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Commercial job in Chicago changed my wire pulling method for good
Had a foreman yell at me for following the old 'lube and yank' approach on a 400 amp feeder pull last Tuesday. Took his advice on using a parallel pulling setup with swivels and we finished 3 hours ahead of schedule. Anybody else had to unlearn bad habits from their early days?
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river_thompson4mo ago
The lube and yank method actually has its place on smaller residential pulls where you're not dealing with long distances. Parallel pulling with swivels is definitely faster on big commercial jobs but it adds a lot of setup time that isn't worth it for short runs. Just gotta match the method to the job instead of making everything a one size fits all approach.
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corap614mo ago
Oh come on man, I gotta push back hard on that. Setting up a parallel pull with swivels takes what, an extra 10 minutes? That time is nothing compared to the headache of a stuck wire on a short run when the lube dries up or you hit a tight bend. I've seen too many guys try to save a few minutes and end up spending an hour fighting a pull that should have been smooth.
Plus on those small residential jobs, you're usually pulling through finished walls and tight spaces. A snag with lube can tear up insulation or leave a mess you gotta clean up. Parallel pulling with a swivel keeps everything straight and clean, even on a 50 foot run.
And honestly, the lube and yank method gives bad habits. If you always cheap out on the setup, you never build the muscle memory for the bigger stuff. Just do it right every time and it becomes second nature. No reason to have two different systems in your head for short versus long pulls.
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gray3144mo ago
Funny, I actually see it the other way lmao. On those short residential runs, lube and yank usually works fine for me because the bends are gentle and the distances are short enough that lube doesn't have time to dry out. But I've seen parallel setups cause more problems on small jobs, not fewer - guys overcomplicate it, get swivels binding in tight spots, or spend ten minutes untangling lines that got twisted during setup. The real trick is just knowing when each method actually saves time, not treating either one like it's always wrong.
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