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I'm running a pretty heavy circuit from my sub panel to the adjacent wall in the garage. I'll be pulling 6awg THHN wire through smurf tube, and then switching to PVC tube and running it down the wall. This could use anywhere from 25-35 feet of wire.

The question is, is there a best practice to routing this wire/conduit, or can I just angle it across the trusses above the ceiling, or do I need to make it run in right angles? If it doesn't matter to just route the thing however I please in the shortest way possible - this means less materials. I know this will "work", but does it seem, you know... "shitty"? :) The 6awg stuff isn't cheap and I'll be running 3 conductors and a ground. This is in a basic attic above the ceiling, no usable space, simply in the trusses.

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The fact that you can access it means someone might use it for storage.

Regardless, you can't have more than 360 degrees of bend between access points. And 90 is better if you want easy pulling.

The cure for expensive 6 AWG copper is 4 AWG aluminum. This may require a bigger pipe, but you shouldn't be pushing fill limits anyway on a DIY job.

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  • Thanks for the info... I'm stuck with the smurf tube that was run from the sub panel originally (without doing a ton more work). There is one empty 1" smurf tube. Pulling 4 awg aluminum sounds like a bear.
    – slambeth
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 16:12
  • In the garage? Run conduit surface mount along the walls up towards the ceiling. Then you can go aluminium.
    – longneck
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 20:44
  • @slambeth -- compact stranded alumnum tends to be about the same size as Code (concentric, Class B/C) stranded copper for a given ampacity....
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 22:53
  • Also, are you pulling 6AWG for the ground @slambeth?
    – ThreePhaseEel
    Commented Sep 9, 2019 at 22:54
  • @longneck The conduit runs through the wall out of the top of the sub panel, then exits into the space above the ceiling. There is no "attic", this is just truss framing.
    – slambeth
    Commented Sep 10, 2019 at 18:25
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I would vote to run it the shortest distance, within reason. It's in a non-functional space and the extra length to make it "pretty" is just going to add resistance.

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