Buried wire/pipe tracker

[jmellc]

Our co. is looking for a good tracker for buried wire & conduit. I have a price on a Greenlee 501. Has anyone used this model? Like or not? Any other models any of you like?

Thanks for any feedback.

 

[ptonsparky]

Our co. is looking for a good tracker for buried wire & conduit. I have a price on a Greenlee 501. Has anyone used this model? Like or not? Any other models any of you like?

Thanks for any feedback.

Looks like what I've used for the last 30 years. It has more than paid for itself.

 

[Cow]

Our co. is looking for a good tracker for buried wire & conduit. I have a price on a Greenlee 501. Has anyone used this model? Like or not? Any other models any of you like?

Thanks for any feedback.

Are you trying to locate empty buried conduit? Or just conduit with wire in it?

Are you looking for a just a locator? Or do you need fault finding capabilities too?

 

[fireryan]

Our co. is looking for a good tracker for buried wire & conduit. I have a price on a Greenlee 501. Has anyone used this model? Like or not? Any other models any of you like?

Thanks for any feedback.

we use the 501. Works good for locating cables but not real impressed with ability to find out how deep it is

 

[ptonsparky]

we use the 501. Works good for locating cables but not real impressed with ability to find out how deep it is

Depth takes practice but I certainly would not rely on it to tell how deep the backhoe operator should dig.:happysad:

 

[fireryan]

Depth takes practice but I certainly would not rely on it to tell how deep the backhoe operator should dig.:happysad:

Agreed

 

[kwired]

Haven't used the model in question, but to find depth all you need to do is place a locate mark directly above cable, then "locate" while holding the probe at a 45 degree angle. Distance between your marks is the depth. There will be some error, but if you determined the line was 4 feet deep you should be reasonably safe to backhoe at least 3 feet then dig by hand the rest of the way to confirm exactly where it is at. The more important it is you not disturb what you are locating the more hand digging you end up doing.

 

[Cow]

We do a fair amount of irrigation pivot locates and use this for locating and fault finding:

https://www.radiodetection.com/en/products/high-precision-cable-and-pipe-locators/rd7100

We called around to everyone we knew including a couple of utility companies to ask what they used, and it was pretty much unanimous, the rd7100. And now that we have it, it's worth every penny. It's very expensive, but I'm confident it's already payed for itself in the year we've had it.

When we use it in conjunction with our mini excavator and a 24" smooth bucket, it's unbeatable. I can locate, verify depth, and dig right down to the top of the conduit with the mini without breaking them, it's depth is that accurate. I've dug up 20-30 conduits so far, no problems. The only catch is it's so accurate, that if you have say a 3" conduit with #2's in it, that are laying at the bottom 1" of conduit, you have to be careful because that conduit is going to show up quicker than expected. But, otherwise our hand digging has gone down CONSIDERABLY! That in itself is a huge time saver, we don't screw around with potholing hardly at all anymore.

Locate the wire, verify the depth, and dig right down to it. No more digging a hole, than jumping in with a shovel to investigate, then more digging, then more shoveling, etc.

Way faster.

 

[ptonsparky]

We do a fair amount of irrigation pivot locates and use this for locating and fault finding:

https://www.radiodetection.com/en/products/high-precision-cable-and-pipe-locators/rd7100

We called around to everyone we knew including a couple of utility companies to ask what they used, and it was pretty much unanimous, the rd7100. And now that we have it, it's worth every penny. It's very expensive, but I'm confident it's already payed for itself in the year we've had it.

When we use it in conjunction with our mini excavator and a 24" smooth bucket, it's unbeatable. I can locate, verify depth, and dig right down to the top of the conduit with the mini without breaking them, it's depth is that accurate. I've dug up 20-30 conduits so far, no problems. The only catch is it's so accurate, that if you have say a 3" conduit with #2's in it, that are laying at the bottom 1" of conduit, you have to be careful because that conduit is going to show up quicker than expected. But, otherwise our hand digging has gone down CONSIDERABLY! That in itself is a huge time saver, we don't screw around with potholing hardly at all anymore.

Locate the wire, verify the depth, and dig right down to it. No more digging a hole, than jumping in with a shovel to investigate, then more digging, then more shoveling, etc.

Way faster.

Those things weren't born yet when I bought. If I had the bucks, and years ahead of me, that or similar would be the way to go.

 

[Cow]

Those things weren't born yet when I bought. If I had the bucks, and years ahead of me, that or similar would be the way to go.

I know our shop does similar work, locates and fault finding, etc as yours. I think you'd love it. It does have quite a few features so there is a little bit of a learning curve though...

Their sales rep does come out and offer training when you buy one also.

 

[fireryan]

Haven't used the model in question, but to find depth all you need to do is place a locate mark directly above cable, then "locate" while holding the probe at a 45 degree angle. Distance between your marks is the depth. There will be some error, but if you determined the line was 4 feet deep you should be reasonably safe to backhoe at least 3 feet then dig by hand the rest of the way to confirm exactly where it is at. The more important it is you not disturb what you are locating the more hand digging you end up doing.

Thats how its supposed to work but ours is more often inaccurate then accurate

 

[kwired]

Thats how its supposed to work but ours is more often inaccurate then accurate

If it is accurate at locating directly above the location there is no reason this shouldn't work, the key is some accuracy in determining the 45 degree angle to hold the probe at. I have an old Rycom locator, the probe handle has a 45 degree bend in it and that does help to get you fairly close to holding it at the correct angle when trying to determine depth.

The other issue can be other objects in the vicinity that are carrying or distorting signal, including other buried conductors/cables.

Is simple and often convenient to connect to the grounded/grounding conductor of a circuit and locate without even needing to disconnect anything but when one gives you trouble sometimes you do need to disconnect and isolate so that you are only injecting signal onto what it is that you are trying to locate.

 

[ptonsparky]

I had a 4' probe built with a tip just a bit larger than the shaft. You would be amazed how easy that pushes into the trench even years after the backfill. Careful you don't damage what you are aiming for.

 

[kwired]

I had a 4' probe built with a tip just a bit larger than the shaft. You would be amazed how easy that pushes into the trench even years after the backfill. Careful you don't damage what you are aiming for.

I have a 4' probe as well, never gave much thought to making it with a larger tip, but makes sense. Sort of like the "saw set" on a saw blade.

I have a backhoe bucket with worn "side cutters" and if you try to dig too deep in hard clay at only one bucket width, it goes pretty slow, most of my digging is usually in sandy soil so not a problem there, but I get reminded when I do dig in clay that this bucket needs some attention.