Trash pump, vs High pressure fire pump?

[muddstopper]

I'll let the pump go pretty cheap, if its still good. It was rebuilt once about a year before I put it out to pasture, what kind of shape its in now, I would have to do an inspection first. I am due to have shoulder surgery in the morning so it might be a while before I could even take it off. If your still interested in it in about a month, remind me and I will take a look at it to see if its even worth having. I think the shipping cost for the whole thing would make it not worth the buying, but the pump could go UPS or Fedex fairly reasonable. I would venture to guess you could buy a 275 gal tote cheaper than you could pay the freight on the tank.

 

[northmanlogging]

Yup totes on C's lift $75 and up with or without the cage. Sometimes you can find a decent poly water tank or old fuel tank for cheap too.

There is an old... I mean OLD pump near me for cheap, but motor is not running so I haven't moved on it yet.

 

[muddstopper]

The biggest thing to look out for in a old pump is rust and is it busted from freezing. You take a old pump that has rusted stuck, take it apart and polish up the volute and impeller, make sure the bearings or bushings are free, replace a seal or two, and it will work like new. Unless its a gear pump and then all bets are off. About the only thing that does wear out in those old (centrifical) pumps are shaft seals and bearings because of leaking seals. My old bowie hydroseeder also had the centrifical pump instead of the gear pump. Dam thing would spray more water around the shaft than it would the hose nozzle. It had a old rope type seal to keep the water in. The old bearing had to be greased everyday. I went thru the bearing parts book and found sealed bearing that would fit and a teflon/kelar rope seal to seal around the shaft. That thing would spray 200ft out the cannon and empty a 1100gal tank of hydroseeding slurry in about 6 or 7 min. Thats not to say the volute or impellers dont wear out, but a hydroseeding pump is required to be able to spay out a slurry of fiber mulch, seed, fertilizers and lime. These are all big wear factors and I have seen the volutes, impellers, as well as the pump housing, worn thin from those materials. A fire pump sprays water, not near as erosive material as passes thru a hydroseedng pump or a trash pump. I would suspect a regular firepump would last a pretty long time.

 

[northmanlogging]

Yeah the pump I'm not worried much about, but the engine it comes with doesn't currently run... so a $200 waste of money if I can't make it go.

 

[muddstopper]

I can give another suggestion for you if you cant find a firepump or good hydroseedor pump. I used to drag as much as 400ft of hose up and down the side of the mountains to spray my hydroseeding slurry. Of course going downhill you would gain pressure, but trying to work up hill was a real pain dealing with the pressure drops. What I would do to get to that last few hundred feet of a steep area was to install another trash pump in my hose line. The hydroseeder would pump as far as it could into the suction side of the trash pump and the trash pump would push the slurry to the end of the hose line. Since I needed a small trash pump to fill my machines anyways, I always had a extra pump on hand. With the snap lock couplings, it was only a matter of unconnecting the hose at the end of somewhere in the middle of the run and snapping the trash pump in between the hoses. I bought my hose in 100ft lenghts so I had couplings every 100ft.

 

[northmanlogging]

Not a bad Idear there.

Found a good older fire pump in eastern WA. hopefully its still around when I get paid in a few weeks... No hoses but its an old Hale... say its a runner.

 

[muddstopper]

You know, if your only needing the fire fighting equipment for that small logging job you are considering, it might just make sense to rent a couple of small pumps from a rental place and hooking them up in tandem as described. Rental companies should have the hoses you would need also.

 

[northmanlogging]

Its a full time want, at least in the summer, every summer I get super anxious about fire... The brush around these parts is thick, and summers have been getting drier every year. been a couple of decent sized brush fires within miles of here, not to mention the New Halem, and Jumbo fires are really quite big and not nearly far enough away for comfort. The ground is steep, so when the fires do start there really isn't much anyone can do about them except cross yer fingers and hope they go out... so far so good, but what happens when we have a usual Sept. where its just cold and dry until Oct, and all these fire don't go out?

Not to mention that logging starts enough fires on its own as to be more then a little hazardous to ones health. Its also a requirement to have one on standby for DNR or FS work in summertime, So even though I don't generally work gov ground, there is usually a reason for what they require you to have on hand.

 

[northmanlogging]

So I decided to step into a pawn shop today, and ran across this little beauty.

Got er home and fired it up (pawn shop didn't have no guzzeline). But I don't currently have any hose... So's I make's some calls.



This is one of my clients left them a bunch of piles of limbs to deal with, so he decided to burn them, and figured He should maybe need a swimming pool and a fire pump... just incase...

Anyway took a little fiddling to get it hooked up, but this is the result.




Also on the left is my old tractor... fresh paint, new loader, worked over 3 pt, and hydraulics, everything I wanted to do to her but never had time.

 

[muddstopper]

Those pumps are pretty good pumps, but they can sometimes be a pain to prime. I would keep my eyes open for another one and you can hook them in tandem for those long hose runs up hill. The distance you are spraying up in your picture is about how far they can pump up hill so keep that in mind if you plan on running long lines up the side of a mountain.

 

[northmanlogging]

the fast idle is stuck on it right now (just a sticky bolt), once that is fixed it should go another 20 feet or so, and it was running 2" hose... kinda... sort of a goofy set up. Good enough for what he's planning for it, and good enough for testing. As a side note one of the big piles got going back in July, all he had at the time was a garden hose... They almost didn't get it out. Hence the fire pump.

Working on getting some proper hose for it, found a place online that sells 75' lengths used for like $56. pressure tested etc. They have junk hose for cheaper, but they have holes and what not in em.

 

[northmanlogging]

geepers... nearly a year later...

Got one of them icb totes today for $60, lately they've gone up to 100-200 (for basically garbage), anyway this ones a 330 gallon version. FS says you need 300 gal minimum.

anyhow, got hose, got nozzle, gots a tank, and gots a pump.

Need a couple of miscellaneous adapters and a suction hose, and should have it running in a week or two, just in time for the 4th of July madness, most of this stuff is available at the hardware store.

can't remember what I paid for the pump, like 180 or so, but so far I'm into it far less then 700, hose was a big hit at like 240 or sumthing, with a bunch of adapters and wrenches, hose alone would have been right around 110 or so (2 75' hoses)

 

[rwoods]

Can't believe I just read this whole thread (a subject I know very little) and didn't notice to the end that it is almost ancient history. Now that I am here I will quote 2Dogs and throw in my less than two cents .

Northy how can I say this politely... .

So how to simplify this? Buy a Honda WH15 or a WH20. ... .

Years ago I bought a WH20X to provide fire protection for my cabin, but soon came to realized some of that pressure and elevation stuff. So I gathered the components to hook it to a tote to be placed in the back of the old FJ40 but family life intervened and it became just one of many shelved projects. I have used the pump several times though - to drain the pond. Not its intended use but you make do with what you got, right?

Great little pump by the way.

Ron

 

[northmanlogging]

pump assembled and tested, nearly burned a hole in the shiny new suction hose, but it works...

Filling the tank now to see how long I can get it to spray for, approx 50 gals or so was used for testing in like 30 seconds so... we'll see what happens.

 

[catbuster]

pump assembled and tested, nearly burned a hole in the shiny new suction hose, but it works...

Filling the tank now to see how long I can get it to spray for, approx 50 gals or so was used for testing in like 30 seconds so... we'll see what happens.

100 GPM is pretty impressive out of a small pump when this engine only does 1250 drafting. I think you've assembled a pretty good little unit there if it does that.

 

[northmanlogging]

supposed to do 150 gpm unrestricted. max 150 psi ish

got er halfway filled up, then decided to go play with the dog and it... ran for around 10 minutes not at wide open, didn't want to roll the puppy across the yard...

 

[muddstopper]

Cant say how long it will take to spray out 330gal from the tote, but I used to empty my 500gal hydroseeder in 6min. It just depends on what kind of nozzle you have on the end of the hose.

 

[northmanlogging]

finally got around to timing the pump-tank drain.

330 gal on level ground 1, 75' 1.5" hose stretched out so no kinks ore pinches to worry about, on redirect at the pump, nozzle set for max flow max distance... ish... (the nozzle is a little goofy, just barely open gives a thin stream but farther distance, a little more you loose some distance but get more volume, open farther and starts to spread out more and turn more to a mist but still flow like a bastard, backwards from everything I've used before)

8 minutes ish all told or 41.25 gallons a minute. lost some water to the suction hose (20' of 2") and some water was left in tank (about 5 gallons) actual run time was 8 minutes 13 seconds

With the hose not being pinched or kinked anywhere its got enough power to push back fairly hard at wide open, and if you get stupid and try to stick the hose out a bit like 3-4 feet it starts whipping around and scaring the Wifey... good times... dog loves it by the way.

 

[Skeans]

finally got around to timing the pump-tank drain.

330 gal on level ground 1, 75' 1.5" hose stretched out so no kinks ore pinches to worry about, on redirect at the pump, nozzle set for max flow max distance... ish... (the nozzle is a little goofy, just barely open gives a thin stream but farther distance, a little more you loose some distance but get more volume, open farther and starts to spread out more and turn more to a mist but still flow like a bastard, backwards from everything I've used before)

8 minutes ish all told or 41.25 gallons a minute. lost some water to the suction hose (20' of 2") and some water was left in tank (about 5 gallons) actual run time was 8 minutes 13 seconds

With the hose not being pinched or kinked anywhere its got enough power to push back fairly hard at wide open, and if you get stupid and try to stick the hose out a bit like 3-4 feet it starts whipping around and scaring the Wifey... good times... dog loves it by the way.

Is it always fun to scare the wifey once in a blue? Lol

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[2dogs]

The answer is yes. Yes I know how old this thread is but it is the best place to demonstrate my ignorance. I have a small Honda mop up pump that works great for slash piles and the like and I also have a Pacer plastic pump for moving larger amounts of water at lower pressure. When I thought I could relay pump using the Pacer. Nope it blew the plastic volute. I am going to try and find parts, maybe Forestry Suppliers. The pump was given to me with maybe an hour of use on it.