The Farmer/Engineer is at it again...

[Downeaster]

I built the basic unit as a hard pan ripper for my garden several years ago. At the time, I thought it might make a pretty good cable plow as well, but had no immediate need so didn't add that part.

Need to bury about 80 feet of wire for the daughter to run power to the chicken coop.

<Electrical Safety Nazis do not read the next part...>

The feed tube is 2 inch EMT, the plan is to run 1 inch PVC water pipe through it as "conduit" . When the conduit is in, I'll suck a mouse-and-string through it to pull the wire in. The only load will be a heated water bucket for the birds and maybe a 40 watt bulb for Winter chores.

</Nazis>

I used the Zeny plasma cutter to cut a piece of 3" square tubing on the diagonal to make a vee, welded the vee to the spine of the ripper and then welded the sweep 90 into the vee. (Plasma cutter cut that 1/4" tubing without a hiccup! Dry air makes a HUGE difference!) A 30 foot test run through my old garden didn't break any welds, so I guess the next step is to try it at the dottir's place while actually feeding pipe through it. I'll have the grandson guide the pipe to prevent chafing or jams.

Do think I'll scrounge up another piece of 2 inch pipe and extend the top so I can run a little deeper and not worry about dirt getting into the top of the feed.

 

[RustiePyles]

That'll rip a trench! Nice work DE!

 

[DogBunny]

Interesting idea.
I have pulled lots of wire. The drag at the EMT 90 will be significant. I strongly suggest that you invest in Wire Pulling Lubricant -- Google it. Any electrical supply house will have it, probably all of the usual suspects will have it too. Get at least a 10 pound pail, the more the better if you can afford it. You will think up uses for whatever is left over. You want to very liberally apply it -- like a handful every foot. I strongly suggest that you recruit another feeder/helper. One to manhandle the 1" PVC water pipe, and the other whose sole job is to slather on the Wire Pulling Lubricant.
Left-over lubricant will make pulling the actual wires a lot easier too.
Let us know how it goes.

 

[Downeaster]

Good point, DB. I'll pick up a pail of Boy Butter and give the grandson some rubber gloves...

We'll be going REAL slow (it's only about 80 feet) so he can feed the "conduit" carefully and slather it as needed.

 

[DogBunny]

Actually, now that I think about it, for this application, dish soap should work just fine as a lubricant. A lot cheaper than WPL or Butter.

 

[GLJ]

DogBunny has a good point. Not sure what your local codes are but you may want to consider something like this.

 

[gggGary]

I suspect what he REALLY is burying is a 100' coil of black poly pipe? Not rigid PVC
3 or 4 separate strands of thhn wire pulled through all at the same time will make the easiest job of it.

 

[DogBunny]

I like GLJ's solution, unless you have a good reason for using conduit.
10/2 WG UF wire should easily handle your stated load. The UF stands for Underground Feeder, and will make your installation adhere to code as long as you bury it one foot. I think it will be cheaper, easier, faster, and you still get to use the device you made.

 

[Downeaster]

I suspect what he REALLY is burying is a 100' coil of black poly pipe? Not rigid PVC
3 or 4 separate strands of thhn wire pulled through all at the same time will make the easiest job of it.

Yup, 'zackly.

This is being done as cheaply as possible, and I have the poly pipe and wire on hand.

 

[gggGary]

Yup, 'zackly.

This is being done as cheaply as possible, and I have the poly pipe and wire on hand.

Great minds (cheap asses) think alike.

 

[GLJ]

Being cheap is great. Just make sure you do it safely.
Either make sure you pull a large enough ground wire to keep the buildings on the same ground plane or put in a ground rod at both buildings.
Plant I worked at had multiple buildings. The ground was not even between them. Caused problems with 2 wire coms cables for PLCs.

 

[GLJ]

When I wired my shop I put it on a 70 amp breaker. The cables I ran can handle 100amp, ground included. I did not put a ground rod in the shop as I believe my ground cable will handle any fault the shop may ever have. So far so good.

 

[gggGary]

Guessing you are pulling #12 THHN left over from wiring the shop outlets.
3 wires will give you one twenty amp circuit hot, neutral, ground add ONE wire for a second hot, fed from the next breaker so you have one on each leg of the main breaker and you have TWO twenty amp circuits all nice and legal.

Ground wiring is implied in this diagram.
Here's why that works

 

[gggGary]

A litle more reading the NEC now REQUIRES this type circuit is wired to a 220 (2 pole full size) breaker, preventing any possibilty of both sides being on the same leg, which creates a neutral conductor overload possibility/likelhood.

 

[Downeaster]

Thanks gggGary, but one 110v circuit that can handle a heated waterer and a 40 watt bulb is more than sufficient. It's a chicken coop, not a shop.

 

[Downeaster]

Well, that didn't turn out quite like I hoped. Epic fail, actually. Wouldn't touch the gravel drive. Worked great for the 10 feet or so that was actual soil/sod, but pooched right up out of the ground or hung up on buried boulders when I tried to cross the driveway.

Fortunately she has a "friend" with a backhoe so he'll come by and dig an actual trench sometime.

 

[kshansen]

Well, that didn't turn out quite like I hoped. Epic fail, actually. Wouldn't touch the gravel drive. Worked great for the 10 feet or so that was actual soil/sod, but pooched right up out of the ground or hung up on buried boulders when I tried to cross the driveway.

Fortunately she has a "friend" with a backhoe so he'll come by and dig an actual trench sometime.

Nothing ventured nothing gained was worth the try anyhow! I know around here if you wanted to do that there are places a D8 Cat would not be enough!

When we bought the property being on a state highway we had to supply a steel culvert for under the driveway, state would install. Think they asked for a 8 inch culvert but I got a deal on a free 10 inch second had one from work. Well state highway department could barely get deep enough to have a couple inches of crusher run to cover it! They were digging with a big Gradall and even went back to the shop to get the narrow bucket and still could not make a dent in the rock ledge. Who would think that building a house half way between two lime stone quarries you would run into bed rock?