Running water line for water trough?

We've got water running to our property via 3/4" meter like you'd find out in your front yard down by the sreet. We'd like to run a 3/4" water line (either poly or pvc) 1200 ft to a water trough(150gl) and fill it that way as opposed to filling it with several 55gl drums like we've been doing. I'm not sure if a typical residential meter of that size could handle a 1200ft run. I also don't know how long it would take to fill that trough. I'm thinking it would take forever. Thoughts or ideas gentleman?? Thanks!

You could put a float valve on the trough end and even if it takes a long time to fill, you could do other things while it is filling.

Wont be a cheap run and filling will depend on water pressure at supply and pipe diameter. With a standard psi, I'd bet it fills in less than 10-20 minutes, then the float should take over easy enough. Make sure you insulate anyting above ground good, or use a drainable faucet but you will have to manually shut it off and turn it on by hand during winter.

Similar to this, but I got 2 cheaper at TSC
http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?part...w&cId=PDIO1

It won't take long to fill. Also, don't use PVC, use poly. Its a bit tougher to work with in rolls, but it's not as fragile and way more forgiving than PVC.

When I run a water line to troughs from now on I am using PEX pipe if I do not have cattle. Then I will use the larger diameter Poly pipe and weld the transitions in place. Much longer runs with less glue joints/fittings.

Im used to working with polly so that and some brass compression fittings is what I'll most likely use. I'm not real concerned with how long it will take to fill just as long as the water gets that far. I'm thinking the hardest part will be trenching all that.

My land is sandy loam, with a hard layer of red clay about 10" down. I used a ride on trencher for a 1480' run and it took me about 2-2.5 hrs to dig the line. My son had the pipe in almost as fast as I dug. Dug to 30" for most of the run. If you have rocky soil................

It doesn't freeze hard where I live, so we can get by using a turning plow to make a trench to bury the polly line. Tree roots brought it back to the surface in a couple of places after about 25 years... (black dirt)

I have rocky soil..... Parts of this run shouldn't be bad but some are gonna suck. I'm gonna need a trencher with some juice behind for sure. I think my best bet would be to do in the spring when the ground isn't so hard. Any ideas on where I could rent a good sized trencher?

Find a landscaper with a trencher and hire him to dig the line. Probably cheaper than renting a machince for one day. Also done them with a road grader when we had one building roads on the ranch.

Almost any equipment rental, rents them. Walk behind is cheaper, but I wouldn't want one for that long a run in rocky soil.

Get a hold of Wburke on here, he has a rental yard somewhere in DFW, bet he could get you ready to go.

I would go ahead and get it done, those ride on's are plenty strong, wont be froze too deep anyway. We have another wet spring and you will have a mess on your hands.

I had a video of doing this on our place. My Dad built one 25 years ago and we still use it and most recently a few months ago. We ran about a mile of water line to our cattle lots. We don't have the spool attached to our ripper so it took a little while to stretch the pipe out with the four wheeler but not that long. After that I just walked along beside the tractor to make sure the pipe was fed smoothly. Fastest way to run water line for sure.

How many animals are you trying to supply water to? Just wildlife on LF or cattle, and or wildlife or HF? If deman is going to be high depending on size of trough you may want to look into a storage tank that then feeds the trough so at max demand say 30 head of cattle getting their water for the day it maintains instead of puts a ton of draw on the supply line. Just a thought.

You can also use a drain valve on the troph with some more poly as a continuous siphon leaving supply valve open a hair and drain open a hair to keep constant movement. Much easier to do with a storage tank. You can also run the drain line to another trough. In sequence if you will so the water doesn't just go to waste or run to a tank or somthing.

Sorry the continuos siphon idea is to keep trough from freezing. Didn't make that clear.

Water trough is going in a feeder pen for deer and deer only. I'm tired of cows knocking over my corn and protein feeders lol.

I'm a contractor and I have a few opinions based on experience running water lines.

Black Poly is cheap with a history of failure. Here in Tyler, it was used for a lot of city water lines that have proven to be a massive disaster. I wouldn't touch it even if it was free.

When soil gets wet, and then when it freezes, it moves. This is exactly like what happens with an ice cube in a tray. This movement varies depending on the type of soil you have and how cold it gets. If you are down South, it's not a problem at all. Because of this movement, gaskets pipe lines are needed. They have to slide in and out of each other, or eventually they break.

PEX is the strongest pipe you can get. The problem with long runs is where you join them together. If you have a lot of movement in your soil, PEX will fail at the joint.

Schedule 40 PVC is very strong, very easy to work with, and affordable. If you have stable soil, this is what I would use. Get the 20 foot sections with the bell at the end. Use purple primer and heavy duty clear cement. Don't even think of using any other type of glue or cement.

How much grade is there over the 1,200 feet? When water goes up hill, it loses pressure. When it goes downhill, it gains pressure. I had a house at the bottom of the hill that gained over 40 pounds of pressure at the house and it was blowing through the seals in the toilet adding thousands of gallons to the water bill. 60 psi is ideal for a house.

I would go with a one inch line to reduce friction on the pipe and get the most pressure you can. I do wonder if you would even notice the difference between 3/4 and one inch over that distance. I guess it would depend on what your pressure reading is at the beginning of the run. They sell gauges pretty cheap in the sprinkler section of Lowes and Home Depot that will tell you what you have.

I personally have a 1 1/2 inch meter and will be running a 2 inch line 1,000 feet to my pond where I'm going to build an event center some time in the future. I will use gasket-ed pipe for this because I want the most pressure I can get, and I have red clay soil that moves enough over that much distance to be a concern.

grate that you posted...black poly is not the way I would go after all the mess I have been through

Not all Polypipe is like the cheap stuff sold at TSC or McCoys.

We had almost a mile of it run on the ground exposed for years in West Texas and never had a problem. Ours did seem pretty thick though, I guess they might make different grades. I have no complaints with ours.

Before we put in a well we had 1425 feet of 1 1/4" PVC from the meter - all up hill. Aside from the coop pricing, we never had any issues. Since we put in the well I have used the same line to irrigate the front entry and water the livestock.

-ww

we have a little over 1 mile of black poly to get water to our camp from a well...Started with 1 3/4, then down to 1 inch then to 3/4 at the camp...We have had great success with it and it is above ground the whole way...the only problem we had years ago was using plastic connectors at joints.when it froze it would pull apart....we replaced them with metal 2 years ago and havn`t had a problem since...

At my cabin I am 1350 ft from the meter to my cabin and run two sinks and a shower with plenty of pressure. I trenches 48 inches deep the whole way. Started with 1 inch pipe then a ways done reduced it to 3/4. If I were you I would reduced it down to 1/2 and use pcs in 20 ft lengths with slip joints. Easy one day job.

Walter

Do not use 1/2---too small

Other then saving a few bucks, there is no advantage to reducing the size of the pipe over the distance of the run. Every time you reduce the size of the pipe, you create blockage that will reduce flow. For long runs, you want to have as easy a run as possible.