Nice rig gabby.
I'm finishing up the dozer, groundwork, and fencing for five new cattle paddocks that'll be used for rotational grazing. I developed several springs in one pasture and captured that water into a couple of 4" pipes that will flow into a cistern. I also have another strong year 'round spring available. I plan to harvest rainwater off the house and barn (total of 9,000 sf metal roofing) into a couple of high elevation buried cisterns.
I have two creeks running through my place, and have put in rock-covered geotextile material as emergency water access points for the cattle, but don't think I'll need to use them except during a drought. I will water the cattle in the paddocks using the fresh spring water and harvested rainwater.
My intention is to link all the various springs and cisterns into a connected watering system network that will mostly gravity feed the watering troughs in the paddocks. If needed I'll use a couple of solar pumps (with battery backup) to lift the water from one of the springs up to one of the cisterns.
The difficult part of my project is that nothing on my place is completely level or flat and big rocks could be my main cash crop.
The water lines to my paddocks will run one-half mile in each direction from the cisterns. One line will be about 2,800' long and the other will be about 2,650' long with risers in each paddock.
From my calculations it looks like I'll have to use 2" pipe in order to compensate for the friction loss over such long distances. Also, the water lines will follow the horizontal curves of the terrain, but there won't be any vertical high spots in the run and so no worry about air locks in the line. The cisterns will sit 40'-50' higher than any paddock waterer so there will be enough pressure to move the water.
So, my questions are: 1). Have you ever put down large diameter (2" Schedule 40) PVC using your rig? 2). If so, how did you handle the horizontal curves and bends?
I've been thinking about the various ways to lay these lines. I'm located in Central Virginia on the front range of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the lines will have water in them all year, so I'll have to be down about two feet. My first thought was to just rent a trencher and go with the open trench approach and put in 2" flexible black poly. Another thought was to hire a local pipe laying company to do the job. On the other hand, if I could somehow adapt your approach, I could probably save a couple of bucks.
All thoughts appreciated.
Ed