I used these pullers for years replacing water services when I worked for a municipal water company. It uses a Chicago clamp. We used a mini-ex and attached the Chicago clamp to some chain and pulled it using the arm. Honestly I'm surprised this just got on the radar now, I was using them 8 years ago. It's very easy and convenient.
Plumbers...not riggers. Truck "A" put in the parking lane. (If you are going to do this with a company truck reinforce whatever trailer hitch you put on for lateral loads, this means welding box to the rear of the receiver to the frame mount plates. There should be two on each side. One of those placed at a parallel and the other placed on a diagonal to the furthest point on the plate. If the plate is too short well additional plating to match the existing access holes on the frame and bolt it on then weld your tubes to that for this point.)Put a it's on with a snatch block. Vehicle "B" The receiver on the hitch has a threaded recovery eye/d ring. You can only pull the distance from the trench to the snatch block at any given time before needing to re-rig. This keeps you from having to disrupt traffic in any way and pick the direction you are pulling. Also if you get two more snatch blocks you can double your pulling force if need be or if you are using a lighter weight vehicle. The plumbing part of this and pulling the pipe is awesome.
Does your area not require tracer wire? Also if there is a ground connected to the copper inside do you not have to bring the ground outside to a ground rod?
only the oldest houses relied on the water line for grounding. anything remotely modern is actually bonding the water line to the grounding electrodes.
I’ve been doing a Hydro drill with copper for 40 years. I only need a pilot hole every 10 feet. Pex would be the last pipe I would ever use. If you dig up a yard properly, it’ll look like you were hardly even there. We would’ve been done by the time you pulled the line through in California. Most of the old lines are galvanized and have offsets. You’re not going to get a cable through gal.
Yes sir I was just going to ask that most water lines that are replaced are galvi and there's no way to split those right? Yea I just dig it up too, as narrow as possible. Thanks bro. Just started my own residential plumbing and drain service company in san jose CA , trying to get the pho e to ri g more often is a biotch
Yep dig and compact properly and if sod just put it back after careful removal. Trenches are so forgiving and if there's some fucked up problem you can just go in and fix it.
@@ericsj40885How are u getting your phone ring after these few months, i have been doing it for over 10y im still trying to get it ringing more offen. I dig up, i go to home depot and get a labor.
Where in the US does anyone get $100 a foot for trenching unless its through solid rock??? I see it more like $10 a foot all over the south east. That job in that video with that soil could have been trenched in 30 minutes with a small walk behind trencher making a small opening. Should cost less than $500.
All you're concerned about is how you're gonna pay for those tools with "just one job", but what about the fact that you're giving the customer a shi**y job, cause when you pull that line through all that dirt and gravel and all kinds of sharp rocks that have been wedged in there against the old line, you're scratching and gouging the new line and therefore shortening its life! What about that? Shouldn't you be honest and tell that to your customers up front?
@@RogerWakefield Because when they put the original line in they fill it with dirt, rocks and gravel directly on top of the line, and I've never seen or heard of anyone taking care and putting a fine and soft powder soil or clay around the pipe to protect it. So when you're pulling the new bare and exposed line through, you're inevitably scratching and gouging it in the process. Even if they put in sand first around the pipe, unless it's a fine powder sand, then a regular sand is coarse enough and is still going to scratch the new line. Also, I'm not even mentioning the fact that when you're pulling on its so hard with that big truck you are inevitably stretching the line and causing the line to collapse and get narrower, so I wouldn't be surprised to see some water volume/ pressure drop afterwards, on top of the scratched up weakened pipe.
Use an excavator and pull it slowly, or like you did it with the truck. When the video started and the van began to pull things became dangerous. We have had a pulley snap and fly about 50’ until a tree stopped it.
A lot of our mains go through, surrounded on top , underneath by roots , thought about something like this but I feel the problem is just going to keep happening
We considered purchasing a line slitter, but decided with it's limitations we would stick with our Hammerhead Mole, it has been a staple in our trenchless underground world.
To me, this is revolutionary. Some crew do not like calling their boss. They do and do until they make a big mistake. I know you know that having your people love you is financially rewarding
What about pipes in a slab....we were recently told by our village that the village water main is lead, and needs to be replaced.....but we live on a slab, no basement...will this work on pipes in a slab?
You know, we did trenchless but it was 2" and it was lead. We got a guy in a backhoe tie a chain to it outside with the cable and plug inside, and we tied the new soft copper to the plug in the building and he just sucked it out. It was absolutely amazing, we took the lead and made bullets out of it. Hundreds and maybe up to thousands of rounds out of 30' of old lead water service at 3/8 wall thickness. The line was perfect though and if it weren't for lead contamination that line was perfect even after more than a hundred years. We were under a tree so we pulled from both ends, and it sucked the soft copper right through the roots and all. It was a full sized backhoe and do NOT have dudes standing around the cables and chains. It was 4 hours or so even with that tree. Our pricing was on the bottom end, even with decent overhead for unforseen and other issues. In our case the sidewalk did have to come out because the shutoff pit was right in the middle of a slab. We actually took out 6 slabs so our equipment would be free to move, and we were still the low price, city sidewalk inspection and all. I agree with @donttalkwalk though, this situation was unique with features at a historic building. Personally I like trenches.
As usual enjoying the videos Roger, it looks like the pipe lifted when you began pulling, did you loose any grade ? Also maybe I missed it can you pull rolled copper ? I ask because some customers don’t want the plastic anymore out here in the Bay Area due to chemicals in the poly pipe
Unfortunately no I've been using them for about 2 years now and they are awesome, buy if they're fitting in the ground you might not be able to get the cable thru the line and after about 8 or 9 pulls the cable begins to fray and that thing will cut your ass good.
Generally, no. Trenchless sewer is usually a fiberglass liner injected down the pipe. A pretty interesting system, but it fixes breaks only in pipes that aren't blocked. You have to camera inspect before trying.
Dang that is expensive for trenching we don't do any ditching we hire it out they charge 10 dollars a foot. they cover it, pack it back in, and looks good when they are done
I've used one of these over 100 times. If it's galvanized you may as well open trench it. If it's copper we can't pull more than about 15 feet at a time with a Kubota kx027. With a poly pipe I pull up to 50 feet but prefer to pull 30. If the old line has any fittings or sharp bends it tends to break the new line.
I try this every time we start a job before we dig the line. My local municipality does not allow plastic water lines so most are either copper or galvanized. I start by digging up the curb box and valve outside while my partner goes inside and makes relief around the line through the wall using a chipping hammer. I will attach a strap to the old line after disconnecting from curb valve while my partner solders the new line to the old line in the basement(thread adapter too in case of galvanized). Then I use the excavator to pull the old line out while my partner inside uncoils the line, keeping in communication by phone or walkie talkie. It has saved so much time on so many jobs. Only consideration where we are is sometimes the original line is not below the frost line at which place we will dig it anyway. I've got to try the cable method on any particularly stubborn ones and see if it works better. My record so far is 50 feet, and you are right as soon as it starts to move you know you are golden!
My area is full of trucks like Black Betty and this is the first time I've seen one with a purpose! 😂😂 Even my pest control vendor drives one - and idk why. It's got a beautiful skin, though 😅
here in CA we’re not allowed to have pex underground exposed like this, so it wouldn’t pass inspection in my area. we have to use plastic & pvc sleeves with tracer wire for pex to pass. we bore poly all the time though. i still think this would be a great tool to have in your arsenal! & really good price. great video.
Really where I work we put pex in the ground all the time my water system runs 120 psi due to changes in elevation and distance so we have a lot of issues with copper and routinely put pex in the ground for service lines and we haven't had issues
The assumption is the old pipe is not blocked, just leaking through corrosion. Send the cable in similar to passing a drain auger in the sewer. Blocked with scale or a break from ground shift and you may be trenching. They mentioned sometimes using the old pipe instead of the cable, just yanking the old pipe with the spreader head and new pipe attached to it. The pipe has to be intact enough to take the strain.
Great ,,,, thx Roger, your 12-1/2 hours late ! Just did a 43’ run today, only 7-1/2 hours for my part. Unfortunately it was a 3/4” iron pipe , and yea you warm state people don’t have to worry about frost 🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶
As a city water guy i love these things and they work great or they dont but being able to pull water lines under the street is really nice should say we burry pex all the time due to the 120ish psi main line pressue due elevation and distance
That is an idea for a person who does not know about plumbing, just imagine all the pressure that you are putting on the new pipe, there may be glass under the ground that is going to cut the pipe or sharp stones.
Did this every day when I did city utilities. City services were replaced with back Polly and pulling it was preferred. We pulled it with an mini excavator tho 😂
Roger, if you had even half a damn clue how clutch this video is. We have 3 service lines in the shop right now and 2 are mine to repair. I’m suppose to do one Monday (it’s Friday now) as long as his insurance approves . We are deeper here, the line I’ve dug at the house is 42” in but imma try it before I trench it
just make sure it passes all code there first. pex cannot be direct buried in some places, they'll also likely require sleeves, tracer wires, caution tape, sand fill. you name it.
@@throttlebottle5906 I have yet to put pex in the ground anywhere, when I replace metal pipe I always go back with copper and when I replace poly I go back with poly. But I intend on talking to the plumbing inspector and water department head Monday about whether or not they approve of pex in their town yet. I work in 5 or 6 towns and I think it’s time to start talking about pex.
it depend first we try with the regular truck but if is too hard I call tow truck stay away from that cable when pulling, never pull it with front bumper, if that cable break it can kill you 🙅♂️
