Seeking wire pulling advise

[sparky 1971]

The best pulling lube is Ideal Yellow 77. It's also the messiest and hardest to clean off of surfaces. I put plastic sheeting on the walls and a cheap tarp on the floor. If I were in charge of this pull, I would have a gallon of it and use the whole thing. Throw a little down the first LB, lube the head, then apply liberally as it goes in. Then repeat, but not quite as liberally going from the 2nd LB to the sub.

Have plenty of rags on hand at both ends so clean up can begin as soon as the wire comes out.

Don't tape the wires together unless just just to keep them straight, but take the tape off as it goes into the pipe. I wouldn't bother.

 

[mike93lx]

Interesting comments advising on not taping the conductors together.

My master electrician friend that helped me advised me to do so and the pull worked like a charm.

Also made it quite easy to remove the wire bundle 1-2 years later when I had to redo the conduit for the kitchen extension. The taping together made it easy to coil up the conductors and store the wire until it was ready to repull again.

In a simple pull, it probably works fine. In a complicated pull, with multiple pull points, I would want to be able to work individual wires as needed

 

[mike93lx]

The best pulling lube is Ideal Yellow 77. It's also the messiest and hardest to clean off of surfaces. I put plastic sheeting on the walls and a cheap tarp on the floor. If I were in charge of this pull, I would have a gallon of it and use the whole thing. Throw a little down the first LB, lube the head, then apply liberally as it goes in. Then repeat, but not quite as liberally going from the 2nd LB to the sub.

Have plenty of rags on hand at both ends so clean up can begin as soon as the wire comes out.

Don't tape the wires together unless just just to keep them straight, but take the tape off as it goes into the pipe. I wouldn't bother.

It will cost an extra $20, but I'd buy 4 quarts instead of a gallon bucket. Being able to squeeze the bottle and doing it one handed should make it a lot easier.

Is there much of a difference between that stuff and the clear? The clear does have a nice nozzle that can make getting it into a smaller conduit and box easy

 

[Innovate1]

I'll look into the slip coupling, but point about settling noted. I could not find a trencher in my area that went deeper than 4'. But might be a moot point cause there are a lot of rocks here. It's going to be a challenge with bedding sand and all for sure. Planning on getting multiple 1 ton bulk bags filled 1/2 way (1/2 ton) where I can get my loader bucket fork attachment to lift over the trench and I'll release the sand, hand spread it, move the tractor and repeat along the length of the trench. Just don't want to have delivered a big pile of sand to deal with.

I'm lucky where I am is all clay so no issues with rock. Worked on a project with my dad years ago and ended up with some rocks so big we had to blast which was fun. But that was on the west coast. Sounds like you already know you need sand and are going to do that so that's all good but lots more work.

Here's the slip coupling. They do have a limited range so I would jam it tight together to start and compact the material below the pipe as much as possible or it may settle enough to come apart. If all your backfill under the pipe is sand then settling will be very little. Here we often just use the dirt/clay for back fill and it settles quite a bit.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Carlon-...gs-PVC-Expansion-Coupling-E945J-CAR/100209092

 

[Donttouchthat]

The best pulling lube is Ideal Yellow 77. It's also the messiest and hardest to clean off of surfaces. I put plastic sheeting on the walls and a cheap tarp on the floor. If I were in charge of this pull, I would have a gallon of it and use the whole thing. Throw a little down the first LB, lube the head, then apply liberally as it goes in. Then repeat, but not quite as liberally going from the 2nd LB to the sub.

Have plenty of rags on hand at both ends so clean up can begin as soon as the wire comes out.

Don't tape the wires together unless just just to keep them straight, but take the tape off as it goes into the pipe. I wouldn't bother.

Good to know about that stuff. had no idea about the nasty part.

 

[larry4406]

Here is the lock stitch knot I used to connect the mule tape to the wire bundle for pulling. Worked for me.


Link to typical mule tape

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KY8C4EI/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Donttouchthat]

I'm lucky where I am is all clay so no issues with rock. Worked on a project with my dad years ago and ended up with some rocks so big we had to blast which was fun. But that was on the west coast. Sounds like you already know you need sand and are going to do that so that's all good but lots more work.

Here's the slip coupling. They do have a limited range so I would jam it tight together to start and compact the material below the pipe as much as possible or it may settle enough to come apart. If all your backfill under the pipe is sand then settling will be very little. Here we often just use the dirt/clay for back fill and it settles quite a bit.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Carlon-...gs-PVC-Expansion-Coupling-E945J-CAR/100209092

Thanks man for the link. I think I have both clay and rocks here. I am calculating yard/tonnage just to bed the 3/4" Pex-b line I am lying down. Building Inspector says "clean fill" for electric conduit OK. I'm counting on ALOT of removing rocks. Don't want even more sand than I'm already accounting for (24"w x 12" d= about 12 tons, I think) Ugh. I try and do most things by myself. Will recruit my better half for the pull. Maybe 1 more. Tomorrow i'll post some tractor/rocks pics for fun/reference. I'm guessing a should take my backhoe bucket or rent a compactor to tamp down after I lay my water line. Plan on putting electrics (HV and LV) conduits @ about 24" deep.

 

[sparky 1971]

It will cost an extra $20, but I'd buy 4 quarts instead of a gallon bucket. Being able to squeeze the bottle and doing it one handed should make it a lot easier.

The quart bottles don't let you get enough out fast enough. This is going to be a decent sized, but not huge pull and whoever is inside pulling won't be able to see what's going on at the other end. Get an old folding table or an upside down five gallon bucket to set the lube on . Whoever gets the glorious job of soap man can reach into the bucket and grab it by the handful and smear it on the wires. I do keep a quart bottle on my truck for smaller things, but if it's a pull that is going to require anything 1-1/4" or larger and I think I need to use lube, I'm getting a gallon bucket of it.

This will probably take two guys outside. One feeding slack to the soap man while he lubes the wire with one hand and helps guide the wires into the LB with the other. Probably two or three more guys inside pulling. It would really **** when everyone got into sync just to have to stop in order to squeeze some more lube out of the bottle onto the wire.

Is there much of a difference between that stuff and the clear? The clear does have a nice nozzle that can make getting it into a smaller conduit and box easy

Clearglide is ok, and seems slick to someone that hasn't used anything else. Compared to Yellow, it's a night and day difference. Clear doesn't even seem slick compared to Yellow. I bought a bottle of clear once and tried it. It worked, barely, but I doubt if I will ever use it again.

 

[mike93lx]

The quart bottles don't let you get enough out fast enough. This is going to be a decent sized, but not huge pull and whoever is inside pulling won't be able to see what's going on at the other end. Get an old folding table or an upside down five gallon bucket to set the lube on . Whoever gets the glorious job of soap man can reach into the bucket and grab it by the handful and smear it on the wires. I do keep a quart bottle on my truck for smaller things, but if it's a pull that is going to require anything 1-1/4" or larger and I think I need to use lube, I'm getting a gallon bucket of it.

This will probably take two guys outside. One feeding slack to the soap man while he lubes the wire with one hand and helps guide the wires into the LB. Probably two more guys inside pulling. It would really **** when everyone got into sync just to have to stop in order to squeeze some more lube out of the bottle onto the wire.

Clearglide is ok, and seems slick to someone that hasn't used anything else. Compared to Yellow, it's a night and day difference. Clear doesn't even seem slick compared to Yellow. I bought a bottle of clear once and tried it. It worked, barely, but I doubt if I will ever use it again.

Good advice, thanks. I'll grab yellow the next time

 

[sparky 1971]

For the pulling head, take off about 12-18" of insulation. Cut off about 1/2 the strands of wire on each conductor then put them all through a loop on the end of the rope. Squeeze the wire loop down, wrap it real good with duct tape. Then put some more duct tape on it, lube it up and pull. The reason for taking the strands off is to make it smaller. Just make sure that when they get folded over, the stripped wire doesn't run all the way back to the insulation. If it's folded over too long, cut the strands off to keep that head as small as you can.

Or, you could go buy one of these. I have a bunch of pulling baskets, but since I bought this, it's the only thing I will use for 2" and larger conduit.

Pulling Grip Set with Clevis | Greenlee

Find product features and specification information for the Greenlee Pulling Grip Set w/ Clevis and other quality pulling accessories. Shop now!

www.greenlee.com

Edit: Cut the extra length off

 

[sparky 1971]

Here is the lock stitch knot I used to connect the mule tape to the wire bundle for pulling. Worked for me.


Link to typical mule tape

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KY8C4EI/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Don't try to pull this sized wire with mule tape, it's going to break. The mule tape would be fine for pulling in a 3/8" rope though. I wouldn't bother with the expense of the mule tape. Get a small container (500') of jet line that's available in the electrical department of the box stores. Using a Shop Vac and a baggie, **** the jet line through. Tie a knot in the string at the length needed from the house to the LB and pull it through until the knot comes out. You now have a string to measure that is the length of wire you need (plus whatever it will take to get from the LB to the sub panel plus another 15 feet. use the string that's in the conduit to pull a 3/8" rope through and use the rope to pull the wire. I have 600' long 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" ropes with loops on the end just for larger wire pulls. When the loop starts to look bad I cut it off and braid another in, but can never remember how to do it. It's an easy google search though.

Poly Pull Line with Orange Tracer 500-Feet

 

[Bert_]

That's not too bad of a pull, probably more than I would want to do by hand though. There's pullers made for the purpose but I usually just hook the rope to something convenient.

This is 4/0-4/0-2-4 in 2" pipe.

 

[mike93lx]

That Klein jet line is pretty great and is spooled up well, in my experience. I've pulled it though with a shop vac and bag and it absolutely flied through without anyone needing to touch it.

 

[sparky 1971]

That Klein jet line is pretty great and is spooled up well, in my experience. I've pulled it though with a shop vac and bag and it absolutely flied through without anyone needing to touch it.

I've never used the Klein, but it's probably exactly the same as the Ideal I get. I keep a 500' container on my truck because it comes in handy once in a while. For a pull like this, I'd have the bucket that comes with I believe 2500 feet. It really flies out and doesnt need any help due to the lack of twists and kinks from that are caused by that tiny container. It's different for me though since I'm going to eventually use all 2500 feet. I was in Lowes a few years back when they changed from Ideal to Southwire. The Ideal buckets of string were clearanced out at $8 each. There were only four of them but I bought them all. Normally around $50.

 

[Donttouchthat]

That's not too bad of a pull, probably more than I would want to do by hand though. There's pullers made for the purpose but I usually just hook the rope to something convenient.

This is 4/0-4/0-2-4 in 2" pipe.

Are you pulling with the bucket and have some type of pulley/sheave up top?

 

[Innovate1]

That's not too bad of a pull, probably more than I would want to do by hand though. There's pullers made for the purpose but I usually just hook the rope to something convenient.

This is 4/0-4/0-2-4 in 2" pipe.

The quart bottles don't let you get enough out fast enough. This is going to be a decent sized, but not huge pull and whoever is inside pulling won't be able to see what's going on at the other end. Get an old folding table or an upside down five gallon bucket to set the lube on . Whoever gets the glorious job of soap man can reach into the bucket and grab it by the handful and smear it on the wires. I do keep a quart bottle on my truck for smaller things, but if it's a pull that is going to require anything 1-1/4" or larger and I think I need to use lube, I'm getting a gallon bucket of it.

This will probably take two guys outside. One feeding slack to the soap man while he lubes the wire with one hand and helps guide the wires into the LB with the other. Probably two or three more guys inside pulling. It would really **** when everyone got into sync just to have to stop in order to squeeze some more lube out of the bottle onto the wire.

Clearglide is ok, and seems slick to someone that hasn't used anything else. Compared to Yellow, it's a night and day difference. Clear doesn't even seem slick compared to Yellow. I bought a bottle of clear once and tried it. It worked, barely, but I doubt if I will ever use it again.

Most of the advice here is from people with lots more experience than me but I think they may make you more worried than necessary about your pull. I pulled 200' of 1 size smaller wire through 1-1/2 conduit and it was pretty easy with two of us. And I didn't use a ton of lube to where it was running everywhere - just a little - probably about a pint. The keys as I see it are using long sweeps (even for the 45 bends if you can't eliminate them and bend the pipe), minimizing the number of bends, and keeping the feed and pull in line with the conduit on entry and exit. Standard radius bends are going to cause a lot more friction so a lot more lube may be appropriate for those. I suspended the spools above the conduit so it was nearly a straight shot into the conduit. Put together a tall tripod (at least 12') to hang a pulley for the pull end right above the conduit (it goes at a slight angle because of the LB body). I dropped a short length of metal flex conduit into the conduit on the pull end that went past the first bend to keep the small rope I was using from cutting into the conduit and had a small plastic bushing at each end made out of some small PVC pipe to cover the sharp ends of the flex. Keeping the lead end where the rope connects small is important but that's been covered well. I had one guy on the other end and me. We used our cell phones on speakerphone so we could just lay them near where we were and talk to each other. One guy makes sure the wire feeds in ok without tangling up and the other guy pulls. I didn't time how long it took but it went pretty smoothly - I am guessing under 20 minutes and we weren't rushing. Had to stop a couple times when a wire loop slipped over the side of the spool or to give a squirt of lube. No way I see this taking 5 guys if you set everything up well to minimize issues although 2 guys pulling might make things easier for them. Would more people make it faster? Sure but not really needed IMHO.

 

[Donttouchthat]

Even though I have a backhoe, I don't think it makes any sense to reverse my pull point (switch to from barn vs from basement). It doesn't seem to me that pulling is the big issue. But the person(s) doing the feeding and keeping track of spools, lube etc is where the more effort/difficulty comes in, from what I can tell. Especially if you can make the pulling part easier. I have lots of cable pullers/come alongs that I could use (keep tying new knots on the pull rope as it comes out and reset the cable puller. Another possibility is that I have a Tuf-tug RH700 block and tackle set up. Not sure if my current 3/8 rope is long enough right now. But out of these two possible pulling methods which would you choose? Thanks! PS I did notice a Greenlee 1500lb 200ft 766m3 hand crank puller available for $60 near me on FB Marketplace. Any opinions?

 

[Donttouchthat]

Most of the advice here is from people with lots more experience than me but I think they may make you more worried than necessary about your pull. I pulled 200' of 1 size smaller wire through 1-1/2 conduit and it was pretty easy with two of us. And I didn't use a ton of lube to where it was running everywhere - just a little - probably about a pint. The keys as I see it are using long sweeps (even for the 45 bends if you can't eliminate them and bend the pipe), minimizing the number of bends, and keeping the feed and pull in line with the conduit on entry and exit. Standard radius bends are going to cause a lot more friction so a lot more lube may be appropriate for those. I suspended the spools above the conduit so it was nearly a straight shot into the conduit. Put together a tall tripod (at least 12') to hang a pulley for the pull end right above the conduit (it goes at a slight angle because of the LB body). I dropped a short length of metal flex conduit into the conduit on the pull end that went past the first bend to keep the small rope I was using from cutting into the conduit and had a small plastic bushing at each end made out of some small PVC pipe to cover the sharp ends of the flex. Keeping the lead end where the rope connects small is important but that's been covered well. I had one guy on the other end and me. We used our cell phones on speakerphone so we could just lay them near where we were and talk to each other. One guy makes sure the wire feeds in ok without tangling up and the other guy pulls. I didn't time how long it took but it went pretty smoothly - I am guessing under 20 minutes and we weren't rushing. Had to stop a couple times when a wire loop slipped over the side of the spool or to give a squirt of lube. No way I see this taking 5 guys if you set everything up well to minimize issues although 2 guys pulling might make things easier for them. Would more people make it faster? Sure but not really needed IMHO.

Good info. But this has me pulling from the barn? I do have some "stuff" that could aid in this system/process i.e. come alongs, scaffolding, masons wheel/pulley (1-1/8" wide interior convex) attachment, backhoe, extra large spools. My current thoughts are either come along/block & tackle/Greenlee puller with some sort of sheave/spool/cross pipe to relieve friction at the conduit edge in basement. Then come up with a setup at the outside barn to hold my spools (W&C 15"d x 9"h) and funnel the wire over something that eases the friction as it goes into the access door of the LB type conduit body on outside wall. For 1st phase of the pull. With lube of course.

 

[mike93lx]

Even though I have a backhoe, I don't think it makes any sense to reverse my pull point (switch to from barn vs from basement). It doesn't seem to me that pulling is the big issue. But the person(s) doing the feeding and keeping track of spools, lube etc is where the more effort/difficulty comes in, from what I can tell. Especially if you can make the pulling part easier. I have lots of cable pullers/come alongs that I could use (keep tying new knots on the pull rope as it comes out and reset the cable puller. Another possibility is that I have a Tuf-tug RH700 block and tackle set up. Not sure if my current 3/8 rope is long enough right now. But out of these two possible pulling methods which would you choose? Thanks! PS I did notice a Greenlee 1500lb 200ft 766m3 hand crank puller available for $60 near me on FB Marketplace. Any opinions?

I guess it depends on your strength and that of who is helping.

$60 to avoid a back strain or shoulder injury sounds like a good deal to me, but I would probably skip it depending in who was helping. If I had to do this with my wife, I would have to be feeding, and she would never be able to pull the wire through.

 

[Donttouchthat]

I guess it depends on your strength and that of who is helping.

$60 to avoid a back strain or shoulder injury sounds like a good deal to me, but I would probably skip it depending in who was helping. If I had to do this with my wife, I would have to be feeding, and she would never be able to pull the wire through.

You think cranking the come along or pulling the block & Tackle would be that tough? IDK

 

[mike93lx]

You think cranking the come along or pulling the block & Tackle would be that tough?

For me? No. For some people, absolutely. For you, I have no idea. I can tell you with certainty, that my wife wouldn't be able to pull it, but I also wouldn't ask her to.

My point is that strength and injury risk vary widely. People get hurt all the time doing less.

For $60, you could have a tool on hand that might get you unstuck if something happens. Maybe you won't need it, but the price of admission is low enough that there is little risk. Up to you if the insurance is worth it

 

[Innovate1]

Good info. But this has me pulling from the barn? I do have some "stuff" that could aid in this system/process i.e. come alongs, scaffolding, masons wheel/pulley (1-1/8" wide interior convex) attachment, backhoe, extra large spools. My current thoughts are either come along/block & tackle/Greenlee puller with some sort of sheave/spool/cross pipe to relieve friction at the conduit edge in basement. Then come up with a setup at the outside barn to hold my spools (W&C 15"d x 9"h) and funnel the wire over something that eases the friction as it goes into the access door of the LB type conduit body on outside wall. For 1st phase of the pull. With lube of course.

I didn't mean to suggest one direction or the other. I think by "pulling from the barn" you mean feeding the wire in at the barn and pulling to the house although it could mean you are pulling the rope at the barn and feeding from the house - just seems a bit ambigous to me... I think you were planning to put the spools at the barn and pull to the basement which seems good to me. If you mount the spools high you have a bit of advantage of gravity helping to feed the wire into the conduit. As far as what to pull with a come along or block and tackle will work but the come along will be very slow and both will only be able to pull a fairly short distance before being reset - very slow but would work if things get stuck. On mine I used a pulley on a tall tripod because it is much easier to pull down on a rope than up. Had a fairly fit 30 year old helping that did the pulling. As others have said it depends on lots of factors including the fitness of the person. If you don't have a couple able bodied helpers a winch of some sort could be used. Not familiar with the Greenlee but probably would work well.

As for feeding the wire in I had the strands on individual spools about 6' above the conduit end (about 10' above the floor) so it was nearly a straight shot down from the spools into the conduit. I put a length of 3/4" steel water pipe through them and put the pipe on some supports so the wires fed fairly straight into the conduit. The wire got a bit loose and a turn slipped off the edge of the spool a time or two so had to stop and put the wire loop back on a spool but otherwise easy for one person to guide the wires into the conduit and push a little to reduce the pull needed a bit. If the spools are off to the side and lower it will be a little harder - maybe loop the wires over a scaffold. Or just hang the spools from the scaffold.

 

[Donttouchthat]

For me? No. For some people, absolutely. For you, I have no idea. I can tell you with certainty, that my wife wouldn't be able to pull it, but I also wouldn't ask her to.

My point is that strength and injury risk vary widely. People get hurt all the time doing less.

For $60, you could have a tool on hand that might get you unstuck if something happens. Maybe you won't need it, but the price of admission is low enough that there is little risk. Up to you if the insurance is worth it

Are you saying that the Greenlee puller should be considered exclusively over come along/block&tackle that I already have? Thanks

 

[sparky 1971]

Even though I have a backhoe, I don't think it makes any sense to reverse my pull point (switch to from barn vs from basement). It doesn't seem to me that pulling is the big issue. But the person(s) doing the feeding and keeping track of spools, lube etc is where the more effort/difficulty comes in, from what I can tell.

Leave the wire outside. Pull from the LB to the house then reverse and go from the LB to the barn. It's going to take two people at the spools. One person won't be able to do it just because his hands will be too slick from the lube to pull the wire off of the spools.

Especially if you can make the pulling part easier. I have lots of cable pullers/come alongs that I could use (keep tying new knots on the pull rope as it comes out and reset the cable puller. Another possibility is that I have a Tuf-tug RH700 block and tackle set up. Not sure if my current 3/8 rope is long enough right now. But out of these two possible pulling methods which would you choose? Thanks! PS I did notice a Greenlee 1500lb 200ft 766m3 hand crank puller available for $60 near me on FB Marketplace. Any opinions?

Don't make this too difficult. I think it will pull ok, but it will probably take two people in the house pulling on the rope. If it starts to get hard, wrap the rope around something. A piece of pipe works well, I've used a hammer handle quite a few times also. You could use phones, but I like a set of walkie talkies to communicate between the ends. Whoever is in the house pulling needs to know if one of the spools fell over, etc.

And, I have one of the Greenlee hand crank tuggers. They have their place, and are nice in that place, but you don't need it.

 

[Donttouchthat]

I didn't mean to suggest one direction or the other. I think by "pulling from the barn" you mean feeding the wire in at the barn and pulling to the house although it could mean you are pulling the rope at the barn and feeding from the house - just seems a bit ambigous to me... I think you were planning to put the spools at the barn and pull to the basement which seems good to me. If you mount the spools high you have a bit of advantage of gravity helping to feed the wire into the conduit. As far as what to pull with a come along or block and tackle will work but the come along will be very slow and both will only be able to pull a fairly short distance before being reset - very slow but would work if things get stuck. On mine I used a pulley on a tall tripod because it is much easier to pull down on a rope than up. Had a fairly fit 30 year old helping that did the pulling. As others have said it depends on lots of factors including the fitness of the person. If you don't have a couple able bodied helpers a winch of some sort could be used. Not familiar with the Greenlee but probably would work well.

As for feeding the wire in I had the strands on individual spools about 6' above the conduit end (about 10' above the floor) so it was nearly a straight shot down from the spools into the conduit. I put a length of 3/4" steel water pipe through them and put the pipe on some supports so the wires fed fairly straight into the conduit. The wire got a bit loose and a turn slipped off the edge of the spool a time or two so had to stop and put the wire loop back on a spool but otherwise easy for one person to guide the wires into the conduit and push a little to reduce the pull needed a bit. If the spools are off to the side and lower it will be a little harder - maybe loop the wires over a scaffold. Or just hang the spools from the scaffold.

OK Thanks. I think I got all the salient points.

 

[mike93lx]

I'm not expert on this. @sparky 1971 has probably pulled 3+ orders of magnitude more wire than me.

I'm just suggesting that if you have easy access to tools that make the job easier, I'd consider it.

I bet you will be fine if you have strong helpers

 

[sparky 1971]

I'm not expert on this. @sparky 1971 has probably pulled 3+ orders of magnitude more wire than me.

I'm just suggesting that if you have easy access to tools that make the job easier, I'd consider it.

I bet you will be fine if you have strong helpers

The problem with that tugger is that it's really not designed for this. In order to pull straight in through the foundation, he'd have to build something to lay it flat, but at the same time keep it suspended so the hand crank can turn and not hit anything while it's turning. Mine works great, but the only time's I've used it was when I was pulling in from an underground conduit. I can set the puller up with the top jammed into the bottom side of the top of the panel, that's usually high enough that the bottom of the puller has to get set on a ladder rung, then the cable goes through the top pulley and down. On mine, there is a piece of angle iron welded on the end to keep the pulley from hitting. And I think the cable is only 100' long, this run is 120'. The photo isn't of mine, but other than the angle iron welded to mine, they are the same. I also have a power tugger, but wouldn't use it here either. This one would be getting done by hand, but I sure as hell wouldn't be doing it with two people. Two people may be able to do it, but I'm going to have four total. Two at each end.

 

[Poolshark314]

I'm no expert either. Like some have also said, it helps to get the spools in a direct route to the conduit entrance. I used a ladder and rebar/broomstick to hold the spools up above the conduit and that made a pretty big difference being able to feed the wires in

 

[Fasthotrod]

I may have missed it, buy why are you going so deep with the conduit? 54" is way deeper than Code requires, even if it were direct burial.

 

[Donttouchthat]

I may have missed it, buy why are you going so deep with the conduit? 54" is way deeper than Code requires, even if it were direct burial.

that's for my waterline. Electrical conduit around 24" below grade. All in the same trench.

 

[Donttouchthat]

Another ? that just arose. I'm realizing that the 20' interior barn run that I show can't be run "through" the wall due to a vent pipe I need in the same wall. So I want to run it outside this wall which will have 5/8" gypsum being its a rough storage portion of the barn and will have lawn tractor etc with gas and gas storage. I am hoping I can still stick to PVC but maybe others/code say switch to metal.

My issue is that I have the subpanel box installed already and still want to come in on center bottom. This now presents where I need to make a tight transition (I think hook or by crook I'll get the wires through OK) like 4 5/8" from centerline of vertical 2" conduit to outside face of the 5?8 where it will junction into the conduit body.

I looked, with no luck, for tight radius type elbow. Can I heat up a 2" 45 elbow and make a 90 out of it? Or can I slip in a PVC/ABS 2" 90 to make this bend. Any input appreciated. See my scaled drawing. Thanks!

 

[mike93lx]

I think a LB or junction box would work better . A tight elbow will be less than fun

 

[Donttouchthat]

I think a LB or junction box would work better . A tight elbow will be less than fun

The LB is there already. need to make the 90 turn inside the wall cavity.

 

[Donttouchthat]

I think a LB or junction box would work better . A tight elbow will be less than fun

Do you know of any code restrictions to slip in a DWV plumbing elbow to make the transition? Thanks

 

[Innovate1]

Another ? that just arose. I'm realizing that the 20' interior barn run that I show can't be run "through" the wall due to a vent pipe I need in the same wall. So I want to run it outside this wall which will have 5/8" gypsum being its a rough storage portion of the barn and will have lawn tractor etc with gas and gas storage. I am hoping I can still stick to PVC but maybe others/code say switch to metal.

My issue is that I have the subpanel box installed already and still want to come in on center bottom. This now presents where I need to make a tight transition (I think hook or by crook I'll get the wires through OK) like 4 5/8" from centerline of vertical 2" conduit to outside face of the 5?8 where it will junction into the conduit body.

I looked, with no luck, for tight radius type elbow. Can I heat up a 2" 45 elbow and make a 90 out of it? Or can I slip in a PVC/ABS 2" 90 to make this bend. Any input appreciated. See my scaled drawing. Thanks!

Should be no issue running the conduit on the surface of the wall. If you are worried about damage you could switch to schedule 80 PVC or metal but I doubt it's required. Might want to check with the AHJ. As far as the tight turn you could use an LB. The cover needs to be left accessible per code. I think you are asking about using a plumbing fitting - people have done it, the sizes are the same, but it's a bad idea and I don't think anyone here would support that idea.

I am guessing both sides of the wall you drew to show the panel are inside and not an exterior wall?

 

[Innovate1]

Do you know of any code restrictions to slip in a DWV plumbing elbow to make the transition? Thanks

Yes. Plumbing fittings are not allowed by code for electrical. It's as simple as that. Use another LB is a proper way to do it.

 

[mike93lx]

Is this on the end with SER?

You can't go out the back and adjust the conduit on the other side of the wall?

 

[Innovate1]

If you don't have enough room for back to back LB's you might shave a little of the hub if it's close or go to 1-1/2 size for the last short stub. I didn't look up fill to know if that's allowed for the wire sizes you are using so you would need to check that. But its a short run so getting the wire in should be possible without being too bad.

 

[Donttouchthat]

Should be no issue running the conduit on the surface of the wall. If you are worried about damage you could switch to schedule 80 PVC or metal but I doubt it's required. Might want to check with the AHJ. As far as the tight turn you could use an LB. The cover needs to be left accessible per code. I think you are asking about using a plumbing fitting - people have done it, the sizes are the same, but it's a bad idea and I don't think anyone here would support that idea.

I am guessing both sides of the wall you drew to show the panel are inside and not an exterior wall?

I want the wall on the front side of the panel clean. It's a finished room. Yes both are inside. Just one side is a future in-law type suite and other side raw as-is barn storage space.

 

[Donttouchthat]

Is this on the end with SER?

You can't go out the back and adjust the conduit on the other side of the wall?

No inside my barn 20' horizontal run. I could go out the back but I'd rather not If possible. I have framing on the way and it's a cleaner wire install coming from the bottom.