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[john sanders]

I'm about ready to purchase several yellowjacket cable protectors at great expense  for use at an outdoor festival with very heavy pedestrian traffic. The need for this product isn't so much to protect my snake and cables but to prevent tripping and falling over my snake cable by pedestrian traffic. I'll need to cover at least 50 feet or so.

Would greatly appreciate hearing what others on this forum are using for this purpose.

[Billy Crabtree]

I'm about ready to purchase several yellowjacket cable protectors at great expense  for use at an outdoor festival with very heavy pedestrian traffic. The need for this product isn't so much to protect my snake and cables but to prevent tripping and falling over my snake cable by pedestrian traffic. I'll need to cover at least 50 feet or so.

Would greatly appreciate hearing what others on this forum are using for this purpose.

Yes they are expensive. I have used cable tray gaffe tape (wide with sticky on the outside edges and no sticky in the middle), but that was a one time event. Are you going to be using it often or just a one time event? I seem to remember finding something cheaper than yellow jacket when I was looking.

[Joseph D. Macry]

Yes they are expensive. I have used cable tray gaffe tape (wide with sticky on the outside edges and no sticky in the middle), but that was a one time event. Are you going to be using it often or just a one time event? I seem to remember finding something cheaper than yellow jacket when I was looking.

I have often used roll-up rubber mats for foot traffic.
Use the yellow jackets where wheeled traffic (vehicles, road cases, catering carts) needs to roll over it.

[Robert Weston]

Is the outdoor show on a parking lot or a field?

If it's on a field, I usually bury the snake.  I'll create a single slit right down the center of FOH about 6" deep; pull back the turf; wrap the snake with that black plastic flexible tubing (that's used to hide networking cables); drop the snake in; push the turf back over on it; then, walk the line where the cable lays to push the turf back down.  It works great.  Handles a lot of foot and vehicular traffic.  You can't tell where the snake is buried.  After the show, clean up isn't bad - the flex-tubing really helps keep it clean.

If a parking lot kind of gig, the roll-up mats were good.  I tape them down with the reflective yellow/black tape.  It allows for easier crossing of strollers, wheelchairs, mobility-walkers (not that I do a lot of gigs where wheelchairs and mobility walkers are, but you never know).

[Micky Basiliere]

If a Field or grass gig , just use rubber mat. the cables will sink in slightly anyway when any pressure is applied. If parking lot/asfalt DEFINITLEY yellow jackets! i like the "buried" idea BUT, if it rains... you will have a mess!

Is the outdoor show on a parking lot or a field?

If it's on a field, I usually bury the snake.  I'll create a single slit right down the center of FOH about 6" deep; pull back the turf; wrap the snake with that black plastic flexible tubing (that's used to hide networking cables); drop the snake in; push the turf back over on it; then, walk the line where the cable lays to push the turf back down.  It works great.  Handles a lot of foot and vehicular traffic.  You can't tell where the snake is buried.  After the show, clean up isn't bad - the flex-tubing really helps keep it clean.

If a parking lot kind of gig, the roll-up mats were good.  I tape them down with the reflective yellow/black tape.  It allows for easier crossing of strollers, wheelchairs, mobility-walkers (not that I do a lot of gigs where wheelchairs and mobility walkers are, but you never know).

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

I'm about ready to purchase several yellowjacket cable protectors at great expense  for use at an outdoor festival with very heavy pedestrian traffic. The need for this product isn't so much to protect my snake and cables but to prevent tripping and falling over my snake cable by pedestrian traffic. I'll need to cover at least 50 feet or so.

Would greatly appreciate hearing what others on this forum are using for this purpose.

John.....

Yellow jackets and the like are really for protecting cables where vehicles will be crossing them.  They are engineered to take tons of weight and will be required for such things as emergency vehicle access, etc.

Because of their height and bulk they can in themselves constitute a tripping hazard as well as an obstruction to light wheeled traffic such as wheelchairs and the like.  I use a combination of cable covers such as:   http://cableorganizer.com/cord-cover-duraline/ and rubber-backed carpet runners over them.  This provides some protection for your cables as well as minimizing the trip-hazard factor.  I use the commercial cord covers when I have to go across hard surfaces.  For grass I press the cables into the sod or use just the carpet runners.
 

[john sanders]

Dick,

Thanks for the informative reply. If I decide to go with the cableorganizer which model do you suggest? Also, would Home Depot be my best bet for the rubber backed carpet??

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

Dick,

Thanks for the informative reply. If I decide to go with the cableorganizer which model do you suggest? Also, would Home Depot be my best bet for the rubber backed carpet??

John....

You can find quite a few sources for the rubber cable covers I linked you to.  You'll want ones with the "large" dimension for snake cable.  They often come as "closed back" strips and require you to slit the back.  I use a hooked blade on a box cutter for this.  I remove about 60% of the material, leaving some good tabs to hold the snake in but make it easy on/off.

As to the carpet runners, check with your local industrial linen supply vendors and see if they'll sell you some of their used/retired units.  The ones I look for are the most common size:  3x10. 

You can also check surplus houses and look for old conveyor belt material.  This is heavier, harder to find and  a bit bulky but is great cable cover for heavy pedestrian traffic.

Good luck and good hunting.

[Mark Gensman]

I just made some inexpensive snake and cable covers. 80 feet cost me $22.

I went to Home Depot and bought four lengths of ABS corrugated DWV flexible drain pipe and cut each ten foot length in half. I drilled a hole in each end of each length and drive a galvanized gutter nail into the ground (being careful to not hit the snake and power cable).

I am working on gluing tabs onto the bottom of each half round with ABS cement so they can be used on hard flat surfaces.

I wouldn't suggest driving over them, but for foot traffic they work great. I spray painted them yellow.

Total cost is around thirty bucks.

[Jonathan Goodall]

This is the stuff I use (similar to what Dick suggested)  http://www.cablecovers.co.nz/CP4%20Cable%20Protector.htm  Althought it is not spec'd to cope with traffic, I had a car drive over it rather unexpectedly once and it held up without a scratch.

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