Ah, this is a GREAT thread. Ok, I'll start, but I'm sure there will be many to follow. ALL cables, well all the ones I am aware of, have a right hand turn built into them. That means the cables inside, as well as the insullation, tend to turn and lie twisted clockwise or to the right.
If you coil a cable against this right hand turn, it becomes knotted, kinked, and can potentally ruin the cable by improper coiling it, or putting a left hand turn into it. Ever see someone coiling an extension cord over their shoulder, you know, how everyone in America, besides people in the entertainment industry do it? They are ruining their cables. Ever seen a cable to badly kinked and notted and gunked up you know it doesn't look right? Well that's what can happen to a cable.
SO! If your a righty, grasp end of said cable in your hand so that the plug facing towards you and the actual cable droops down away from body. Now, making a loop about 1.5' in diamater with your right hand, bring both hands together while using your fingers of your right hand to role the cable to the right about 1/4 turn. This is putting a right hand spin on the cable. You'll notice that the cable will WANT to spin in the direction and will also generally "tell" you how large of a coil it wants to be in. If you come across kinks, splay them out all the way and even spin them down to the end of the cable if you have to before starting to coil again. One kink and you'll ruin the whole thing.
That's different to visualize, but maybe someone on here has a link to a video of how to correctly coil a cable?
As for coiling
feeder, it should ALWAYS be done in a figure 8 on the floor, near your
distro,
disconnect, trussing,
etc. By coiling the cable in a figure out, you end up canceling the phases and not allowing the cable to create an electromagnet. Too much feeder coiled up running at too high an amperage has to possibility to not only create this electromagnet, but also over heat very quickly, and possibly melt. This is especially important when working with 3-Phase feeder