Longest, biggest pull you guys have done?

[copper123]

We were just talking the other night about wire pulls and some of the tough ones. What is the longest, biggest pull you guys have pulled in? The biggest one we could come up with was 200' 4-500 MCM. I got to looking at the pull tables and 500 MCM can pull up to 12K LB's So you could actually pull a long ways. Anyhow, just curious. I can remember one pull that was done, they had just pulled it in, really long and was for a RV Park. It was a pain the neck. They got the head into the can and everybody went into the electrical room to clean up. All of a sudden the head made a jerk and it went flying back down the pipe. They all ran outside and amazingly a backhoe had pulled up and started digging totally were they told it not too. It had the conduit and burial ribbon in its teeth. Ouch.

[infinity]

On a horizontal run we've pulled in excess of 350' with 4-500kcmil. On a vertical run we've pulled 3-750kcmil up about 22 stories in a commercial building. That's over 225'. The key to long pulls is how it's set up, how many bends are in the conduit and is the conduit sized for just about maximum fill or is it sized one size larger with some wiggle room. The advantage of pulling a riser straight up is it that you can engineer the pull knowing the conductor weight, rope strength and capacity of your puller. On long or difficult pulls our setup usually involves attaching the puller directly to the conduit so you're not going to pull the pipe through the box, panel swichgear, etc. I've seen that done a few times where the machine was bolted to the floor and pulled the connector right through the panel.

[iwire]

Originally posted by infinity:
On long or difficult pulls our setup usually involves attaching the puller directly to the conduit so you're not going to pull the pipe through the box, panel swichgear, etc. I've seen that done a few times where the machine was bolted to the floor and pulled the connector right through the panel. All to familiar. :(

I have been the one to repair the damage done from improper puller set up.

It's a real bummer when your 4" EMT connector pulls right through the top of a panel tub.

[hardworkingstiff]

My longest is (traditional) 650' of 3-3/0 Cu. and 1-#2 cu. in a 2.5" PVC conduit with 4-60 degree bends.

Here are some type W cables I've pulled in docks.
4/0-4C 700'
3/0-4c 750'

type G
350-3C (plus it has 2-1/0 gr.) 225'

[mkoloj]

I am no electrician but I was expecting some bigger #'s on this thread, for me as the Comm. guy I twice did a 2300' run of 144 strand armored fiber. Not once but twice for redundancy in the facilities network back-bone. I know someone is going to say why didn't we do it in one pull??
The spec's called for it to be ran on opposite sides of the building. This was in one of NYC's museums, which was a lot of brick and terra-cotta block interior walls. That has got to be the longest, most tedious pull I have ever done. No tuggers as the buiilding had no way that conduits could be installed and the risk for damage was too great and not something we could risk.
http://www.frostjedi.com/phpbb/images/smiles/bricks.gif
It was like pulling a half mile of 1" flex conduit stuffed with glass.

[ July 14, 2005, 09:16 AM: Message edited by: mkoloj ]

[growler]

In 1992, I was involved in a very long, very stupid pull. I'd just got my final on one building when I was told to supervise a wire pull that these guys were to have a little trouble with. When I got there, they were setting up to pull 890 ft of 750 mcm X 4 in 4" pcv with at least 4 factory 90's. They had a tugger and 1K ft. of 1/2" nylon rope and a bucket of soap that was supposed to make this work. The temp. was about 105 F. I assessed the situation as a fools errand. So I argued with the project manager for a few minutes, trying to get a decent pull rope. He was of the mind, that ropes are an unnecessary expense and so the comedy began. We got about 400 ft. into the pipe each time before the rope broke. Pull it out, reel it up, with most of the crew looking as if they would die from heat stroke. The pull was not made and they pulled some 500 in a couple days later. I still think there was a good chance of success with the proper rope. The company thought I had a bad attitude and fired me. To this day I don't like project managers that think you can make chicken salad out of the brown stuff.

[kentirwin]

As an apprentice in 1972 I took part in a short pull, less than 100', of 1000kcmil cu. What I really remember is having to shape and terminate it! It was like trying to shape a baseball bat. :(

[macmikeman]

We once pulled 6 multi strand fiber optic cables thru a series of manholes at Honolulu International Airport that reached from one end of the airport to the cargo terminals at far side of the property- It was roughly 3,800 ft total. The spec was firm on no splices.

[mkoloj]

Originally posted by macmikeman:
We once pulled 6 multi strand fiber optic cables thru a series of manholes at Honolulu International Airport that reached from one end of the airport to the cargo terminals at far side of the property- It was roughly 3,800 ft total. The spec was firm on no splices. Did you guys run innerduct then pull thru that or did you use the armored stuff ??? How many strands was this pull ??

[don_resqcapt19]

A long time ago as an apprentice I worked on a pull involving some 3 conductor, 15 Kv, 750 kcmil, oil filled cable. I don't remember how long it was, but it weighed about 15 pounds a foot.
I have done a number of 1200' to 2300' pulls with 3 350kcmil 5kV and a 4/0 bare ground. These were in underground duct banks and there were manholes every 300' to 600'.
don

[petersonra]

an acquaintance of mine once was involved in a fiasco involving a run of (3) #14 wires in pvc conduit for several miles along the ground in the deserts of saudi arabia.

this was supposed to provide 120VDC power to some kind of rtu.

not surprisingly, the thing never did work. something about the capacitance in the wiring causing the 120VDC power supply output to swing wildly due to some kind of wierd feedback loop.

seems there was also a problem with the heat making the conduit soft.

an interesting tale, told much better and with more flair by him than by I.

[tx2step]

Originally posted by infinity:
On a vertical run we've pulled 3-750kcmil up about 22 stories in a commercial building. That's over 225'. ... The advantage of pulling a riser straight up is it that you can engineer the pull knowing the conductor weight, rope strength and capacity of your puller. I've been involved with some riser pulls like that. If we could get the wire reels to the top of the pull, we always tried to pull from the top down to the bottom. It was much easier. The pull got easier as you got more wire into the pipe. Toward the end, the guys at the top were having to hold the wire back to keep it from being sucked into the pipe by its own weight. http://www.fadzter.com/smilies/beerchug.gif

[iwire]

Originally posted by tx2step:
If we could get the wire reels to the top of the pull, we always tried to pull from the top down to the bottom. It was much easier. It is easer if you are sure the top guys can control it.

On such a heavy vertical pull I would leave the spools at the bottom.

I once lost a set of 350s from the 11th floor to the basement, I would not wish that on anyone.

[tx2step]

Originally posted by iwire:
[quote]It is easer if you are sure the top guys can control it.

On such a heavy vertical pull I would leave the spools at the bottom.

I once lost a set of 350s from the 11th floor to the basement, I would not wish that on anyone. That's true -- You do have to have guys on the top that know what they're doing.

We did a lot of those kinds of pulls, though, and never had any problems. You could do it with much lighter pulling equipment, rope, etc.

It's never happend to me (yet), but I've heard of crews losing a pull and all of the wire ending up in a pile in the basement.

I've heard of it happening pulling from the top to the bottom when the crew at the top let it get away from them.

I've also heard of it happening when pulling from the bottom to the top when the rope broke near the end of the pull.

Either way, the guys at the bottom have to scramble to get out of the way! Either situation is dangerous! You want to always leave a clear escape route, and discuss with the guys at the bottom what to do if the pull is lost and the wire starts coming down (or back down) the pipe! Get out of the way -- fast!!!

[luckyshadow]

I did a job about 6 years ago that had 2 parallel
4" rigid conduit runs that where 800' each.
We pulled 4 - 500 mcm in them.
I fed them from the middle of the run through a well placed pull box. We had no splices in either run. It took 5 men 10 hours to pull the first conduit, then 5 men 8 1/2 hours to pull the second run.

[iwire]

One green helper and myself installed four - 500 Kcmil CU in three 350' 3" EMTs.

He ran the puller I lubed the conductors and made sure they where going in correctly.

We got all three sets installed in one 8 hour day.

Proper equipment and set up makes it possible.

[ July 14, 2005, 06:27 PM: Message edited by: iwire ]

[macmikeman]

Posted by mklojo: Did you guys run innerduct then pull thru that or did you use the armored stuff ??? How many strands was this pull ??

It was a mix of 10 strand loose tube and 20 strand loose tube. There was no innerduct, we pulled strait thru 4" pvc communications duct as per directed by blueprints. Out of all that we only had one bad fiber. By the way, I remember about half of those manholes had water all the way to the top, we had to pump out for hours to get em dry. Also there were lots of direction changes. We used big sheeves anchored to the manhole sides with come alongs and a tension meter at the head end.

[highkvoltage]

When I worked on the Transmission towers 3 miles. Working as a wireman 2000 ft of armored 500 kcmil 3 conductor on the side of a steel mill about 40 feet in the air.Used 2 super tuggers with one tugger with a mare's tail in the middle.The toughest pull 1000' of 1000 kcmil 80 feet in the air for a blast furnace. Of course installing the 6" rigid conduit wasn't much fun either. used a special hydrualic puller with a steel winch line. Make a supper tugger look like a toy.

[ July 15, 2005, 12:21 AM: Message edited by: highkvoltage ]

[luke warmwater]

I once had to pull 3 #14's through a 10' piece of 1/2" emt.

I hope I never have to do that again!! :D :p


Seriously, I don't really remember the 'longest' or 'longer' pulls, but I remember some of the 'hardest' pulls.

And, some of the hardest pulls were with smaller wire and smaller conduit, and usually a 'freakin moron' (technical term) on the feed end of the pull.

[rcarroll]

I was pulling a 230' run of #1 cu 3-phase & while running the tugger, I noticed the 3/8" rope was looking a little stretched. BOOM! it broke. I didn't have much room but to turn & duck as the rope snapped out of the pipe. :eek:

[bigjohn67]

I dont care if you have a pull 100 ft or 10,000ft.
With the proper pull boxes install there are no pulls that can not be made.

Just remember..... Always start in the middle......

[highkvoltage]

We had to pull some lead sheath world war cable out that when bad out of some fiber cable duct. The 90's where steel and the lead melted when the fault occurred and gathered in the 90. We use a 40 ton grove crane with cable slings to pull it out. The operator claimed we had over 27,000 tension on it before it started to move. We poured pulling lube down the pipe and applied compressed air to blow the lube down the pipe. The only way we got it to move was we had a backhoe come out expose the 90 an rapped on it with a jackhammer. Finally it broke free.

[copper123]

I don't know how many you guys heard about it, or saw it, but in the alaska magazine, they showed a picture of a record bull moose that got caught up in a new utility line that was getting pulled up in Alaska last fall. It had a amazing photo of the bull hanging by its antlers about 40 feet in the air. They had to put it out of its misery for a number of reasons, but what a chain of events. In the fall they get so crazy from the rut, they think it attacked the wire as it was getting to elevation.

[highkvoltage]

Now I'll make you guys laugh. We had two guys on a job that thought a conduit was blocked with concrete. They decided to put some acetylene gas down the pipe and light it to clear the blockage. The first attempt did not do the job so they decided to try again but with more gas. Well after pumping the pipe full they then thought they put to much in and got concerned. They thought about how to get it back out and came up with the brite idea to suck it out with a shop vac. They went and got the new greenlee shop vac and started sucking when we all heard a huge noise. That right the vac exploded. They we lucky it had a long hose and weren't right beside it. The bosses we none to happy. I laughed so hard I had tears coming down my cheeks looking at them two standing beside this vac with the dumbest look.

[celtic]

Originally posted by highkvoltage:
That right the vac exploded. ______________
http://www.frostjedi.com/phpbb/images/smiles/flamingdevil.gif http://www.frostjedi.com/phpbb/images/smiles/icon_evil.gif
http://www.boardmod.org/yabb/YaBBImages/thinking2.gif

LMAO

[wpaul29]

This is a good topic. Its neat to read about other peoples experiences.

The longest pull for me was on the lightrail in Baltimore City. We were pulling fiber about a 1/2" think in diameter several thousand feet. I cant remember the exact length but it was long. The linemen were handling most of the rigging and we crossed over many road crossings that went over the tracks. We had flag men watching the road in case the cable dropped to low over the road way. One van almost took the cable for a ride. The guy drove right past the flag man waving the flag an the cable was hooked on the ladder rack luckally it slipped off. That was a close one.

The most memorable was at Lake Clifton High School also in Baltimore City. My last day with the company before I got transferred as a 3rd year apprentice. We had 4 #4s in a 1" pipe. The pull was maybe 200'. I couldn't budge it so the journeyman came over an tried it while I fed it. The next thing I know he comes running saying something about a water pipe had broke. We ran to the electric room an he had got the roped wrapped around a water guage an snapped it off. The water was shooting right into the panel onto the bus 480V 3 phase. I grabbed the only thing I saw a cieling tile to block the water from spraying in the panel. The journeyman ran to get somebody to turn the water off. I though for sure I was either going to get shocked or that the panel was going to blow. Luckally all that happened was 2 breakers tripped an they just happened to be feeding the lights in the administrative offices.

[friebel]

I believe that I discussed this pull, but the experience that I gained from it, I think might be worth repeating.
I was a young first-line supervisor in an industrial facility, and we had to make a pull of three- 500MCM copper conductors, 600 feet.
The voltage was 600 volts, 3-phase, and went from a transformer bank feed to a main switch in an electrical control room. As I stated I was a very young and green supervisor and my immediate supervisor suggesting that I do not follow the NEC minimum values, and he suggesting running 4-inch RMC for this 600 foot run, and also instead of using LBD's, to use junction boxes, 3-feet x 4-feet x 12 inches deep. We used two junction boxes on this run, and I always remember this experience, because if I had used the minimum values that the NEC gave, we would have been in big trouble. Rule of Thumb, Experience Counts, Listen to the Experience mechanic for their advice.

[hardworkingstiff]

Originally posted by highkvoltage:

...We had two guys on a job that thought a conduit was blocked with concrete. ....I laughed so hard I had tears coming down my cheeks looking at them two standing beside this vac with the dumbest look.
That is hilarious (since no one was hurt). Just out of curiosity, what does everyone do if the conduit has mortar in it?

[highkvoltage]

I have use the acetylene trick and it does work with common sense. I have also used a soft 3/8" rod made for this purpose to bust blockages out.