[TowerTalk] Buried conduit pull rope

[Grant Saviers]

Good advice.  I'd add: put a chafe collar on the ends of all conduit, a 
standard pvc conduit part (also code on 3/4 and larger IIRC).  The sharp 
end edge of a conduit can slice thru cable insulation.  Another 
advantage of using mule tape or conduit measuring tape as the pilot is 
exact length measurements of the conduit as installed.  One calculated 
length I used was much shorter than actual and resulted in only 1' tails 
- ouch but better than -1' tails.

Grant KZ1W

On 8/28/2017 20:45 PM, Steve Maki wrote:
> 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.
>
> _______________________________________________
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk