[TowerTalk] Buried conduit pull rope

[Steve Maki]

Depends on what you're pulling, how big the conduit is, how many bends, 
etc. In worse case scenarios I avoid knots of any kind in the pull line. 
I stagger the cables being pulled and simply tape each cable to the mule 
tape with generous TIGHT wraps of electrical tape. I'm not afraid to use 
a whole roll or two of tape, and a fair bit of time preparing the mass 
of cables. I'll cut the ends of the cables at an angle to lessen the 
chance of catching on a conduit joint. A little cable lube helps.

As you probably noticed muletape is commonly available in 1250 lb and 
2500 lb strengths (and stronger), so it's good for pulling fairly big 
bundles of cables thru hundreds of feet of conduit with a capstan winch. 
If you try to do this with twist rope you'll melt PVC 90° bends almost 
instantly.

-Steve K8LX

On 8/28/2017 20:39 PM, john at kk9a.com wrote:

> I have always used #14 solid wire for a pull rope and once it was pulled
> though I repurposed the wire for temporary Beverage antennas. I had never
> heard of Muletape until this post.  It definitely looks like it would make a
> very strong pull cable, how do you attach multiple wires to it?

> Muletape is the only thing to use. It's flat & slippery, does not tend to
> twist, and won't burn thru your PVC corners. And cheap. And strong.