be narrower than using a subsoiler.

Lot of options. And all are good!

ron

 

[Danno1]

.

Or you can buy a DitchWitch !!! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Bob_Skurka]

RonR . . . I've not tried to bury wire by using a scarifier on the box blade, but the wire would be buried at a much shallower depth. The subsoiler puts the wire down much deeper than a scarifier. Sometimes that makes a difference, sometimes not. I suppose it depends on your needs. Both should work.

 

[Egon]

How deep must the line be to meet regulations where you live? This may depict the type of tool required.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[npaden]

I wonder if you could just make a custom longer scarifier to use for subsoiler type duties when you needed it. Seems this would be cheaper and more convienient to just throw the long scarifier on your box blade than hooking up a completely separate 3 point implement for the job.

Depending on your brand of box blade you could even work up some bracing for it. You could still tilt the tip up or down by adjusting the top link. The only drawback I can think of is if you were in tight quarters, but then your box blade isn't probably much wider than your tractor so you aren't going to be getting into very tight quarters to begin with.

I'm going to be re-doing my drip irrigation this spring so I've been thinking through this also.

Just wondering.

Nathan

 

[RobertN]

What kinda lighting system are you using?

I have been fortunate; the lighting we have done, the wire mostly went under weed cloth and mulch...

There are plows just for this. A couple of posts to this thread also show home made versions. It'll plow and place at the same time...

 

[RobertN]

Low Voltage lighting does not have a spec. It's only 12v. In most area's, normal house voltages(120/240V) has to be a minimum of 18" deep.