Need help finding special U-bolt or clamp???

[pharmvet]

I am installing some frost free faucets. I have a 2" water line and have a 90 degree elbow leading to the pipe on the hydrant. I want to drive a 1" cold roll rod down beside the faucet to keep it rigid and to minimize stress at the 90degree junction of PVC to metal. Because of the transition from 2" PVC to approx. 1-1/4" galvanized pipe (faucet body) The cold roll rod support will be about 1/2" away from the faucet body. Im looking for a nifty clamp of some sort to attach the support rod to the faucet. I want it to look clean and professional. I was looking through u-bolt rod clamps and found some that looked close but would not work exactly. Any suggestions? thanks

[bcp]

Do a Google image search for

safety handrail fittings

There may be some fittings or ideas you can use.

Bruce

[jinman]

The old way of doing that was to drive down a section of angle iron (paint it if you like) and attach the pipe using padded stainless steel hose clamps. If you are looking for something more dressy and finished, maybe something related to stainless steel muffler/exhaust system clamps would work.

[MillWeld]

I had a similar problem with a 3/4" Pex to hydrant connection. My connections were in a concrete box which was a lot of trouble and may not be an easy solution. The pic shows 2 pair of treated supports wedged inside the box with the pipes bolted to them. (There two lines - well water and rainwater from a cistern.) The pipes can't move left, right, up or down.

[pharmvet]

Here is a picture of my setup. As you can see, the transition from the 2" pipe to the faucet will prevent me from driving the rod in right down beside the upright faucet pipe. There will be a slight offset.


Im thinking something like this clamp. Whatever I use, It will have to allow for a small gap between the 1" support rod I have and the upright of the faucet. Also, it will have to allow for the difference in diameter of the support rod and the faucet pipe.
http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4967577332943240&pid=1.7

[Western]

Maybe you could heat and bend your cold roll to fit the transition profile?, then use a standard clamp

[BeezFun]

Texas is probably not as cold as here in Chicago, but I wouldn't insert a good heat conductor like steel from above ground down to your source of water. I use a treated 4x4 and clamp it directly to the side of the frost proof hydrant pipe, and run it above ground to just below the hydrant valve. You can use pipe clamps and screw into the 4x4. That way when a horse bangs into it, or plays tug with the hose, the 4x4 takes the mechanical load. The 4x4 also doesn't conduct near as much heat out of the ground and up to freezing conditions in the winter. Around here frost line is 42", so I use a 6' 4x4 and it sticks up just over 2' above ground. The other thing people do around here if they're going to pour concrete around the hydrant is put a piece of 3" PVC around it at ground level going down a few feet. Then they spray rigid expanding foam into the 3" PVC to rigidly support the hydrant pipe, which gives pretty good insulation and provides mechanical support without having anything ugly sticking above the concrete finish.

[MillWeld]

I would drive a ~3" pipe parallel to the water pipe as far a I could and sandwich treated wood between the pipes and clamp together with U-bolts. I think the 3 incher would flex less than a 1" solid bar.

[pharmvet]

After really looking over my setup, Im beginning to wonder if I should have tried to make a steel elbow and then transition from steel to PVC in a straight line. Most of the stress on this is definately going to be in the elbow. Your thoughts?

[MillWeld]

make a steel elbow and then transition from steel to PVC in a straight line.

Couldn't follow that.

BeezFun makes a very good point if freezing is an issue.