Tried that new fish tape puller on a 200 foot underground run yesterday

I finally gave in and used one of those battery powered fish tape pullers we've been seeing ads for. I was running a coax line through a 2 inch conduit that had three existing 90 degree bends in it. The motor seized up about halfway through and I had to cut the cable and pull it back by hand. I guess the old manual methods still work best for tight spots like that. Has anyone else had a puller fail on them in a tough situation?

2 comments

2 Comments

king.lisa16d ago

Oh man, I had the exact opposite problem with one of those pullers. Mine worked fine on the straight parts but the second it hit a bend, it started overheating like crazy. I felt the motor housing and it was almost too hot to touch. Ended up having to stop every 15 feet to let it cool down. Took twice as long as just doing it by hand. I wonder if these things are only tested on straight runs in a warehouse somewhere, not on actual field conditions with dust and debris in the conduit.

the_michael16d agoMost Upvoted

Bet it's the torque curve on those cheaper models... they stall out instead of pulling harder when they hit resistance. Someone like @king.lisa probably got a unit with a thermal cutoff that's too sensitive, not rated for real world loads. Might be worth checking if there's a way to bypass that switch on the older versions.