Things I Like

Muletape is a flat, woven polyester tape that is commonly used in outside plant (buried cable, etc) work as a pull string to help install cable in duct. It’s light, super strong, has a low rate of stretch, is highly resistant to moisture and rot (even if left in muddy water in a duct bank for 5 years), and comes in a wide variety of widths (1/8″ to 3/4″) and a wide variety of corresponding load capacities, from 200 pounds to 6000 pounds. You could tow a car with this stuff. Seriously.

You can get a woven aramid version of Muletape for even more abrasion resistance, as well as locatable tape, that has conductive wires woven into it for easy clip on with a cable locator. That’s handy if you don’t have tracer wire installed in your duct.

Since it’s flat and kind of slippery, it tends to be less prone to friction cutting the innerduct it is being pulled through.

Most of the above is only relevant to outside plant folks and they probably know all that already. For the rest of us, the main thing to know is that Muletape is seriously weather resistant and seriously strong. Since it is a bit slippery, you have to pay a bit more attention when you are tying knots, so that they don’t come undone, but once you master that, you’re set. Neptco even has a special knot they’ve developed just for Muletape.

I’ve used this stuff for all kinds of things, almost none of which had to do with pulling cable. I take it on float trips to tie rafts together, I’ve used it to temporarily fix a fence that was falling down, I’ve used a length of it as a belt once or twice, and I’ve even used it as a tow rope to drag someone in a shopping cart behind my bike. Yes, it seemed like a good idea at the time. No, nobody was seriously hurt. Yes, beer was involved. Yes, it was a lot of fun.

Sure, rope would work in most cases, but Muletape’s light, handy and exceptionally strong and resistant to abrasion. For most things I *know* it won’t stretch, break or otherwise fail. Only problem is that it’s exceptionally expensive, too, if you buy it new. However, a lot of innerduct comes prethreaded with Muletape, and once it has been used to pull the cable through, many outside plant folks just throw it away because often, it doesn’t get reused. They may be more than happy to give you a few thousand feet if you ask nicely. It might be muddy and dirty, but it cleans up pretty well. Stick it in a mesh bag and run it through the washer.