Well?
Don't you just hate it when guys talk about the planning of their project but never close to loop on it?!
Just got (mostly) finished with it. We had a few days of warm dry weather so I spent that time installing windows and doors. Turns out things like tape and caulk do not like temps below freezing!
I did the shop vac, and plastic bag trick to get a string through, and used it to pull a rope through. Then So I got the crazy huge spool of wire and tried to shove it through the conduit. Honestly it went super easy, until I got to a spot about 15 feet into the run. I was STUCK no amount of pulling would get it through, there were no bends and no breaks as far as I could tell in that spot. I even tied a 2x4 to the rope and tried doing a squat while holding the rope, no dice!
So I pulled it back out and tried to do 2 of the #2 wires. No dice, same issue same exact spot. It was so strange because the rope went fine, my fish tape was down there no problem. What could be there that straight up STOPS the wire?
So I attempt it with 1 wire, boom goes through great! Try the second wire, get past that hard spot and still pretty easy. However trying to pull the rope back through (with the little piece of twine was getting really hard and I was worried about breaking the twine string. My neighbor had a roll of heavier duty stuff that we send down with the third #2 wire. So the third wire is getting harder, but still gets past the hard spot and makes it all the way through great! Now all that is left is the grounding wire, I think its #4 or even #6. So we go to pull that through. HOWEVER turns out that heavier duty spool of twine was just not quite long enough....As a result I currently have no pulling line in the conduit, just the three #2 wires (Hot Hot Neutral) so sure I can pull the wire I just did back out and do a longer piece of twine so I can pull back the rope when I get the wire all the way through but IM not sure I want to risk it! As of right now I have 2 hots and a neutral pulled through, I think I'd rather just get a grounding rod and wire for $50 and ground the sub panel separately.
So I think the hardest part is done. I never did figure out what the heck was down there. I almost went and bough one of those cameras that goes on a cord attached to a smart phone.
I am not worried about wiring up the sub-panel or the 100 amp breaker. I just purchased a square D panel for 50 bucks, so far so good. This is going to save me about $500 bucks which is a decent chunk of change.