Compared to yesterday, today was an easy day. It was just the installation of the RV power pole and the running of the electrical lines. Simple right? Right, yet these two simple tasks still consumed the entire day. It is amazing where the time goes. Last week while the Planner was in big city #1, he gained some insights on how to easily pull electrical wiring through the conduit. This advice did not come the 35+ year master electrician. No, this advice came from the 35+ year welder who loves to read home improvement manuals. His advice is so simple and easy it sounds too good to be true. Remember what I said last time, if it is too goo to be true, then it is. His advice, run the electrical line with the use of a shop vac. Yup, a shop vac. And boy howdy, let me tell you, it worked like a charm.
First. Tie a piece of plastic to 500 feet of string. Not fancy string, either. Just plain old, jane ol' kite string. The same kind found in the hardware section of the box store. It comes in pink, green, yellow, red, white, and orange. Of course, colors represent weight and this jobs only requires the light weight stuff. Once the plastic is tied, stuff it into the conduit at one electrical box.
Second. Attach a shop vac to conduit pipe at the other electrical box. And yes, just a plain old, jane ol' shop vac purchased at any big box store. Nothing fancy, nothing special. Turn on the shop vac and just a few seconds later, out comes the string and plastic tie. Now for the RV electrical panel, the string was pulled around 150feet. Later in, this same process will be used to run the electrical lines to the well. That distance is 250feet. It will be interesting to see if this process works just as well.
Fourth. Remove the kite string from the nylon rope and attach electrical wires. Secure with lots and lots of electrical tape to ease the pulling process. From the second electrical panel pull the nylon rope back dragging the attached wires as you pull.
Last. Install electrical wires. Tee-dee, electrical panel to the RV completed. Easy peasy, just like the advisor said it would be. As it turned out, it was NOT too good to be true. Fancy that.
So, yes it was really easy but time-consuming all the same. Once the panels were completed and electricity was tested, the poles were firmly secured with the tractor. All that was left was to smooth out the RV pad site for the Airstream placement tomorrow. If it doesn't rain, that is. I'm telling you, it doesn't rain unless there is an outside event taking place that cannot be pushed back. Of course, it didn't take long for the kid to realize what was going on with the tractor and here he came a running. "The backhoe! Cool! It's my turn, right?" And on and on and on the badgering went.
There was nothing better than the joy on his face when playing with the backhoe attachment. Have no doubt in my mind he will dream of backhoes in his sleep tonight. It was a proud parent moment.