# 15kV switchgear cable pulling



## joebanana (Dec 21, 2010)

All the time. Try to avoid 90 degree pulls, but sometimes it can't be helped. There are many different types of rollers, shieves, pulley's, radius's, etc. to choose from. You can't pull some of those big cables by hand. But sometimes you can, with a big enough crew.


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## frenchelectrican (Mar 15, 2007)

kartracer087 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I'm wondering if anyone has used pullers like the Greenlee Super Tugger for pulling medium voltage cable and if you have ever pulled the cable through the puller's sheaves at a 90 degree bend. Was wondering for a job set up where the cable leaves the switch from the top rear of a 15kv switch and needs to be pulled from the front of the gear since there is a wall behind the gear. Not an electrician myself (consulting engineer) but wanted to know how that typically gets done in the field.
> 
> Thanks.


First of all .,, welcome to electrician talk.,,

now you mention cable pullers yes it been done pretty often with med voltage cable but just be aware do not make sharp 90° bends and what size and type of cable is your crew will be pulling ? they will know the excat details to prepare it correct on cable pulling. 

but if it was a very short run it can be done with hand pulling with extra personal on hand. 

and yes the crew will using the wire pulling lube gel to make it easier to slide the cable.


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## Cow (Jan 16, 2008)

Just pay attention to your spec'd cables minimum bending radius.

We just pulled several hundred feet of 35kv CLX cable in. Our minimum bending radius was 28-29 inches, so we ended up using 36" radius rollers. It just passed a 55kv hipot, so I know we're good to go.


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## kartracer087 (Jan 31, 2019)

Thanks for the replies guys, yeah that was my concern as most of the puller boom arms have sheaves which are about 12" in diameter (6" radius) so if you pull the cable tight to the puller's sheave you will overbend the cable. So I think you would need to use a 24" roller sheave which gives you a full 24" radius which would cover 15kV cables up to 500kCMIL if you consider max bend radius is 12 times diameter of cable. Since the roller sheave would be placed in the gear I would think you could just build a simple steel frame and bolt it down as needed.


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## frenchelectrican (Mar 15, 2007)

kartracer087 said:


> Thanks for the replies guys, yeah that was my concern as most of the puller boom arms have sheaves which are about 12" in diameter (6" radius) so if you pull the cable tight to the puller's sheave you will overbend the cable. So I think you would need to use a 24" roller sheave which gives you a full 24" radius which would cover 15kV cables up to 500kCMIL if you consider max bend radius is 12 times diameter of cable. Since the roller sheave would be placed in the gear I would think you could just build a simple steel frame and bolt it down as needed.


I would use much larger pully wheel size if possible as Cow mention on his posting the larger it go the better it reduce the chance of damage the med/high voltage cable.

12 inch wheel is good for squat cuz it will kinda tick ya off on that..

If you have plenty room then try to find the larger wheel and get the biggest one if possible., I done 4 conductor 240mm² SWA cable (about the same as 500 KCM) that I have to use 30 inch wheel ( that was the smallest size the cable manufacter will allow for sharp bend ) I would use 48 inch or 1200 mm wheel if I have a room for it.


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## Tonedeaf (Nov 26, 2012)

we rarely use a puller........most runs are by hand with wheels/rollers/pulleys. You gota work angles. Straight in, Straight out.


I dont know what size and type you are pulling, but #2awg-1/0 XLPE cable pulls pretty easy.


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## kartracer087 (Jan 31, 2019)

Here is kind of what I'm thinking may be possible. Again, I'm not an electrician just mainly asking to understand the installation a bit better for planning. I'm probably one of the few engineers who tries to look at what the contractor actually has to do to get things set up and I try to design around that aspect. If it doesn't make sense to install I probably won't try and design it that way!


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## kartracer087 (Jan 31, 2019)

Here is kind of what I'm thinking may be possible. Again, I'm not an electrician just mainly asking to understand the installation a bit better for planning. I'm probably one of the few engineers who tries to look at what the contractor actually has to do to get things set up and I try to design around that aspect. If it doesn't make sense to install I probably won't try and design it that way!


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## kartracer087 (Jan 31, 2019)

So here is a link to what I was trying to post but I cannot because I have only made 4 posts total. Just remove the quotation marks. Sorry for the duplicate posts!

''https://ibb.co/vccFpDb''


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## chuckd83 (Feb 15, 2019)

Request a power cable manual from Southwire or Okonite. It has good information on cable pulling and equations you can use to calculate pulling tension, sidewall pressure, etc.


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## telsa (May 22, 2015)

The industry has trick compound sheaves that provide a very relaxed radius for such cables. 

Greenlee: 

636 -- 16"
637 -- 24"
638 -- 36"
631 -- 48"

Also

Sherman+Reilly has a slew of sheaves.

Strangely, you can't come up with a problem that's never been faced before.


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## kartracer087 (Jan 31, 2019)

Yes, the other thing I thought of which is helpful if you are pulling into gear that is tight or has restricted access is to do the pulling from another box location and do the feed in at the gear. This way you can have a couple guys feed the cable into the gear (with a little slack) as its being pulled rather than have to create more complicated rigging for rollers inside the gear. At the other end you can have a simple puller set up to pull it straight out through the box.


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

You can also setup two sheaves set at 45 deg apart with distance between them so that any 90 deg turn is limited to actually being a 45 deg turn. I used to pull fiber optic cables and that was a trick I learned to stay within manufacturer spec. 

Work out the triangle spreads from your 8th grade geometry book. 

If the pull is inside an underground vault and you have to change direction 90 deg, pull the whole cable out thru the manhole , run a figure 8 with it and send it back down the other direction as a second pull.


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## wcord (Jan 23, 2011)

kartracer087 said:


> Here is kind of what I'm thinking may be possible. Again, I'm not an electrician just mainly asking to understand the installation a bit better for planning. I'm probably one of the few engineers who tries to look at what the contractor actually has to do to get things set up and I try to design around that aspect. If it doesn't make sense to install I probably won't try and design it that way!


one of the best electrical engineers I had the privilege (word I seldom use in conjunction with engineer) to work with, would come into the field and actually get his hands dirty working with the guys.
He also, wanted to understand how field conditions affect installations.


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## Paul SA (Jul 29, 2019)

*best way*



kartracer087 said:


> Yes, the other thing I thought of which is helpful if you are pulling into gear that is tight or has restricted access is to do the pulling from another box location and do the feed in at the gear. This way you can have a couple guys feed the cable into the gear (with a little slack) as its being pulled rather than have to create more complicated rigging for rollers inside the gear. At the other end you can have a simple puller set up to pull it straight out through the box.


if i understand it correct and You just need to connect inside the specific panel, or need a short peace of cable on the other side.
this is the best practical way of doing it ( been doing it like that for the last 20 years) the slack (span) of 20-30 m is easy to handle (4-6 guy's)and i have done it up to 300mm x 3 core 11kv XLPE cable before


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