[TowerTalk] protective hose for COAX runs

[Grant Saviers]

I just pulled three x BuryFlex/9913 plus one x LDF4.5 thru 140' of 3"  
PVC conduit with 3 x 90deg sweeps.  I used lots of Ideal Yellow 77 Plus 
cable pulling lube.  One person pulled and one fed about 3' at a time.  
Using anti-chafe rings on the edges of the PVC hubs is important to 
protect the cable jackets (they are code required on all electrical 
conduits greater than 3/4" anyway).   It is also better to use braided 
rope or flat pulling webbing to not induce twist in the cables being pulled.

Using large radius sweeps is a big plus, the big box store (HD) had 36" 
radius and 48" radius are available at electrical suppliers.  Another 
choice is to use continuous sch 40 PVC pipe and you can make very large 
radius bends.  Flex pipe is tough to work with, better on a hot day to 
get it into the trench. (or use the tractor+ripper+Kellem grip 
technique, or have a horizontal boring company install it)

I recabled a Wil-Burt TV news truck mast once and you really don't want 
to mess with pulling cables thru coils (or coil memory) of plastic hose 
or conduit.  It was impossible to get the old cables out and difficult 
to get new cables into the new $1000 piece of nylon conduit.

Grant KZ1W

On 4/11/2012 3:14 PM, Rick Karlquist wrote:
> JoshL wrote:
>> I  live in high desert of Northern NV
>> Lots of creatures are eager to chew on coax
>> or control lines .
>>
>> I have some LMR 400 running inside some
>> FIBER optic hose ( very tough stuff) that I found
>> for free about 200 ft one piece .
>>
>> I could use hardline too
>>
>> *but does anyone have a source of surplus Fiber
>> Optic protective hose ? *
>>
>> I guess flexible EMT might be use able to protect
>> coax also ?
>>
> A general problem with hoses of whatever sort is that
> they always seem to arrive coiled up and don't want
> to lay flat on the ground.
>
> I have tried various ideas along these lines.  I tried
> flexible plastic conduit (called "ENT") and found that
> pulling coax through it was a big hassle, and then the
> stuff lasts only a few years in the sun before turning
> brittle and falling apart.
>
> I also tried to use cheap poly irrigation tubing (5/8 inch
> diameter) as a sheath over coax, but it turned out that
> it was impossible to slip even as much as 100 feet of tubing
> over coax due to the friction, and the fact that the tubing
> wanted to curl up.
>
> What has worked very well was to slip ten foot sections of
> PVC conduit over coax one at a time and connect them with
> fittings just using the friction of engagement.  It would also
> be possible to tape the joints as is done on SteppIR elements.
> This method is very easy because you are not pulling coax through a long
> conduit.  Instead you pull the conduit over the coax.  No problem even
> with 500 feet.
>
> In some cases I have dug a trench 2 inches deep and buried
> these runs just deep enough to avoid tripping over them.
>
> Rick N6RK
>
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