Trash Pump Question

pollards24 · Jan 20, 2015

Hello all, I am a new member and new to owning a tractor and a very small piece of land so I am looking to gain some knowledge from your experiences. I have a good size creek on my land that has about 6 inches of flowing water or more year round, mostly pockets holding 1+feet and more during wet season. I am looking to buy a gas powered trash pump to move the water from the creek to food plots and even to help control small wood pile burns. I only want to spend around $300 but willing to go up some to get what I need, but my question is what pump would you recommend to move the water up to 300 feet max with about 100 foot rise up to the highest point? For the most part the closest foot plot will be within 100 feet with only 30 feet rise but I might as well get a pump that will go all the way to the top. I am not worried about huge water flow at the top, just a decent amount to water the food plots here and there. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Gunny · Jan 20, 2015

Save yourself some money unless you know you're going to have a lot of solids going through the pump and just get a regular water pump with a 2 inch suction line and strainer. Trash pumps cost a lot more

The distance you're pumping the water to doesn't really matter, other than line friction, (minimal, but needs to be taken into account) but the 100 foot rise (head) will probably kill you for most gasoline powered water pumps out there, since most have specs that maximum head is around 90-95 feet on a 5 or 6 horsepower pump. Even at the maximum advertised head, you're not going to get much flow.

I would suggest that you run 1 1/2 inch discharge lines as far as possible, then reduce it down to smaller piping. I water my garden which is about 150 feet from the creek and about a 40 foot head. I run 100 feet of 1 1/2 inch line, then reduce it down to 1 inch for 50 feet, then 3/4 to the two irrigation sprinklers to get good coverage.

pollards24 · Jan 20, 2015

Thanks so much for the reply, like I said I am new to this so when you say 1 1/2 inch discharge line do you mean any 1 & 1/2" hose/pipe? Also what do you gain by reducing it down to smaller piping? I would think that would just cause better pressure correct?

xzcVAbc5 · Jan 20, 2015

pollards24 said:
Hello all, I am a new member and new to owning a tractor and a very small piece of land so I am looking to gain some knowledge from your experiences. I have a good size creek on my land that has about 6 inches of flowing water or more year round, mostly pockets holding 1+feet and more during wet season. I am looking to buy a gas powered trash pump to move the water from the creek to food plots and even to help control small wood pile burns. I only want to spend around $300 but willing to go up some to get what I need, but my question is what pump would you recommend to move the water up to 300 feet max with about 100 foot rise up to the highest point? For the most part the closest foot plot will be within 100 feet with only 30 feet rise but I might as well get a pump that will go all the way to the top. I am not worried about huge water flow at the top, just a decent amount to water the food plots here and there. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Search for "Ram Pump" on Youtube and you might be able to build a pump for $100 out of plumbing parts. "Engineer775" has some tutorials on there. Moving the water 100' up might be a challenge, but if you have enough fall of the water you might be able to get it to work.

oosik · Jan 20, 2015

I run my irrigation system out of my lake with a standard 2.5 hp Red Jacket centrifugal pump. Its electric but you can get the same thing with a gas pump. You want the high pressure provided by a centrifugal water pump and not the greater volume of a trash pump. I assume you will be sprinkler irrigating and not flood irrigating.

The overall distance - 300 ft - will not be a problem. You will not be able to lift much water up 100 feet. I think that lift will be beyond what is possible.

Also, I do not see you obtaining a pump of this type for $300. I think you might have to spend about 2X that and you will have the cost of the discharge hose also.

I have a WT20 Honda trash pump. It will pump about 185 gpm but without the pressure to run sprinklers. It would do great if you were flood or ditch irrigating. The problem - its a $1200 pump. And discharge hose will run about $1.00-$1.25 per foot.

DFB · Jan 20, 2015

Ya those are pretty heavy demands on a gas powered waterpump and wont be met within that budget estimate. What you really need is a high pressure pump. I'm not making any recommendations here but this link shows a few designed to meet similar demands and has some volume flow charts

Years back we had a 10 hp high pressure Hale firefighter pump purchased used from a volunteer fire department auction to supply 100's of feet of irrigation thru sprinkler heads for commercial vegetable production. Made an extended run fuel tank from pony sized beer keg...worked great!

You could also consider first moving water to a holding tank and then transferring it again from the second source closer to your needs and maybe getting by with a smaller pump but large water holding tanks aren't inexpensive items either (that's similar to what we do at the orchard for sprayer tank filling to get massive water volume without wasting time waiting for water to pump) and that would also relieve some strain on the pump too.

pollards24 · Jan 21, 2015

I actually purchased two 275 gallon holding tanks, so I think I will purchase a 7 HP gas powered 2" pump and transfer from creek to tanks on my trailer, then drive up to the plot and use the same pump to transfer from the tank to the food plot. I think that is best with the 100' elevation.

DFB · Jan 21, 2015

7HP should be a lot of pump. I have had a Pacer pump with a 3.5 B&S engine for water transfer for many years. Paid around $200 at a tractor store probably 15 years ago. I see one just like it on amazon now.
Amazon.com : Pacer Pumps #seb2pl E3c 2" 3.5hp Transfer Pump : Sump Pumps : Patio, Lawn & Garden

I use it every all summer long pumping from a small brook to water all the 100's of garden plants from the greenhouse at my weekly marketing location. Averaging about an 8 ft. suction lift and 100 ft. run of hose over a 5 to 6 ft head increase Its not high pressure maybe 40psi max but its been a good pump. 2 inch standard. I have it necked down with a 1" suction hose and use a 5/8 garden hose outfeed. I barely even need set the throttle half open to do what I need to do. When I used it for commercial gardening I easily pumped water sourced from a 350 gallon holding tank over a 100 ft run emptied it like nothing using a standard 1" black poly line and at 50ft uphill head.

A lot of folks are happy with Chinese built pumps and they usually have Honda clone engines.

Pacer is USA company an pump parts are easily available just like Briggs and Stratton engine parts are. I think if ever need to replace it this one looks pretty decent for my simple needs. Has a cast iron sleeve too. I mounted 6 rubber bumper foot pads on mine stops it from walking around from vibration when its running

davesl708 · Jan 21, 2015

Check North Star high pressure pump. They claim over 8k gals per hr and a total head of over 200'. Small unit 6hp, 2" line.
Maybe what you are looking for. See on YouTube.

pollards24 · Feb 5, 2015

Went with a High Pressure 2" PowerEase HP-2070R from Rural King for $269 free shipping. Also purchased 100' of 2" pvc layflat hose which will then reduce to 1" pvc hose for an additional 300 feet. I will see if it works in the next few months and let you know. Suppose to have 187' head so we will see how it works. Worse case my food plot will only by 150 feet away from my creek with only 20 foot elevation so I know I can water it, I just wanted the extra hose to help with fire control around the property. Gonna be a fun experience.