MC Cable

infinity

Moderator
Staff member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Journeyman Electrician
LOL. Do you remember( or know) if you could run 380' horizontally without having to splice?
Is it all straight? If not a horizontal run with turns and nearly 400' is pretty far without a splice point. I think that cut your run in half and put a splice box in the middle otherwise you're using 10 men to pull in the cable and you're not saving any money on the labor.
 

Alwayslearningelec

Senior Member
Location
NJ
Occupation
Estimator
Is it all straight? If not a horizontal run with turns and nearly 400' is pretty far without a splice point. I think that cut your run in half and put a splice box in the middle otherwise you're using 10 men to pull in the cable and you're not saving any money on the labor.
Guess I should figure a splice point. I can't beleive an MC pull that size would require that many men. ROger actully said about 8. Obviously you guys are right, I just thought you would only need about 2 feeding and 2 pullling. I mean the hours are the hours so the crew size doesn't make a difference.
 

tburdick

Member
Location
IOWA
Occupation
journeyman
No offense.
You need to show up for a week of WORK as a summer helper to see what you are estimating.

You need to find out.

You would not think you could do it with a shoe string crew.
You pull all the weight. Not part of it.
 

Fred B

Senior Member
Location
Upstate, NY
Occupation
Electrician
Guess I should figure a splice point. I can't beleive an MC pull that size would require that many men. ROger actully said about 8. Obviously you guys are right, I just thought you would only need about 2 feeding and 2 pullling. I mean the hours are the hours so the crew size doesn't make a difference.
Even with a power tugger you are going to need more than the 2x2 guys on that size wire. If you want less guys that the 8 most have said and they would likely being shifted around on the tasks to keep it going with that heavy load, you should plan on a power spooler coupled with the power tugger with a remote. Then you would just have they 4 guys as floaters to chase the snags.
Agree with @tburdick, estimators should spend some time on these jobs before they give a lowball labor, that the GC and owners will inevitably complain to the EC "Why is it taking so long, the Estimate said only this much?".
 

Alwayslearningelec

Senior Member
Location
NJ
Occupation
Estimator
Even with a power tugger you are going to need more than the 2x2 guys on that size wire. If you want less guys that the 8 most have said and they would likely being shifted around on the tasks to keep it going with that heavy load, you should plan on a power spooler coupled with the power tugger with a remote. Then you would just have they 4 guys as floaters to chase the snags.
Agree with @tburdick, estimators should spend some time on these jobs before they give a lowball labor, that the GC and owners will inevitably complain to the EC "Why is it taking so long, the Estimate said only this much?".
Thanks. Power spooler is what the reel mounts to in order to make it easier to turn?
 

Alwayslearningelec

Senior Member
Location
NJ
Occupation
Estimator
So last question..and thanks a lot for all the feedback.
If I had a 450' reel and it required about 7-8 guy but then decided to put a splice in the middle so I'd have (2) roughly 225' reels that would required less than 7-8 guys as it would be half the weight. Is that correct?
 

Fred B

Senior Member
Location
Upstate, NY
Occupation
Electrician
You might get less guys to do the pull but you would add guys and time and materials to make a splice and an enclosure. But you still would need the mid run guys to wrangle the heavy cable for snags and corners.
 

augie47

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Tennessee
Occupation
State Electrical Inspector (Retired)
If you are using Vita-Link cable because of the 2 hr rating, the addition of a j box seems questionable. Yes ??
 
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