On Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:19:23 -0800, Carla Fong
wrote:

On 3/2/2012 7:19 PM, David Lesher wrote:

I've been on a snipe hunt for a vibraplow
http://ditchwitch.com/trenchers-plows/walk-behind-vibratory-plow/100sx-vibratory-plow/
in the Santa Cruz region. I've yet to find a tool rental outfit
that even knows what I'm talking about... Yet on the East Coast,
they are common...

Any suggestions welcomed.


We have one (Case Mini-Sneaker) under my lean-to but it's in Oregon...
We used it to bury drop wire when we had a cable TV company.

Rental houses usually have trenchers instead of plows - more versatile
and idiot proof by comparison, but a plow is quick (in suitable soil
conditions) and leaves almost no trace it passed through.

Check with cable TV / telephone installation contracting companies and
see if they'll rent you one of theirs or do the job for you.

Carla

The problem with plows is it's Real Easy to slice up power lines,
phone lines, sprinkler mains, Fiber Optics CATV, and all sorts of
stuff.

And you don't know you hit it till the sprinklers try to come on in
two days and only then the flood starts - Or worse, nobody notices
they aren't coming on till 5 acres of lawn is dead...

You are supposed to get a USA Lookup done and have all the local
utility companies come out and mark all the utility lines, but the
Utilities themselves often don't know where everything is - Old maps
were often wrong. They'll mark a lot of things "Hand Dig Here" and
you dig an empty hole, then you find their line the hard way 50 feet
over - and even if it's unmarked they'll still try to ding you for
hitting it.

If the local utility likes to plow in their 15KV Medium Voltage supply
lines direct buried in the same flimsy polyethylene ducting, you don't
want to be messing with a plow Anywhere Near There. Unless you're
trying to make your life insurance pay off...

And the soils have to be right - a lot of rocks and a plow is useless.