I need some hints and tips!!!

[Wild Dingo]

I have a small generator but need a water pump is there any way of converting the generator INTO a pump? I need to pump up the water from the creek to get her bloody highness free water for the acre of gardens she wants planted out! :eek: nope not me!! I work away thats for her and the kids to sort all I gotta do is set the garden beds and supply the water and some heavy liftin stuff from time to time

But Ive heard it can be done... anyone have a clue how?
Cheers

[SawDustSniffer]

a generator in to a water pump ??? ummmm
how high is the garden compared to river hight ?
what sort of garden , rain forist , natives or cacti ?

bad idear all your "heavy lifting time" will be "jerry can down to the river and back "
i have a generator / pump set up for fire fighting ( 50mm ) but would be uneconomical for vegi patch set up ,but better than your "heavy lifting time "carring jerry can of water down to river and back to vegi patch

for water transport you need to know " head height " and wanted "flow "
solar or wind mill pump / tank might be a better option

[Eddie Jones]

Dont think what your planning would be really practical. Main reason being the engine and generator components are usually "close coupled". ie nearly impossible to remove just the genny and - say - replace it with a pump body. Holes dont match etc etc. I think far more practical to buy the whole unit. Then at least you know the engine is matched to the pump etc. You can usually pick them up pretty cheap secondhand.

[Doughboy]

You might be better off getting a small firefighting pump and that way SWMBO can have her garden and you have a pump to throw on the ute/trailer for an emergency in the imediate vicinity. It also may work out just as finacially feasible.

Here is a good starting point www.pumpwarehouse.com.au/ (http://www.pumpwarehouse.com.au/)

Pete

[AlexS]

Many years ago I saw a pump that was driven by the water flowing past. It had good lift - to a roof height tap, but needed a reasonable velocity past it - not necessarily a raging torrent. Didn't get a chance to dismantle it to see how it worked, but it seemed to store the water, build up pressure, then with a blurt like a flatulent whale, pump the water up to the tank. It was pretty old then, don't know if anything similar is still manufactured. If it is, I haven't seen it, but may be worth a hunt round.

[Wood Butcher]

Shane,
What about trying to get your hands on a second hand pressure pump and just set it up beside the genny?

[Clinton1]

Alex,
The one you are thinking of is the "Billabong Hydraulic Water Ram"..... the business is for sale here... http://www.accordbrokers.com.au/business/CPViewItem.asp?ID=337

Not sure if the company is still trading while its up for sale though, although due to its success I would imaging that it is.

[AlexS]

That's the one, Clinton. The link below shows one installed. I'm surprised, but very pleased, that they are still being made.
http://www.users.bigpond.com/scsiac/RamPumps/RamPump.html

[joe greiner]

Hydraulic Rams are still made in USA, too:
http://www.riferam.com/rams/index.htm

Unfortunately, the term is also misused to describe a hydraulic (oil) cylinder.

Joe

[ian]

I have a small generator but need a water pump is there any way of converting the generator INTO a pump? I need to pump up the water from the creek to get her bloody highness free water for the acre of gardens she wants planted out! :eek: nope not me!! I work away thats for her and the kids to sort all I gotta do is set the garden beds and supply the water and some heavy liftin stuff from time to time

But Ive heard it can be done... anyone have a clue how?
CheersIt's "easy", all you've got to do is

take the genny off the end of the motor
weld a universal joint to the motor shaft
attach a long shaft to the uni joint
depending on the motor's revs you may need to put a gearbox in between the motor and the shaft driving the pump
which in turn is attached to the pump
which in turn is submersed in the creek
I think it would be easiest to buy an electric submersible (or semi submersible) pump and use the genny to supply the juice

Things to consider when buying the pump are:
how high above the creek do you need to pump the water? This is called the head
how much water do you want per minute? the flow rate
in broard terms, for a given pump as the head increases the flow rate decreases.

perhaps the easiest way would be to pump water into a header tank and let her highness water the vegies using a hose from the header tank.
That way she can spend 10 mins wetting the vegies even if it takes the pump 2 hours to fill the header tank.


ian

[Wild Dingo]

Thanks fellas

I think I will just go buy a decent pump and be done eh? ;) Im actually thinking of getting one that can live on the trailer so maybe an ex firfighting one of some sort?

The intent is to pump it up from the creek (about an 8 in 1 incline about 200mtrs from the house proper for the garden 1/4 acre then its got to go another 200 the other way up the hill (6in1 incline) for the 1/4acre vegie patch and hit the 1/4 acre orchard on its way through... Id also like it to go up onto the roof of the house as Im setting up a sprinkler system up there... and shes planning a botanical garden on the other side of the creek but thats pretty flat so no need for stong pumping pressure

So what size would be good for the above?

[Doughboy]

You will need to talk to the sellers of these things. Make a note of the vertical lift it will need to have, how close you will have the pump to the water supply ie i think they call it draw, be advised that you can use a lower pressured pump if you use a bigger diametre polypipe to carry the water... basically like the D/C pipe diametres. What kind of irrigation have you got or are you going to install.

And let them know that you want to use it for fire fighting as well.

Pete

[SawDustSniffer]

my set up is a 3 phase generator , 50 meters of 50mm fire fighting hose ( 5m+15m+30m), 5 horsepower pump and 250 amp mig welder and a 1500 lt tank for water ,mounted on a tandum traler , make sure you provide starting instructions for the fire fighting pump ( the first person who see's the fire might use it and contain the fire before the fire depatment turnes up )

i live on a large bush block in darwin and have had had my nabour run down the fence and borrow my trailer , he had the fire out on his block before the fire department arrived and returned it with a couple of cartons of beer and a "i need a hand to repair the fence ,THANKS" note" , tell your nabours where it is parked ( you might not be home )

it's expencive to set up , i allready had the genny and welder mounted on the trailer and just had to bye the pump , the tank is an old deasel tank that was 1/2 burried on my block ( just had to dig it out )

primeing could be a problem pumping water out of a creek , my deasel tank is air tight so as long as its full i just connect the overflow / filling pipe to the creek and turn it on , the air stays at the top of the tank

200m/8 = 25m head to the house
200m /6 =33m head to the

50m head hight might blow polly pipe joiners apart , thats a lot of preasure
so i wont put my self in the position of recomending a pump
also if you are using multiable valves for irigation you will need to install a pressure cutoff switch on the pump ( if all the valves are off you will burn out the pump ) and if you dont want to walk the 400m round trip 2x every time you want to water you will need a auto start generator ( key start not rip cord start )and lay controll cables the full length of the irrigation pipe and have the controls on the house wall , sill leaves you with the fule filling problem

might be cheaper to bribe "her bloody highness " with a high priced item she's been nagging you about ,and settle for a planter box on the window sill

i hope i helped

[SawDustSniffer]

had a thought ,
look out for second hand wind mills ( harder to find than than rocking horse sh$%it )
the bigger the blade the more lift it will have ,
might have to have a few tanks and wind mills to make it to the top of the hill but will soon pay it's self off ( not having to pay for fule )
if the top tank is 30 m above the house you will have geat presure at the house for free , run ya toilet , out side taps , and washing off it and save on ya water bill ,
also check with the councel , water is gold and thay might want to put a meter on it and charge you $$ for the privilage of paying to pump it , is the creek all year round ,or do's it dry up in summer ?
if you have 5-10 tanks going up the hill with over flows going down to the lower tanks you shouldnt run out of water ever

[Wild Dingo]

Strwth!! :eek: Well done and thanks mate :cool:

I can see Im gonna have to go to a few auctions to find the equipment you speak of mate... doable... I hadnt actually thought of a windmill dumb eh? I may be able to scrounge one of one of my future SILs father who puts them together in the wheatbelt... may have an oldie laying around I can snuffle ;)

Cheers!! :cool:

[ian]

I can see Im gonna have to go to a few auctions to find the equipment you speak of mate... doable... hey I know you know what you're doing, but if you're buying a pump at auction make sure you know what you bidding on as I don't think I've ever seen a pump with a rating plate setting out the head/flow rate curve.

[jmk89]

Dingo - don't want to be a wet blanket b'cos I love the idea of using the creek to water the garden. But just make sure that you are allowed to ...

At least in NSW there are restrictions in just taking water out of creeks and rivers without a water permit and the last thing we want to see is the wild guy with the white beard from the West wearing badly fitting jimmy jams at her maj's pleasure.

I note from a quick look that there is an Act called the Rights in Water and Irrigation Act 1914 which seems to be the relevant Act:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/wa/consol_act/riwaia1914305/
- it gives someone like you who has a creek through or abutting your land a right to take water for domestic use of your self (family and servants!!!) and to water stock - but not for gardens, unless the land was alienated before the Act came into force (see section 9). Another section (42) gives you a right to get irrigation water if you are in an irrigation district, but then the Water Commission can meter and charge you. Also there can be relevant local by-laws. Not legal advice, just a quick look helicopter view.

I suppose you could take the water from the creek for domestic purposes only, collect it as grey water and then use that on the gardens of HBH! On a quick look that doesn't require a licence and is an even more green solution!!! Just better check on water quality if you are going to use it for drinking or washing (including clothes and dishes).

Good luck mate. I hope this doesn't put you off. Of course, it might be a good reason to tell HBH to hold back on all this garden mallarky and generally give you more time to do things that you want to in the shed...

[soundman]

It's worth noting that there are heaps of "good cheap" pumps out there these days.
The chineese are making real good knockoffs of the honda motors and fitting them up with transfer and fire fighting pumps.
then there are the cheap 240V AC and 12 & 24 V DC pumps available.

You need to cnow the head you need to push.
I think a fire fighter probaly has too much delivery to water a garden.

A 1" transfer pump would do the job as l;ong as it had enough head.
Pumping up to a tank is a real good idea, it allows you to buffer your delivery rate.
You can run a high delivery rate pump and turn it off when full.... a quick pumping, of run a low delivey rate pump and let it take its time.

Can you easily get far enough upstream to get a down hill flow?
then you don't need a pump just some polly.

the old water hammer pumps are a clever thing but you need quite a bit of down hill flow to power your up hill push and there is a large amount of wash thru.
cheers