One of the most common questions from new buyers is simply: should I choose a hydraulic puller or a hydraulic tensioner? The honest answer is that these are not competing machines — they are two halves of the same operation. Understanding the division of labour between them is the fastest way to specify the right spreading equipment.
What Each Machine Actually Does
| Machine |
Primary Role |
Key Output |
| Hydraulic Puller |
Pulls the pilot wire rope and, later, the conductor through the stringing blocks |
Pulling force (kN) and pulling speed |
| Hydraulic Tensioner |
Holds controlled back-tension on the conductor as it is paid out |
Tension force (kN) and payout control |
The puller generates the motion; the tensioner keeps the conductor riding correctly in the blocks and clear of the ground. If pulling is the throttle, tensioning is the brake that keeps the whole system stable.
Why They Are Used Together
On a typical overhead line, the conductor is pulled from a drum station through a series of stringing blocks suspended from the towers. The hydraulic puller takes in the pilot rope and hauls the conductor forward, while the hydraulic tensioner sits at the drum end and applies a measured back-tension. Without that back-tension the conductor would slack, sag onto the ground, and risk damage from rocks, roads or vegetation. Without the puller, there would be no forward motion at all.
Because the two machines share one continuous load path, their ratings must be matched. A puller rated far higher than its tensioner simply transfers the problem downstream — and a tensioner that is too small cannot hold the conductor steady.
A Practical Example
A good illustration is a twin-bundle conductor project. A 90 kN class hydraulic puller such as the GS90 is commonly paired with a GL2×40 hydraulic tensioner, giving two conductor channels and balanced back-tension for twin-bundle stringing. The pairing is deliberate: the puller's force capacity and the tensioner's dual-channel payout are sized for the same conductor and the same section length.
How to Decide
Rather than asking "puller or tensioner?", ask: what pulling force and what back-tension force does my conductor and section length demand? Then select one of each — matched in class — plus the stringing blocks, pilot wire rope, running boards and swivel joints that complete the spread. That is what a complete hydraulic stringing set looks like.
It also helps to think in terms of the load path. The conductor passes from the drum, through the tensioner, along the pilot rope, and out to the puller at the far end of the section. Every machine in that chain must be rated for the same conductor and the same working load, which is why pullers and tensioners are almost always bought and operated as a pair. Get the pairing right at the specification stage, and the daily work on site becomes a matter of routine control rather than constant troubleshooting.
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