I usually have 1 or 2 long pulls a year with fairly big wire. These are mostly buried conduit to irrigation wells. Most are over 600 ft up to around 1100 ft. The wire size will run from 4-4/0 to 4-500 mcm. It depends on the HP and distance. I use my tractor, lots of lube, a couple of guys with a radio turning the reel and 1 guy with me on the pulling end. I use a rope and a pulling basket (kellum). The rope is 3/4 inch and something like a Navy Braid or Double Navy Braid. 1200 feet cost me about $1500 with a factory eye on each end. I'd whack anyone that cut it for sure!
A funny story that I remember is my well drilling and shooting buddy was on a job one day and the utility crew was having trouble blowing or sucking their rat thru the pipe and ask him if he had an air compressor on his drilling rig. He told them yeah, a 450 HP, 500 cfm, 200 psi one. When he blew the rat out of the end of the pipe it went about 40 ft in the air along with a bunch of dirt and water. He said the bearings on their string roller got hot! Thats a heck of a compressor by the way!
I like those jobs. The profit is good and we usually start and finish a 1000-1100 footer in day, a long day. That is, if we don't have trouble trenching. It takes some special equipment for sure!
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