overhead mast for UF cable

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newservice

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I know this has been asked in different ways before. Garage is 60 feet from the house, with big eaves, so it needs a mast to achieve clearance from the roof and ground and driveway. Presently 14-3 romex loops around a ceramic clevis screwed half way up the roof into the roof shingles, and goes through a hole in the shingles into the garage :) Customer only wants 2-20A circuits. which could be done with 10-3 UF. Customer says dont want underground...

Questions are: Since this would need a mast of some sort, can I do a 10-3 UF cable with a messenger wire , and if so, can I bring that into pipe somehow to maintain the roof clearance? Do they make raintight heads for 10-3 UF? Otherwise I guess its the quadplex cable type entrance that Ill be doing.
Thanks in advance.
 
I'm not too happy with the idea of UF - rated or not - being exposed to weather, sun, and motion. PVC simply seems to have quite limited weather resistance. Still, sometimes it's a challenge to find a simple solution.

Let's look at some of the practical hurdles. For example, minimum conduit size. Do wire fill rules allow for the cable to enter 3/4" rigid? 3/4 would be the largest you could hand-bend into a proper gooseneck. At the end of the pipe you could connect using a coupling and a UF compression connector. That would exclude both water and vermin.

Otherwise, conventional weatherheads have plastic inserts, and you break whatever opening you desire into them. Those are available for pipe from 1-1/4 up.

Do not cut corners in supporting the mast, even if it is for 'only' a small cable. Even a small cable can accumulate massive amounts of ice in the right conditions; I have seen 1-1/2 masts bend and kink from the load.
 
ActionDave said:
If you mean three insulated wires and a messenger wire then that is what I would do.
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Yes I guess if the messenger is the ground that is what I mean. Am thinking this is the way to go if not UG. Possibly need a ground rod or 2 at the garage also. But it looks like if I go overhead, Im not gonna do the UF cable/ messenger wire.
 
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OK, so, a visit to my supplier yesterday shows they do not even carry a 4 wire weatherhead for SE cable for single phase. They can get 4 wire, 3 insulated overhead cable but I would have to pay for a minimum order and wait a couple weeks, pay a cut charge etc. Nobody uses it. Am thinking now just go underground probably with 10-3 w/ground UF , or maybe pipe, or even the direct burial 4 wire would be readily available and cheaper. Just LB through the wall, a couple snap switches for disconnect and no ground rod (there is an exception for a single branch circuit in sect. 250 for single branch or multiwire circuits). Now to sell it to the customer.
 
newservice said:
OK, so, a visit to my supplier yesterday shows they do not even carry a 4 wire weatherhead for SE cable for single phase. They can get 4 wire, 3 insulated overhead cable but I would have to pay for a minimum order and wait a couple weeks, pay a cut charge etc. Nobody uses it. Am thinking now just go underground probably with 10-3 w/ground UF , or maybe pipe, or even the direct burial 4 wire would be readily available and cheaper. Just LB through the wall, a couple snap switches for disconnect and no ground rod (there is an exception for a single branch circuit in sect. 250 for single branch or multiwire circuits). Now to sell it to the customer.
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You don't have to use SE cable, raceway and raceway type weatherheads are easy to come up with.

Overhead cable, I guess I can see that being low demand in some places and a supplier may not stock it, but most larger suppliers probably will have it, if not locally can usually have it cut at another store location and send to your location.
 
kwired said:
You don't have to use SE cable, raceway and raceway type weatherheads are easy to come up with.

Overhead cable, I guess I can see that being low demand in some places and a supplier may not stock it, but most larger suppliers probably will have it, if not locally can usually have it cut at another store location and send to your location.
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On the house side I was hoping to go with SE. For the mast on the garage, and it would have to be a mast through the roof for clearances. I'd have to go with a 2" rigid pipe mast for strength, as previously discussed here. They didn't have a weatherhead in a 2" pipe for #6 or smaller wires. In fact the only weatherhead they came up that would fit 2" pipe with had multiple holes for 4/0 and one smaller for the ground. This supplier is a large supplier, biggest in the city. Maybe not large enough lol. Even if I could make it work with quadplex, for 2 - 20A ckts. this looks like overkill, and it would also look ugly compared to UG. But, thanks for the suggestions, worth considering.
 
newservice said:
On the house side I was hoping to go with SE. For the mast on the garage, and it would have to be a mast through the roof for clearances. I'd have to go with a 2" rigid pipe mast for strength, as previously discussed here. They didn't have a weatherhead in a 2" pipe for #6 or smaller wires. In fact the only weatherhead they came up that would fit 2" pipe with had multiple holes for 4/0 and one smaller for the ground. This supplier is a large supplier, biggest in the city. Maybe not large enough lol. Even if I could make it work with quadplex, for 2 - 20A ckts. this looks like overkill, and it would also look ugly compared to UG. But, thanks for the suggestions, worth considering.
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When entering a large weatherhead with small conductors, I have drilled appropriate sized holes instead of knocking out the KO's that are going to be way too large.

I do agree going underground will look much better.
 
kwired said:
When entering a large weatherhead with small conductors, I have drilled appropriate sized holes instead of knocking out the KO's that are going to be way too large.

I do agree going underground will look much better.
Click to expand...

Ah. Next question: Can I run the 10-3 UF directly into the weatherhead and down the mast? :(
 
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