Self propelled irrigator

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I built this machine about 18 years ago for irrigating my fields. The axle and wheels came off a worn out John Deere model 40 (1940s?) manure spreader as did the angle drive for the powered fairlead assembly. The other two reduction gears and drive motor were bought at a surplus machinery dealer for cheap.I built the rest of it mostly from scrap metal, although I did have to purchase a few bits such as some heavy oilite stock to machine the press fit water-tight bearing from.The poly pipe was purchased locally and I as I recall it was the only expensive part on the machine.It has been very reliable to date. Attached Images
Reply:I should  add that it was all stick welded together using a 1940s P&H 400 amp AC welder.Last edited by worntorn; 11-05-2010 at 12:59 AM.
Reply:how does that thing drive? is it actaully pulling on the poly or do the tires drive somhow ?Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
Reply:It is pulling the poly pipe. They are sometimes called a "travelling gun irrigator".When starting out with the pipe all wound on the drum, the drive is shifted into neutral.  I use a tractor to pull the Gun cart and poly pipe out about 800 feet. This leaves 2 or three wraps on the drum for pulling.  The drive is then put into gear and the electric motor switched on, plus the irrigation pump is also switched on. The power supply is an underground 240 volt 10/3 wire which I placed in the same trench as the water supply line, which is 4" pipe.  There are five connection locations in the field. At each connection location there is a male quick coupler for the supply hose (the red flexible hose in the photo) and a 240 volt receptacle which the winding motor plugs into. From the five locations the hose will reach anywhere on the property.The cart moves a bit over 1 foot per minute, so  about 11.5 hrs later the pipe is all wound back on the reel and the cart is sitting at the machine. The cart has a flange welded onto it's steel water line and that flange hits on a linkage which shuts the winding mechanism off. It shoots water out in a 85-90' circle so it irrigates about three acres in 11.5 hours or 6 acres per day with about 1/2" of water.The fairlead is driven off the drum and is geared to move exactly the diameter of the pipe for 1 revolution of the drum. I had to play with the fairlead gearing a bit to get everything in synch.The original manure spreader tires let go after about ten years on the irrigator, at which point they were about 60 years old. The only cheap tires I could find in the correct size were some pulloffs from some small Asian tractor. I was told that these tires are designed to work in a rice paddy. I just needed something for the machine to roll on , so for $25 per tire these fit the bill plus , more importantly, they look good on there!As you can see the machine desperately needs sandblasting and a coat of paint. Might treat it to that next year.  It has been getting completely soaked (when the gun cart gets back close to the irrigator) twice a day about 90 days per year for 18 years, or about 3200 times.
Reply:You did a great job, seeing how she's been doing what you wanted for eighteen years. Painting her would be a fair sized task, but she deserves it. I like seeing homemade equipment. Thank for posting.
Reply:Worntorn, very nice!I see the spool feeder is chain driven from the axle of the spool. How are you reversing the feeder so it goes side to side? The more I look at it the more complicated and well thought out it is.
Reply:thanks for the compliments.The fairlead assembly gets pulled along by a chain which is driven by that angle drive you can see on the left side in the third photo. The chain sits behind the beam that the angle drive is mounted to and there is an idler sprocket at the right hand side of the same beam. You can see the bearing for it in the photo.So the chain just goes round and round in behind that beam, dragging the fairlead assembly with it. There is one carrier link in the chain which has the fairlead assembly attached to it. When this carrier link  gets to the idler sprocket, it goes around the sprocket and heads back the other way, toward the sprocket at the driven end, only now the carrier link is riding along the bottom run of chain. So that's the reverse. When it gets back to the driven sprocket, it goes around the sprocket the heads back toward the idler sprocket again, now on the top run of chain. The carrier link to fairlead connection has a vertical slide built into it so that the elevation of the carrier linkcan do the elevation change from top chain run to bottom chain run  at the ends while still pulling on the fairlead. Does that explanation make any sense? I think I just confused myself in reading it thru!
Reply:Originally Posted by worntornDoes that explanation make any sense? I think I just confused myself in reading it thru!
Reply:Worntorn:Very creative build. How many acres do you irrigate in total? With a 4" pipe to irrigate from you must have a pretty serious water supply. Do you get it from a pump, or dugout? What size of pump do you have driving the system?How does the electrical cord get dealt with? Do you spool it as well or just drag along the ground?Thanks very much for posting this.Sign on East Texas payphone: Calls to God 40 cents......it's a local call...
Reply:Stampeder, I'm irrigating about 1800' x 500 feet which is right around 20 acres.The 4" PVC underground line is overkill, a 3" would have done nicely but the 4" was a bargain as it was slightly used. A neighbour put in a system to irrigate his 52 acre farm and the 4" line was part of that. He required a 120 gallons per minute water supply and thought he had this with two 60' culvert pipe type wells he had drilled. They did not do adequate flow testing before doing the installation of the system. Once in use it turned out that the wells only produced about 20 gallons a minute after four hours! He abandoned the system and dug up all of his 4" pipe which I bought from him about 1/2 price of new 3".My system runs off a 6" steel cased deep well which flows about 60 gallons per minute. The pump I installed in it is a 22 stage 5 hp single phase Berkeley. I think it was about 9 feet long overall. The system runs at 110 psi and the flow rate is around 55 GPM, just shy of the well's max.From the well house the 4" pvc line runs underground to 5 locations in the fields. I put a 10guage 240 volt underground wire in the same trench as the water pipe went in. At each of the risers for the water pipe there is a plug receptacle for the 25' cord from the irrigator.So the irrigator gets parked close to one of these risers or connection points in preparation to do a pull. After doing 800 feet in one direction I turn the machine 180 degrees and do an 800 foot pull in the other direction, still from the same connection point.So the only electrical cord to deal with is a 25' cord hard wired into the motor. This cord   gets coiled and stored on a bracket on the irrigator when the machine is moved to a new connection point, or when the 180 turns are done. Same with the supply hose (the red one in the photo) It is a layflat firehose about 25' long with quick connectors on each end.Last edited by worntorn; 11-06-2010 at 06:23 PM.
Reply:Worntorn:You've got a nice system there. We have 15.5 acres in East Texas. During the summer I could really use something like it here. My biggest concern will be getting a well with adequate flow rate. I'm giving consideration to installing several 1000 gallon water tanks, but even then these probably won't be enough. Where are you located?Burying several hundred feet of 10 gauge will also be a significant outlay.Does the hose reel drag the spray head with it?Thanks.Sign on East Texas payphone: Calls to God 40 cents......it's a local call...
Reply:I have been looking for building on my those myself for my land. My father had attempted to irrigate the property by flash flooding the land with some wired PTO powered submericable pump. Believe me it never worked. I had told him he needed a sprinkler system. My question is where did you get the sprayer head.Adam MMorales Ranch
Reply:Stampeder;  I'm in Langley BCThe sprayer gun is mounted to that travelling gun cart you see in photo 2. When the irrigator gets towed to a new connection point, the gun cart and spray head go along for the ride. I have a boat trailer winch mounted to the  2x2 overhead frame you see in picture 3. When the hose is wound right in and the gun cart is at the machine, I just clip a cable to it to it (hanging from a pulley on that o'head frame) then wind on the winch to lift the gun cart skids a few inches off the ground.Adam;  the sprinkler head is a good sized Rainbird unit. I bought it from the company that supplied the well pump. I have seen used ones of the same type on Ebay for $50-60.
Reply:You guys need permits for the water wells?And if so, how many acre feet drawdown are you allowed per a given period?Cool machine"Any day above ground is a good day"http://www.farmersamm.com/
Reply:Hi SammNo permits are needed for the drilling of water wells here in Langley.