Pump out of the river

[Farmer2750]

Could you get a tank and pump it full of water with a tractor and pump, then take the tank and a electric pump and water your lawn? With a big tank you may only need to fill once a week

 

[rickyb01]

Thanks for sharing your ideas. The river behind my home is the Arkansas River so it's very wide and the water level fluxuates. The idea of burying a 1000 gallon tank and pumping out of it may work. I don't know how hard it would be to keep it buried. One of my neighbors dug a 30' well but it silted in rather quick. This River has a lot of sand and when it overflows deposits large quanties of sand. Thanks Ricky

 

[Valveman]

Maybe you could drive a well point and maybe even quite a ways from the river.

 

[farmer2009]

It's do able with an electric pump. I water livestock out of a pond. I'm pumping water about 600 feet with about a 30 foot lift. I use a 2hp deep well pump suspended from a 55 gallon barrel. Power is about 450 feet from pump. It's a compacitor start and run. Control box is at power source 450' away. But I'll break out some cost for comparison.

Pump and motor - $1200. Franklin motor and Goulds pump. 40 gallon/minute
Pressure tank 35 gallons of draw $1,000.
2" pipe PVC $.25/foot.
27 gallon/minute media filter w/auto back flush $2,500. Sand and gravel would work cheaper for your purpose.
If you water 4 months a year you are looking at a 4-5 year payback. Using equipment the size of mine. Although going smaller if you can would speed up payback. Pump life I would expect 15 years. Pressure tank about 10.

 

[stuckmotor]

I'd do a search and watch some youtube videos on ram pumps. They require no electricity and can be homemade.

 

[Stimw]

You don't need to have the pump located at the river if you only have 12' of lift to deal with.
Shallow pumps will handle about 30' of lift and jet pumps will do more so you can run pipe to the house and once you get electric pump primed it will pump very well.
You will need a pick up that filters out the sand because sprinklers won't work with ANY sand.
You could also put a filter after the pump.

 

[Trials]

Pumps that are best suited to dirty water are called Ditch pumps, they generally have a high flow rate with a small lift capability.

Ram pumps are really neat but they have a low output capability and a low lift capacity, they siphon off a large volume of water to move a smaller volume of water, they don't work well with dirty water.

If your river has a significant drop in it, you could just locate your water intake far enough up stream to use gravity feed, guessing that is not an option here.

 

[buickanddeere]

What Valve Man said to use the earth to filter out the silt. As for pumps, they push not pull. 12gauge extension cords on a 240V pump will do. Water line size from pump to sprinkler is vital, 1/2" is way too small.

 

[buickanddeere]

Need fall for a ram and that is not there with a wide shallow meandering River .

 

[ns_in_tex]

If you only have 12' lift from the river, makes me wonder if you could take a hand augur and dig a well near the house & electricity. It might be less than 20' deep & give plenty of water. We are up on a hill with a pond across the road. We have an old hand dug well that is only 10' to water level, up here on the hill.