Watering trailer advice

[rbstern]

I've got a remote food plot and a couple of gardens on my property that I want to water. There was a homemade trailer left on the property when I bought the place.. It's rough, but it's got a truck axle, large wheels and tires, and a sturdy frame. Looks like it can handle some weight. Figure I'll get a 275 gal water tote and mount it above the axle.

I'm trying to decide how to pump the water for water applications. Every place I need to water is relatively small in square footage. The food plot is the biggest, maybe 1500 square feet.

Gas powered pump from Harbor Freight?

12v electric pump, maybe with a solar panel to keep the battery topped off?

The property is hilly, so I could also do a gravity feed to some sort of drip setup by parking the trailer above the watering area.

Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[Arc weld]

Use a gas powered pump. A 12 volt might not have enough duty cycle or flow.

 

[MikeInEburg]

How much time do you have? There is beauty in simplicity - so if you can use gravity, and you have time to wait, that's what I'd do. If you want to empty 275 gallons in a matter if minutes, then you'll need more power. I'd be tempted to use the 12v as you just won't have as many mechanical issues. How will you fill the tank? Hose from potable water source?

 

[rbstern]

Plenty of time. The trailer can sit wherever it needs to for however long is necessary. With about 100' of hose, I could probably get the trailer about 10' to 15' higher than the foot plot or the gardens.

I've got a 55 gallon rain barrel that is filled from a roof gutter and it happens to be located near the edge of a retaining wall, about eight feet vertically above a concrete pad behind the cabin. In other words, I can easily pull the trailer into spot where that barrel can be used to feed it. Otherwise, the cabin has a well pump and running water.

 

[EddieWalker]

I put a 300 gallon plastic tote on the back of a trailer I found. I had to put new tires and a 2 inch hitch onto the trailer, but otherwise, it's like I found it. The tote just sites there. I have to be careful when filling it to make sure it's balanced, so I don't rub the tires. I put a coulple of 6x6 blocks under the front of it so everything drains out, but if you have a taller vehicle to tow your trailer, that wont matter.

I have a 12v pump on the back of it that I plug into a cigarette lighter connection on the dash of my Mule or my tractor. I added one to my tractor just for this reason. The pump is kind of slow for spraying, so when I wanted to water my food plot, I disconnected the pump and just opened the valve at the back of the tote, then drove with it pouring out. This worked pretty good, but you really need a lot of water to get anywhere. I filled my tote a dozen times and it took a good part of the day to get that much done.

The real problem is in how long it takes to fill the tote. It's very time consuming.

Eddie

 

[weedpharma]

I have used a trailer with 1000 ltr water tank for watering. I used a fire pump to pressurise the poly pipe to the garden.

I would not use a 12 v pump as the flow rate is relatively low to unload the tank in reasonable time.

Look at the flow rate of the 12v pump and see how long the pump needs to run. Then see how much current the motor draws. Do you have enough battery to do the amount of watering you need to do? You could leave the tractor running to charge the battery but this uses fuel. You would also need to make sure your pump is rated for continuous flow.

A petrol pump will unload in shorter time and only need to run a short time. It is also capable of higher pressure so can drive sprinklers if you need. It may also feed more than one garden if they are not too big.

Weedpharma

 

[Gary Fowler]

I second the advice of not using a 12 volt pump, the current draw would drain your battery long before you emptied that 275 gal. tank AND mostly because the flow rate is so low. 15 feet of head pressure would give you about 7 PSI of pressure and that might be enough to supply some drip hoses maybe just drill some 3/32-1/8" holes in a pipe for trickle watering. I think that if the land level allowed it, I would just use flood irrigation if you have the water capacity for it. Those tanks have 1.5 or 2" valve on them so they can dump a lot of water fast.

 

[rbstern]

I appreciate all of the helpful posts!

 

[Herkypilot]

View attachment 356891 View attachment 356892


The real problem is in how long it takes to fill the tote. It's very time consuming.

Eddie

Eddie,
Get a semi-trash gas powered pump with a 2" line and you can fill that tank out of a creek in less than 5 minutes. That's what I do, but my tank is in the back of my truck. I use it as a mobile fire station when burning brush. You could use that same pump and reverse the hoses, use a fire nozzle and spray that food plot down in no time. You just need the right tool for the job!

HP

 

[Briar Hill Brittanys]

It takes 20 minutes or so to fill my "water buffalo" with a 6 roller pto pump. Gonna get the 2" water pump this year, though. Should hasten my fill-up turn-around times at the creek that's a couple miles away. Gravity fed drip systems are a little tricky, due to the changing pressure. When the tank is full it will have more head pressure than when the tank drains. Here's a link to a good source. Gravity Feed Drip Irrigation Kits - Gravity Drip Irrigation System for Vegetable Garden Irrigation Direct Our berry/vegetable patch is laid out in rows on raised beds. I just pump the water out of the tank into the furrow at the end of the row. There is a just enough slope running the length of the row to allow the water to drain slowly to the end. Rows are 140' long, the head of the row nearest to the tractor get ample water, as do the far ends. HTH, Mark