water pump bypass hose

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

I'm interested in getting some feedback on setting up my own personal irrigation. I have 6000 sq.ft. garden that I want to irrigate. The garden will be about 200 ft from the water source and approximatey 10 ft higher in elevation. Electricity is not a option. Gas powered will be the only way to accomplish what I want to do. The plan in my head is to purchase a cheap gas powered trash pump/ semi trash pump that will be supplied by a creek that borders my property. The creek is generally 25 to 30 ft across and about 3 to 4 ft deep where I will be pumping. I will have a pretty elaborate filter system that will filter most if not all of the solids. I plan to move that water about 200 ft to a 4 head manifold. From there I will be able to run 1-4 sprinklers depending on my needs. I have searched for weeks and have found little info on running a setup like this. There are a couple guys on youtube that have run this, but there isn't a lot of discussion on the use of common semi trash pumps as a irrigation pump. I'm interested in some of the theoretical problems in using this setup along with real world info. The pump I plan to use is the hyundai gas powered from walmart.com or red lion from tsc . Both are 2 inch in, 2 inch out and are rated about 6hp. Thanks in advance.

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

I would think about making a "kelley well" using a piece if say 8-12" water or sewer pipe with cuts in it, wrapped in fabric, placed in a whole with #57 stone in the creek, will filter your solids out. If the depending on the pump, I could see the pump surges making the sprinklers act up. If so, you might need a bladder tank and a backflow preventer, to allow steady/even working preasure.

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

I do just about the same thing you're asking about. The only difference is that I have about 30 feet of elevation. My pump has a 2 inch intake, but necked down to 1 1/2 inch output. I run 200 feet of 1 1/2 discharge hose to a homemade 2 head manifold, then 5/8" garden hose connecting two impact sprinklers. I initially tried running 3 sprinklers, but I wasn't able to have enough pressure to get a very wide coverage, so I dropped it down to 2 sprinklers and got pretty good dispersion. I wanted a pretty wide pattern (a 25 foot radius) so that I wouldn't have to reset the sprinklers to water the whole garden.

I just put fiberglass window screening over the intake strainer and I use a screened hose washers in each of the garden hoses. Anything that gets past them can easily pass through the sprinkler. The only problems I've had is when I forget to flush the discharge hoses before hooking the sprinklers up. My pump runs pretty steady on this outfit, so I haven't seen any surges that amount to anything.

If this isn't enough detail for your needs, shoot me a PM, I'll help all I can. I'd really try out my way before spending the money on bladder tanks, etc, no sense in spending money on something that isn't really needed.

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

The key is to use the largest pipe you can afford for the long uphill run, because the pressure loss over 200' (and up 10) is more than many folks realize. Start with the flow and pressure you need to do the job in your 6000' feet and the time available.

The Hyundai at 5.5 hp should generate about 45 psi at the pump if I am reading the head spec correctly (they don't usually give enough info on these things for design purposes). You're gonna lose about 4.5 psi going up 10 feet and another 6.4 psi over 200' with 1.5" pipe. That might leave 35 psi at the garden.

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

Make sure taking surface waters is legal

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

I bought the Red Lion from TSC and irrigate between 2-3 ac. I have an intake filter attached to the pump and have a 15-20 foot rise out of the small river I pump out of. I can run 4-6 sprinklers and a fire hose nozzle at the same time. I use 2" flat hose and "T" off at several locations with cut-offs on each T. This allows me to irrigate different sections of the field. I connect the discharge hose to the PVC. The second picture is one of the in-line sprinkler set ups I use, but most of my sprinklers run off a 5/8 garden hose. I used this system last year and it worked great, however drip tape would be a more efficient way to irrigate.

I plan to go with T-tape which is a type of drip irrigation this year or next.

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

We always used a high out pump at the farm for sprinkler head irrigation 80 PSI 11hp. A firefighting pump they called it.

I use a 3.5hp BS homelight/pacer pump I got at the old Farm and Family store years ago. I think TSC has them too.

I use it pump water uphill over 150' run @ approx 20'rise

2" threads necked down to use 1" poly pipe. It delivers a lot of water. Its rated 50 psi max. Sprinkler heads can make a big difference. Take a look at low output wobblers

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

Wow! Thanks everyone for the response. This is the info I was working to find thanks. I went ahead last night and bought the harbor freight 2 inch in and 2 inch out. I found a 20% off coupon online and got the whole thing shipped to my door for $168.52. Plus it has the 212 cc motor that will power my old troybilt if all else fails. My biggest concern now is the effects of back pressure on the pump. I'm probably over thinking this whole thing. I will keep everyone posted on the progress. Once again thanks, I'm glad I finally joined this forum.

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

Thanks

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

I live in Michigan and have legal right to use water that runs through or borders my property, as long as I dont pump more then 100,000 gallons per year. Even then I would just have to register the pump with the state and get a permit. Lots of water around here.

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

Back in the 70's and up to the late 80's, Dad pumped water approx. 600', and uphill right at 90'. He used two jet pumps. One at the creek, approx. 300' from a power source. Over the years he'd picked up enough old triplex entry wire to power the pump, from my then shop. A short stub piping for the jet to the creek, then a single line up to the second pump to act as a booster, to push it the rest of the 300'. He bought the plastic well pipe new at the time. Through adapters from NPT to garden hose fitting.

Somewhere he picked up 8 used, TORO golf course sprinkler heads. Put Tee's on each sprinkler, then npt to water hose fittings on each, to hook them in series with garden hoses. He welded length's of 1/2" rod to each sprinkler head, so as to stake them in the ground. It worked great..!!

Still have it all, for just in case...

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

I received the pump today and fired it up just to see what it would do. Well it moves a lot of water. A lot of backpressure is being created when conncted to the garden hose. It was just a test run so I will play with it some more this weekend

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

I got the pump running nicely today. Getting a nice 30 ft radius from a groundworks tri pod sprinkler. The key so far is to use a 2 inch valve at the outlet tobleed of pressure before it downot choked down to 1.25 black poly pipe. A total run of 220 feet.

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

I looked at ram pumps. That is how i came using the creek idea. It just wasn't feasible for me. Chinese pump $168, 100 ft poly hose $63, 2 120ft garden hose $52, 2 tripod ground works sprinklers $80, about $60 dollars on misc fittings. I have a pretty effective set up now. I love the idea of a ram pump. You will have some money into those, also they will only pretty much work for drip irrigation or maybe flood irrigation if you have a big enough holding tank. I was running 2 regular size garden hose today. The pump had more then enough pressure and flow to cover about 5500 sqft in about 30 minutes. It honestly cost about a $1.00 in fuel maybe $2.00. Thats at $3.88 a gallon.

I got the pump running nicely today. Getting a nice 30 ft radius from a groundworks tri pod sprinkler. The key so far is to use a 2 inch valve at the outlet tobleed of pressure before it downot choked down to 1.25 black poly pipe. A total run of 220 feet.

Do you have any pictures of this setup? I'm doing the same thing you are basically and i can get mine pumping right. Are you saying to put a 2" ball valve coming out of the pump then put a reducer to 1.25"? what would be the differance if i just used a reducer and no valve? Thanks!

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

I think the ball valve is critical. I tried it without it and the pump was dead heading on start up. The valve on the outlet just before the reducer allow u to open it up, then close it depending on your needs. I have found this to work the best. these pumps are not built to build pressure. its kind of a safety release. I will post pics tomorrow.

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

I dont use any valve on the output side just reducers (my in and out are the same dia.) but I've used other pumps that just wouldnt prime up unless the outflow was temporarily closed off. The old Hale fire pump we had had hand lever you could hold down to temp close off the out port until it primed then just let go to release it. With the hand lever held down you could feel the pressure building up. Need to be careful not to deadhead a running pump that doesnt have a pressure relief or somethings gonna break and hopefully thats just be at a slip on connection. Many times I've seen the poly pipe blow apart from undue pressure buildup where they have been clamped together.

Irrigating garden with trash pump supplied by creek?

This is my set up. A 2 inch ball valve is just before the 1.25 reducer that is connected to 100 ft of poly pipe.