72 inch flange reels for heavy cable

One flange, three widths

Okonite publishes more 72s than any other flange size: a 72x36x36, 72x42x36 and 72x48x36 in a lighter build rated for about 4,500 lb of cable and a heavier one rated for about 8,000 lb, plus a 72x36x40. Superior Essex prints a 72x36x37.5 fiber reel at 596 lb and a 72x36x36 copper reel at 614 lb. Anixter's NEMA table and Sonoco's packing guide both use the 72x36x36.

The family tells you something useful: flange and drum stay put while the traverse grows from 36 to 48 inches, and the out-to-out width grows with it, from 41.5 to 56 inches. Kris-Tech's reel anatomy notes that out-to-out width decides whether a reel fits lifting or unwinding equipment. A 72x48x36 will not go on a payoff stand built for a 72x36x36, even though the flange is the same.

Footage grows with the traverse

In the NEMA WC 26 formula, Footage = 0.262 x T x (H - C) x (D + H - C) / d squared, the traverse T is a straight multiplier. On the 72 inch family with a 36 inch drum and 3 inches of clearance, H is 18, H - C is 15 and D + H - C is 51, so every inch of traverse adds about 200 ft of 1 inch cable. The 72x36x36 holds about 7,215 ft, Anixter's own figure; the 72x48x36 about 9,621 ft. A 40 inch drum costs about 10% of the footage against a 36.

Superior Essex's charts, figured at 2 inches of clearance, put 7,246 ft of 1 inch fiber cable on its 72x36x37.5 and 7,733 ft of 1 inch copper cable on its 72x36x36. The table below is approximate and assumes an even wind.

Weight is the real limit on a 72

A 72 almost always runs out of load rating before it runs out of room. The lighter Okonite builds are rated for 4,500 lb of cable. If a cable weighs 1 lb per foot, that is 4,500 ft, well short of the 7,215 ft the flange could hold. The heavier builds carry 8,000 lb for an extra 185 to 225 lb of reel. Okonite's own bulletin on reel selection gives the order: the cable's construction and diameter set the minimum drum, the length is checked against the nearest standard reel, and the gross cable weight is checked against the reel's loading weight.

That is why the build matters so much when you buy a used 72. A crew winding recovered 1,000 kcmil copper needs the 8,000 lb build. A fiber crew storing a few miles of 0.6 inch cable does not.

The last size Service Wire takes back

Service Wire's free reel return accepts only its own labelled nailed wood reels with 30 to 72 inch flanges, in full truckloads, with an undamaged arbor hole and at least 75% of the stave boards intact. A 72 is the top of that range. Anything larger, any 72 from another maker, and any short lot of 72s has no route through that program.

Sonoco's EcoReel program takes truckloads of viable nailed wood reels from any maker. At 22 reels to a van, though, a yard needs a full set of 72s to offer one truckload. Most yards have six or eight, mixed in with smaller reels. Those are the lots we write up.

Who runs 72s

On a 36 inch drum a 72 takes tape shielded cable up to about 2.55 inches, wire armored cable up to 2.25 inches and fiber up to 1.8 inches, under NEMA's drum multiples. Utilities and underground contractors use 72s for large medium-voltage feeder cable and transmission-class conductor. Fiber builders use the 72x36x37.5 for long backbone runs. Industrial electricians see them on armored feeders at refineries, mills and plants. Wind and solar collection systems use them for aluminum medium-voltage cable.

The empties tend to surface in batches after a big pull: a cable-laying season on a new subdivision's primary loop, a refinery turnaround, a backbone route finished across two counties. A buyer for them is usually someone with the matching job coming up, so timing matters. We keep a seller's write-up on file and match it when a crew asks for that size, rather than waiting for one perfect buyer before anything moves.

Six feet tall on a trailer

Twenty-two 72x36x36s fill a 53 ft van by Sonoco's count. Two stand side by side across the floor at 41.5 to 44 inches out-to-out; a 72x48x36 at 54.5 to 56 inches will not pair up the same way, so the count drops. At 335 to 614 lb each, a van of 22 weighs about 7,400 to 13,500 lb empty. Flatbeds are common for 72s because they can be unloaded with a forklift on gravel, and the reels can be chained through the arbor holes.

Handling follows the rules for any big reel: a forklift with the rated capacity, a shaft through the arbor hole or forks under both flanges from the drum side, never from the tail-flange side and never by the top flange.

Grading a used 72

• Traverse and out-to-out: measure; it decides which payoff stand or reel trailer the reel fits
• Build: flange thickness and stencil class tell the 4,500 lb build from the 8,000 lb build
• Arbor hole: round, unsplit, with any bushing or plate still in place; MIL-DTL-12000 calls for one on wood reels at 2,500 lb gross
• Staves: Service Wire's 75% rule is a fair test for anyone
• Flange plies and rim: splits and missing chunks from forklift tines
• Rolling arrow and stencil legible