gorehound wrote:
What type of wire should I use to make a 50 foot over head run from the
house to the garage? This will be a 50A 240V circuit from the main house
panel. Right now we have separate service from the electric company to
the garage with a separate meter (1 meter for the house 1 for the
garage). The electric company now wants to charge a 30 dollar per month
service charge for the garage. We can't afford that. To go below ground
would we would have to deal with a 4 foot across driveway and a gas
line, that's why we want to go overhead. Do we need 4 conductor wire
that being 2 hots a neutral and a ground? What about 3 conductor (2 hots
and a neutral) and a ground rod at garage panel? Do we need to enclose
the wire in a pipe to run up the house then leave it open till it
reaches the garage then more pipe down to the garage entrance?

Update! Turns out the run was about 100'. We rented a trencher to do the
long run, and we used it to dig a trench beside the drive (unfortunately
not quite long enough) so we could lay the pie in to beat it under the
driveway. What we didn't think about was the swing factor for the
sledge, and had to dig back a few feet using the maddock because we
already took the trencher back. Pounding that pipe under the driveway
was not easy, but it worked. We used 6/3 UF to get from the house to the
garage. Tomorrow we will finish up and hopefully no fires!

Thanks for all of the suggestions!