6 Helpul Tips for Commercial & Industrial Wire Pulls

Additional Helpful tips for Successful wire pulls. 1). It's not always better to let gravity help with the pull. There are 2 types of pulls A). Pulls That are strictly vertical (High Risk and only experienced electricians should LEAD)- unless you have either enough men to help drop the wire or the wire is not that heavy for the amount of men you have. Reminder Remember to figure out how you are going to support the wire after you are done dropping the wire. And be ready to support the wires immediately afterwards. Example: Vertical support Base or have a way to tie it off till you get the proper material needed. B). Pulls that are vertical but then have a 90° bend some where down the line along with at least another 90° bend . So in total you need at least 180 ° worth of bend in order for the conduit to stop the wire from shooting out of a conduit in case of an incident. And preferably these 2 90° bends have some distance between them. But not entirely necessary. ( I've dropped 600 KCMIL wire 60 feet with 2 back to back 90s together and it stopped it) Lastly if you have a vertical pull where you have one 90° down the line then you have something like 60+ ft. After that. Then you still want to be cautious be most likely the wire will stop itself from running. 2). If there are too many risks just pull up. It's not worth it. And the tugger can do the work. Trust me. Also ask your foreman what he thinks and wants you to do. If he left it up to you then think and choose wisely but also have a reason for what you chose in case your foreman asks. The only reason I drop my pulls are because I know what I'm doing and if there is too much risk but it would still be easier to drop the wire then I know how to use the proper safety net to lower the risk dramatically. With rope and a good wire gripping knot. I'll Maybe even back up my safety line with another safety line in case the risk is high. But you have to, way out the options. Because this method takes a lot longer but is safer and you don't need to worry about the wire falling 50 to 70 ft to it's death. If you want to know more about this technique just ask. 3). Use and set up sheaves properly. You don't need to be an engineer to know where to place your sheaves. Just a little common sense. Prepping for your pull is the most important task you will do when it comes to wire pulls. Make sure you do it right the first time because you most likely won't get a second time to do it over. What I mean is installing your sheaves with the right material If your tugger needs to be mounted to the floor use the right anchors. Etc If you don't have sheaves try to find things around the site that can help. 4). Use Wire pulling baskets correctly (they do have a range on them) if you have them if not and you need to make a pulling head then take your time doing so. If you have any doubts. Stop and do it over. 5). Use Pulling lube especially for aluminum and PVC. In my opinion you don't really need lube for any other conduit. There's just something about PVC and aluminum that makes the insulation on some brands of wire to stick to it. (Just an opinion) At the end of the day it doesn't hurt if you use it anyway. 6). Get as many hands on the pull as possible. You never know you might need an extra pair of hands. Or know where the nearest co-workers are and have there number so you could call for help if need be. 7). Make sure your pulling with the right size rope. You don't want a rope to snap. Bigger is better in this instance. Usually hard pulls won't go anywhere near 10,000 ft lbs of pressure so either get a rope that can handle that or try to figure out how much the rope your using can handle and if your tugger is pulling that much then you know you need to re assess the wire pull and think about either proceeding with caution or stop and do over with a better rope. 8). Learn a wire pulling knot your comfortable with because sometimes you'll have a wire pull where you'll need a lot more then what the motor can pull. Which mean you would have to untie the rope from the head and doing a wire gripping knot so the tugger can help you pull more. You might have to do this a few times till you have enough wire. That's pretty much all i got brother. Also if you feel it's too risky just pull up at the end of the day the tugger will do the work. But you always need to have you supports ready to go on hand when the pull is done so remember that. Also I have 3 knots that will help you Look up on my YouTube channel the electrician's knot playlist and you can find the videos there. 1). Stopper knot- to help you pull extra wire out of the conduit. 2). No name knot- to help you pull extra wire out of conduit. Really great knot. 3). Bowline knot - when you need a loop at the end of the rope. Either because your rope didn't come with an eye splice. Please follow Facebook/holmzlaw Instagram/holmzlaw TikTok/holmzlaw Snapchat/holmzlaw #Wirepulls #Holmzlaw #ElectricianKnots