"tr" wrote in message
oups.com...
I need to pull 100 feet of service wire...two 2awg...one 4awg
neutral...and one 6awg ground wire through 100 feet of 1 1/2 inch thin
wall. The heaviest I have ever pulled is 12 awg

What's the best way to pull this through...mostly straight run with a
90 degree up/down of about 8 feet at each end.

I have a number of regular fish lines...but is there a "heavy duty"
fish line for this type of work ?

Any other pointers...tips....will be really appreciated !

Thanks, Tim


Some contractor rental yards rent power and hand crank pullers. Make sure
that your conduit is well strapped especially at the ends. If you have a
bunch of friends you should have two guys feeding the wire into the pipe.
One guy who actually does the pushing and the other guy who pulls up the
slack and keeps the conductors straight. You don't want the wires to get
twisted. At the pulling end two guys should suffice. The trick is to get
the push end coordinated with the pull end Have the pusher yell "Pull"
when he is ready and just pull a certain amount at a time. Don't try to
pull 100' in one motion. Do it in steps; maybe 2' - 3' at a time. Some
pulls will be better than others. The pusher should also be applying lube as
the wire goes into the pipe. You should have at least a gallon of lube for
this.

Strip the ends of the wire back about a foot. Cut off the outer strands of
the #4 and #2 conductors to make them smaller. Use a 1/2" or 5/8" pulling
rope with a bowline knot at the end. Pull the rope through the conduit.
You can use a shop vac with a Home Depot bag (Or similar) tied to
lightweight string to put a pulling string into the pipe. I call this the
parachute method. This may not work too well with EMT since it leaks air.
Use the pulling string to pull your rope into the pipe. Bend 6" of the
stripped wires through the bowline knot. Squeeze them tight and wrap them
with steel tie wire in several places. Keep the tie wire as compact as
possible and twist the ends of the tie wire to make it tight. Bend the
twists away from the direction of the pull. Wrap this up with vinyl
electrical tape.

If you don't have a bunch of friends you could probably get away with two
people and a come-along. The come-along will need to be secured to
something solid at one end in a straight path to the conduit end. Put a
slip knot in the rope, have someone feed while you crank the come-along.
When the cable is used up, undo the slip knot, pull the cable back out and
repeat with a new slip knot.

Don't use a car or truck for pulling wire. You need to be able to feel the
pull. If you are pulling with a car and the wire gets jammed you can rip
the conduit and whatever it is attached to right off.