Pulling wire, top or bottom? And why?

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Pulling wire, top or bottom? And why?

  • Bottom

    Votes: 5 33.3%

  • Top

    Votes: 10 66.7%
  • Total voters
    15
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You forgot to include the optimum THHN pulling set-up in your poll. I had a journeyman that alternated up/down/up/down especially for reels that had different lengths on them. This set-up prevents overrunning by providing braking to adjacent rolls.

Typically, I come off the top to pull undergrounds and off the bottom for going out the top of a panel. For large spools of 3/0 or 500kcmil, I pull from the bottom because in my mind the lower center of gravity helps keep the reel from falling off the stands.
 
jeremysterling said:
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For large spools of 3/0 or 500kcmil, I pull from the bottom because in my mind the lower center of gravity helps keep the reel from falling off the stands.
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The center of gravity really does not change much, unless you count the weight of the unspooled but not yet supported cable. But the point at which the unspooling tension is applied does change.

All in all, I think this is a lot like which way to roll toilet paper....
 
Havent pulled that much from spools but THHN from smaller ones. Not on the option, but whenever I've pulled lots of catx/CATV at once, sometimes 20+ cables, it all spins the same way (usually off the top) to minimize drag and pulling tension since you're not supposed to exceed 25lbs force.
 
jeremysterling said:
You forgot to include the optimum THHN pulling set-up in your poll. I had a journeyman that alternated up/down/up/down especially for reels that had different lengths on them. This set-up prevents overrunning by providing braking to adjacent rolls.
Click to expand...

So you want the adjacent spools to rub together? Sounds like a lot more energy expended pulling.
 
Coppersmith said:
So you want the adjacent spools to rub together? Sounds like a lot more energy expended pulling.
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Depends on the situation. With different diameter reels or at least different diameter of conductor/cable on them can leave you fighting with the larger diameter "over spinning" the smaller diameter reels and that slows the whole process down as well.

If it is only 500 foot reels of 10 AWG or smaller - that may be exactly what you want to do most of the time, but if pulling multiple 500's directly off the reel - hopefully you have some mechanical pulling machine to start with, but still may want to think more about which way to set up the reels.
 
kwired said:
Depends on the situation. With different diameter reels or at least different diameter of conductor/cable on them can leave you fighting with the larger diameter "over spinning" the smaller diameter reels and that slows the whole process down as well....
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Actually the smaller reel has to make more turns per 1000' than the larger (at least at the feeding radius) reel.
So the smaller reel tries to overspin the larger one. As you note, alternating directions cancels out that effect regardless of the size difference.
 
tp top

thhn bottom

because does not pull as hard on rack or ladder or whatever spools are mounted to

for example pulling from top is more likely to turn ladder over or drag cart than pulling from bottom

and the logic for tp: because thats the way I roll :cool:
 
gadfly56 said:
Clearly, you have never had to deal with small children or dogs.
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Cats as well. We had to change a "j hook" style holder to one that you can't easily knock the roll off. Cat would walk up to it, swat the roll off the holder and onto the floor then shred the entire roll. Still have him and haven't killed him yet:)
 
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