Fun Wire Pull

[alaskan JW]

Had a really hard pull this weekend. Pulled 3- 646 and 1-#2 DLO

cables 900' through 4in. Ocal. Maxed the tugger out to 10000lbs

and we had to have a come-along pulling on the clevis of the

sock when we finally got it out of the pipe. Wire megged out

fine so we were happy.

 

[jrannis]

Why did you have to use DLO?

 

[don_resqcapt19]

What do you use for bends? There would be a huge sidewall pressure on the conductors coming around that last 90. It would likely require a 90 with a 7 or 8 foot radius to bring the sidewall pressure down to an acceptable limit.

 

[alaskan JW]

We had to use DLO because the ampacity is twice

what a normal class b stranded wire is. They were

having voltage drop issues with the original

conductors that were installed. It was an existing

pipe run and it was the cheapest way for the coast

guard to do. There was a lot of pressure on those

conductors. We were very happy after it was all

done and they megged out. We are going to go and

test them again tomorrow, hopefully they will

megger out better.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

We had to use DLO because the ampacity is twice

what a normal class b stranded wire is.

There is nothing special about DLO that gives you an higher ampacity than standard building wire. You might think that if you just look at the manufacturer's info...they almost always list the 90?C free air ampacity. You can't use that DLO conductors that are installed in a raceway.

 

[alaskan JW]

They were worried about voltage drop and the DLO has 1600 strands of #24, thus more surface area then normal building wire. Why can you not use it in conduit? the insulation on it is listed as RHH.

 

[peter d]

Had a really hard pull this weekend. Pulled 3- 646 and 1-#2 DLO

cables 900' through 4in. Ocal.

Let's see here...900' X 3 runs = 2700 feet of 646 kcmil DLO cable...Plus 900' of "ocal." I don't know that that is but from your pictures it looks like PVC coated RMC.

And you mentioned this was for the Coast Guard.

Apparently money is no object.

 

[alaskan JW]

Is money ever an object with the government job :roll: .

 

[benaround]

Alaskan JW,

Did you figure more than 475 amps per conductor for the 646kcmil ? Have fun

crimping the ends on the cables. 900', and that stuff fought every inch of the way.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

They were worried about voltage drop and the DLO has 1600 strands of #24, thus more surface area then normal building wire. Why can you not use it in conduit? the insulation on it is listed as RHH.

You said that the DLO has twice the ampcity of standard Class B stranded wire. What I was trying to say is that you can't use the manufacturer's listed ampacity in a conduit as that ampacity is almost always based on a free air installation and 90?C ampacity. You can't use that ampacity for a NEC conduit installation.

 

[jrannis]

Yeah somebody really blew it think there is something special about DLO.
We use it in free air for some of its properties.
When it gets pulled in conduit (big mistake) its just plain ol RHW

 

[SEO]

DLO cable is sometines used in cable trays for UPS systems and battery hook-up. As far as pulling 900' runs I would wounder if any of the strands might break under the stress of the pull?

 

[alaskan JW]

DLO cable is sometines used in cable trays for UPS systems and battery hook-up. As far as pulling 900' runs I would wounder if any of the strands might break under the stress of the pull?

Some did break. We put two pulling grips in the sock and hooked the eyes in the clevis along with the pulling sock. The pulling grips ripped the strands from the cable. The set screws were still tight though .

 

[benaround]

AlaskanJW,

Come on man, tell us the whole story!! What's the OCPD on this run, how

many amps did they figure the 646 is good for.

Want to hear something funny, My TV is on and the show is 'Tougher in Alaska"

even the wire pulling is tougher in Alaska.