power washer....no water

pierrem · Nov 6, 2012

I have a pole barn 1/4 mile from my cabin. There is no water or electric at the pole barn. It drives me crazy to put away my new Kubota grand l 3940 in the pole barn muddy day after day. In addition my Kawasaki mule suffers the same treatment. I have to admit I am a bit **** about taking care of my equipment.

I am trying to come up with a solution. After some research this is my best thinking....looking for best solution at a reasonable cost....buy a small used trailer maybe 4x8...mount a 100-200 gallon water tank ( I can get water from my cabin in the summer anyway) than buy a decent gas powered power washer with 100' of hose and wand with hose reel.

I started thinking about a stand alone unit on a skid with all of the above but I would need to buy forks AND 100 gallons of water and unit weighs around 1100+ pounds....Kubota dealer indicates that would be slightly more than the FEL would lift ...given that the load would be at the end of the unit.

any thoughts? .....solutions...experience...
thanks...first time posting...new member....love my Kubota!

LD1 · Nov 6, 2012

Ever though about adding power and water up to the shed?

For the cost of what you are trying to do, maybe now is the time IF you ever plan on doing it in the future.

As to the stand alone unit.....3PH pallet forks will lift more than your loader will. But I'd be willing to bet that your L3940 would lift 1100lbs on the FEL if you are properly ballasted.

bigtiller · Nov 6, 2012

John Deere makes a nice "stand alone" unit on a skid that slides in the bed of a Gator.

ustmd · Nov 6, 2012

Welcome.

I don't know a lot about power washers, so take this with a grain of salt, but I thought most power washers had a PSI supply spec and a GPM spec. In other words, I don't think that most power washers will "suck" the water out of a standing tank, but instead rely on boosting the supply pressure (with a corresponding reduction in GPMs).

Of course, someone will come along in about 2 secs and let me know that I am wrong about that.

joshuabardwell · Nov 6, 2012

LD1 said:
As to the stand alone unit.....3PH pallet forks will lift more than your loader will. But I'd be willing to bet that your L3940 would lift 1100lbs on the FEL if you are properly ballasted.

Sure, sure, but then you've got 1000 lbs of ballast on the back and 1000 lbs of cargo on the front--why do it? By putting the load on the rear, you're well within your lift capacity, your tractor is not straining at the edge of its capacity, and the skid becomes the ballast.

The only down-side I can think of is that there are a lot more uses for FEL pallet forks than for 3ph ones, so if it was a toss-up, I would probably rather have FEL forks than 3ph. But if I was going to be pushing my tractor's loader capacity, I would probably just break down and put the load on the rear, rather than go bonkers trying to make it work on the front.

sodamo · Nov 6, 2012

Been there, done that

When we started building our house in 2005, it very soon became apparent that having water would be really handy. Mixing concrete, paint cleanup, etc. We soon acquired a 125 gallon poly tank. I fitted it to a pallet so I could lift it in and out of my pickup with my forks. I later added one of those 12vdc, on demand type, shurflo pumps, 2.8 GPM I think, mounted to a box containing a 12 volt deepcycyle battery. Vast improvement over gravity flow. Really handy once the plumber got to the point I split off the hose and we had one flushing toilet. Refilling the tank was a chore, loading it, going to the fill point, the slow filling, trip back, unloading, reconnect. Once I had roof I established a gutter connection and rain get it filled except if very high use.
One of those high use was in fact a pressure washer, gas powered of course. The GPM was a tad behind so I couldn't do a constant spray, but it was easy enough to learn to time my bursts. It really worked great. Wouldn't hesitate todo again.

Best of luck.

David Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

Deere Dude · Nov 6, 2012

I would de-mud your tires while driving back to the house at top speed, hose it off and drive it back nice and clean.

J_J · Nov 6, 2012

1/4 mile is 1320 ft, and 20 ft sticks of PVC would be 66 sections, at $2.50 @= $165.

Connect the pipe to the subsoiler and pull the pipe from source to the barn, maybe phone line also.

How deep would you have to go for a shallow well.

If no electric, use gas pump on well.

Some pumps will suck from a tank or river, but you need a stiff suction hose.

.

Gary Fowler · Nov 6, 2012

I am with JJ on this, just run a 1" water line from your cabin. Use 1" line to take care of the friction lose you will have in that long run of pipe. You could rent a trencher or a backhoe to dig the ditch and pipe will cost less than a trailer to haul a tank on. Minus the cost of trenching, you are looking at around $200 for freeze proof 3/4" hydrant and 1320 feet of pipe. I think the hydrants are about $60. With my B26 TLB I could dig 1/4 mile of trench in a couple of days or so if normal soil conditions and not rocks and an excavator would be much faster still.