Mobile Water System

[Lucky_P]

If I were putting one in today, rather than plumbing up in the center of the tire, I'd run my riser up through the sidewall, like in this video: https://kerrcenter.com/video/tire-tanks-installation/
Would probably leave more of a tab of sidewall, reaching almost to the bead, immediately above wherever I plumbed the riser up through the sidewall to provide a bit more protection from cows mucking around with the float mechanism.
An overflow pipe, plumbed away from the waterer, is a helpful addition. Have had way too many issues with floats sticking open or the cows breaking them, resulting in a huge mudhole around the waterer, with erosion and subsidence rapidly becoming an issue. I can show you one here that had repeated overflow problems that ended up looking like it was on a 3 ft 'pedestal' before I moved it... got to the point that calves couldn't drink out of it, it was so high.

 

[RDFF]

I just installed two of these right before hard freeze up.


It's continuous flow... which keeps it open for me in the wintertime. The 4" PVC drain in the center is hooked up to my field tile, for the overflow. Here's one of them, at -14F, fully exposed to NW 40-50 mph winds, in the middle of our recent Minnesota Christmas blizzard. I have never chopped the ice on these yet. The water level is down on this pic because a bunch of cows had just left it. This blizzard was a nasty one! Water supply is 1 1/4" 160 PSI black poly from my well. Used a Jobe Topaz valve, with their "FrostPro" installed for the continuous flow part when the main valve closes. Pretty minimal flow required to keep them open.

 

[RDFF]

I put down 1 1/2" screened rock all around them to avoid the mud. Filled the trench underneath the tire/around the riser pipes with the same, so it wouldn't settle. Tamped sackrete in under the sidewall and around the pipes coming in, let water in enough so it covered the concrete a few inches and let sit for 1/2 a day, then filled it with water and let the cattle on it the next day. I used a utility hydrant as my entrance pipe and shutoff (operates on the same principle as a yard hydrant, just built differently, and is available in larger pipe size for less restriction on the flow... ). That allows me the option of draining the water down below the frostline. Followed that with an anti-siphon check valve, then the Topaz.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Looks great RDFF. Did you design this?

 

[RDFF]

Yes, I designed the installation, but of course there's lots of others that have done tire tanks. I just added in the continuous flow part. These are set out across my fields... had to backhoe the 6' deep buried pipe about 1800'. Going to add onto that pipe next year with more "shallow buried line" about another half mile. I think I can get away with burying it like 20" deep as long as they're continuous flowing. The concern comes in if the power were to go off... there goes the continuous flow. With deep buried line, and with the valve components on the floor of the tank, nothing should ever freeze, even if the power is off (as long as te tank freezes over before the cattle drink it down too far!). But I think I'll be OK anyway, as I'm putting my supply line under sod, along my north property line fence, which causes a snow drift on my side of the fence (over the line then). I put the waterers about 30' off to the side of the main line, so the cattle don't pack that snow drift down over the main line. Then I can "deep bury" that 30' line running over to the waterers, so that doesn't freeze.

I have a 4" "PVC vent stack screen" placed into the top of the drain riser. That has pretty fine slits in it, and they do end up catching cattle hair and of course hay, etc., so I clean them off every so often. But I wouldn't want hay to just be able to run down into the drain tile either... could end up plugging my line. Pretty minor "maintenance" requirement there though, compared to opening frozen waterers all the time. Costs less to pump a little water than to try to heat it. Once warm weather comes, I'll just shut off the continuous flow valve on them.

 

[RDFF]

Chaded,

If you're still set on a "mobile" system, in one of my pastures, they were watered by a tile line. It quit running during a drought a couple years ago. I put a 1500 gallon tank on a hay rack, plumbed a hose out of it and set a 30 gallon tank alongside of the wagon with posts into the ground all around it. Put a float on the tank, and gravity fed it. It worked, but it wasn't a great solution. 1500 gallons of water is heavier than you might think too... takes a pretty good wagon to handle it...

 

[sstterry]

What happens to the excess water, and also with "continuous flow" do you worry about your well pump being overworked and giving out if it is constantly running?

 

[RDFF]

That 4" white PVC pipe in the center is the overflow drain, which drains off the excess. Where that comes up through the concrete floor, I put a 4" PVC FPT fitting (top of it level with the top of the floor). The standpipe for the overflow has a 4" PVC MPT fitting screwed into that first fitting, with a 4" PVC pipe glued into it, and cut to length just above where your full height water level is from the float-controlled valve. I stuck a 4" PVC vent stack screen into that pipe then, to keep hay etc. out of the drain. The drain line is connected to my field tile, and eventually exits into a creek. It can just run off into a ditch somewhere too of course... but obviously you want to get it away from where the cattle will be congregated. To drain the tank, just unscrew the standpipe.

The well won't be "constantly running"... but it will of course be running intermittently, cycling off and on, just like it does anytime you take water from the system. The amount of "continuous flow" required is pretty small (only a small 1/8" tube coming out of the "FrostPro" valve, which is inserted into a Jobe Topaz float-controlled valve... this is the same as their MegaFlow, but the Topaz has a port built into its valve body specifically for the "FrostPro", which allows for some minimal continuous flow). So no, I'm not concerned about "burning up the well pump", or overworking it. Obviously, everything has a lifespan, and yes, the more water you pump, the sooner you'll of that lifespan and have to replace your pump... but that applies to everything that you pump water for... how many cattle are you running that you're going to be watering then too... or how many people you have at your place, or how many sprayer refills you need to do every year, etc.

The more "continuous flow waterers" you have on your system, the more your pump will have to be running of course too. However, if you've set them up right, you DON'T have to keep them ALL running all the time. These CAN freeze over without damaging anything... the tire tank itself won't be damaged, even if it gets like 12" thick ice on it. The inlet valve is on the bottom of the tank, like 20" below the top waterline. Beyond that, I used a "utility hydrant" (stated above in a previous post, Woodford-U125M-2-Product-Overview.pdf) as my water inlet shut-off, so I can actually shut the water off below frostline, if I want to (proper functioning of that hydrant then requires the use of an "air valve" (S-050 | Automatic Air Release Valve "Segev" (arivalves.com)) with a snorkel on it, which I also put on these... so the hydrant can draw air in to drain down, while the tank is still full of water...). That "air valve" is followed by an anti-siphon check valve (you NEED this also for the hydrant to function properly when draining down, but you SHOULD have one of these on any underwater tank valve anyway), to keep water from the tank from being able to move backward into and potentially contaminating the supply line, and then comes the main float controlled valve with the "FrostPro". Everything is positioned well underwater, protected from freezing. You can shut off the water coming into the tank if you want to or just shut off the "FrostPro", and still keep the tank full of water and let it freeze over. When you need it because you've moved the cattle to another area, for example, just chop the tank open, and turn on the "FrostPro"...

Remember that the "FrostPro" valve IS at the bottom of the tank though... so you'll be reaching down through a full arm's length of water to manipulate it... unless you drain the tank. If it's below 0 when you need to do this, it's going to be just a bit chilly!

It's cheaper to pump a little more water, than it is to try to heat a tank to keep it open. Geo-thermally heated...

Here's a diagram of the installation... I show two check valves on it... that's just as insurance in case one would fail. One should do it, and is all I used. If you're on a municipal water supply, these check valves might not meet your code requirements, and you might HAVE to have an air gap ... check your local regulations.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Chaded,

If you're still set on a "mobile" system, in one of my pastures, they were watered by a tile line. It quit running during a drought a couple years ago. I put a 1500 gallon tank on a hay rack, plumbed a hose out of it and set a 30 gallon tank alongside of the wagon with posts into the ground all around it. Put a float on the tank, and gravity fed it. It worked, but it wasn't a great solution. 1500 gallons of water is heavier than you might think too... takes a pretty good wagon to handle it...

And you want to make sure you are VERY CAREFUL hauling a full tank. We have the same set up. Once, when hubby was moving one of the 1500 gas tanks on a wagon full of water, there was too much of a dip - and the tank fell off and popped like a balloon. Boy did we have a water flow!!