Cable laying conundrum....

[Deerherd]

A little help please......I need to lay about 1650 feet of TV/Internet cable and was looking for an attachment that would do the job. I couldn't find a ripper/layer combo like the one pictured below on the right but found the pipe/cable layer by itself. (first photo) It looked a lot like some of the homemade jobs I had seen and the description said that it attaches behind any ripper or sodbuster and lays water lines cable etc. Looked like exactly what I was searching for, so I ordered it up. It was $168 delivered. It didn't have any dimensions listed just "fits most rippers and sodbusters".

Yesterday I see the UPS guy struggling with a huge box and was wondering what the heck he had. After he unceremoniously dropped it on the front porch muttering under his breath about oversize items I opened it up. BABY JESUS! It was the pipe/cable layer and is about twice as large as I thought. It's a little over 36" high and 30" long and that's a 3 1/2" tube with a 4" flared opening at the top so it looks like I could bury about 25 cables at the same time.

The $100 Tractor Supply ripper I have that I was going to attach it to is too small so if I'm going to use this thing a new ripper is in order. Any suggestions as to an appropriate ripper to match? Or maybe I just try and locate a smaller layer/ripper combo and hang this one up for laughs. Thanks in advance.

 

[tcartwri]

google "cable trencher". Those rippers will cause you all kinds of extra work.

 

[Deerherd]

I already looked at all kinds of trenchers and I was trying to stay away from filling in a 1650' trench. The ripper doesn't disturb the earth as much and running over the raised ground to seal it back up is 100 times faster digging a trench, laying the line and filling it in. I just thought someone on here who has actually used this type of unit would respond. Thanks anyways and disregard the question I found what I needed.

 

[tcartwri]

The type of trencher you are looking for looks like a rototiller, but with a large circular blade like a rock saw. It cuts a slit no more than 1/8" wide. They use them for laying invisible dog fences.

 

[buckshot721]

We rented a little trencher for doing installing lawn edging. It makes a 4'' deep trench, to about 1/2 hr to do the whole lawn. But you have to fill in the trench. Worked so good buried my coax for my ham antennas in no time flat. Over 200ft of them!

 

[tcartwri]

I need to lay about 1650 feet of TV/Internet cable .

Curious as to how you're going to deal with the signal loss over this length of cable.....

 

[zzvyb6]

I ran 1000' of CAT6 undergroung with little signal loss. I was informed that its the number of connectors, not necessarily the length. If you piece togther 10 100' cables there is a lot of loss. Not so with my 1000' single spool. I use it for my outdoor cameras, etc.

 

[tcartwri]

Cat6 is capable of long runs, co-ax is not. Would be a shame to dig that trench and find out later.

 

[yanmars]

Cat6 is capable of long runs, co-ax is not. Would be a shame to dig that trench and find out later.

Hi: I used to lay underground telephone cable for Henkels and McCoy in the late 60s. We had a "similar plow shoe" but it took a D6 caterpillar or more to lay the cable in clay ground without rocks. I would think it would be a tough pull with a small tractor but we were going about 30 inches deep when possible. Our equipment was set up to do that type work and involved a multi size crew.
I will be interested in following your progress. Hope it proceeds well.

 

[DANOCHEESE]

Cat5 is speced at 328 feet. It will work out to 1000 with slow speeds. A camera will work OK. Coax all depends on the size of the coax. For 1600 feet I would reccomend one inch hard line.

With the chute you bought try and rip it a few times before you put the cable in. It will take some power to pull that chute. Find a friend wiht a tractor and make a plow train.

 

[MikeInEburg]

Cat5 is speced at 328 feet.
.

To clarify - Ethernet 10/100/1000 base T is specced at 328 feet (90 meters of station cable plus 10 meters of patch cable. However, cat 5 can be used for purposes other than Ethernet.
That said, there is no real benefit to burying cat5 vs cat3.

I whole-heartedly agree that, if coax is for catv, some real design should be done.

 

[Deerherd]

Curious as to how you're going to deal with the signal loss over this length of cable.....

The cable company is putting some sort of "amplifier" about half way between the street and house. It's a box about 2'x3' in size.

 

[tcartwri]

Ok, I thought this was a diy project. Good luck, hope it's not too hot.

 

[tonyoz]

Before you plough your cable in its best to prerip the line. To do this is to do a pass or two without the cable shute to insure you get a good cover the cable and also find any unripable objects(rocks,tree roots etc).Also bear in mind that you cannot back your tractor once you start plowing the cable in the ground. Used this method to lay 1000's of k's of optic

 

[High Compression]

Your looking for a vibraplow. Vibratory Plow - YouTube

 

[ttriff]

Any suggestions as to an appropriate ripper to match? Or maybe I just try and locate a smaller layer/ripper combo and hang this one up for laughs. Thanks in advance.

Everything Attachments sells the Fred Cain subsoiler it's pretty manly.

BTW where did you get the pipe/cable layer you bought?

 

[rambler]

I'd be real interesting in where you got the part you did get?????? I'd kinda like something like that.

---->Paul

 

[J_J]

Your looking for a vibraplow. Vibratory Plow - YouTube

YouTube pipe puller

Newcastle Pipe Puller- [url]Http://KCNewCastle.Com - YouTube[/url]

 

[joshuabardwell]

Curious as to how you're going to deal with the signal loss over this length of cable.....

If he's installing the appropriate type of cable, this shouldn't be an issue. RG6 loses 6 dB per 100 feet at 900 MHz. LMR600 on the other hand gets you down to 2.2 dB per 100 ft. I'm not a cable installer so I can't say for sure, but it seems like 30 db of loss from the termination point should be tolerable. Still... best to do it right from the start.

It's not an apples to apples comparison because LMR is 50 ohm, and I think cable TV is 75 ohm, but the point is, it's probably doable. Not cheap though. LMR600 is around a dollar a foot. LMR1200, at under 2 dB per 100 feet, is about $8 a foot!

Edit: or you could put an amp in. Thought this was DIY.

 

[joshuabardwell]

That said, there is no real benefit to burying cat5 vs cat3.

What?! Clarify please.