Chainsaw trencher

In 2017 I laid an electrical underground cable from a post with a meter installed at the border of the site. Armored cable brand AVBbShv 4x16. Conveniently, the wires do not hang anywhere, they do not spoil the view.

The process is briefly described in this article: Electricity on site. Underground cable laying and electrical installation

To dig a trench, together with a neighbor, we then hired a trencher based on an MTZ tractor. This service cost 2200 rubles per hour plus the road (2000 rubles. in half). There was no fence yet and the equipment freely drove up to the place designated for the trench.

An alternative to this method is to manually dig. But it is long and difficult to dig 40-50 meters to a depth of 0.5-1 m. Waste of time, effort. Much more money will be spent on wages for hired workers. An exception may be trenches in inconvenient or restricted access locations. Where the tractor will not drive.

I propose to consider the third option - digging a trench for an electric cable, water supply with a chainsaw with a special nozzle:

It looks like an attachment for a standard chainsaw with a special tire and a chain with soil cutters. Examples of models from famous brands:

Chainsaw Husqvarna K770 GR16 trencher. The same model of chainsaw is used for cutting stone, curbs.

The process of digging a trench and laying a cable is shown in this short video:

Everything is fast enough. But, unfortunately, these models were met only in the Ukrainian online store. Similar attachments and other brands are not available for sale. For some reason, such a nozzle is not supplied to Russia. Low demand or high price? I think both.

A list of other chainsaw attachments is given in this article: Inexpensive chainsaw attachments that increase its functionality

But personally, I would rent such an attachment for a day (or a chainsaw with it) for laying a cable to the house. The tractor will not drive up to this place. Dig only with your hands. For some reason, Chinese manufacturers do not offer inexpensive trencher attachments for chainsaws. The rest of the nozzles are produced ...

By the way, with your hands, but with a special shovel - you can also dig it relatively quickly. This method will be discussed in a separate article.

Another issue when laying a cable is its protection. There are laying standards:

The cable should be in a sand cushion and covered with a brick on top. Suddenly, someday you will start to drill or dig. When drilling holes for fence posts, the brick saved me from damage to the cable.

How to comply with at least approximately these norms if the trench is narrow? You can do this with concrete tiles, cut into strips to the width of the trench. They also lay a signal tape on top.

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Photo taken from open sources, from Yandex. Pictures

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