|
The Internet | I have been using what is referred to on here as hard hosed travellers on and off for 22 years and have been using them here every year since 2001.
I've never seen a soft hose machine.
It looks to me that if you have the space for a pivot, use one of those. Travellers (we call them reels) have their place in our small odd shaped fields.
It is hard work and labour intensive. If possible you want to use as little portable pipes as possible. It does defeat the object of a reel, but if you are set on using one, the bury as much main as possible and have hydrants where your runs are.
All of the machines I have ever used are turbine driven. Each time there is a new layer of pipe, the slow the reel down to maintain the pipe pulling in speed. Use a machine with electronic controls, you can pretty much set your watch buy them.
You don't need to be there when the finish. The controls should close the valve, then the pump will shut off on high pressure. I have used a system with an electric pump that you open the hydrant, it senses the drop in pressure and fires the pump up. You can now buy systems to fit to diesel pumps that allow you to start the pump over the phone. You just dial its number and it has 3 goes at priming and starting. IIRC they also call you will codes if things go wrong.
The guns are affected by wind. Here it gets windy in watering season and we don't have enough pressure due to a weak main (not pump output) to fire the water far enough through a big enough nozzle with out damaging the crop. So we use one of these http://www.briggsirrigation.co.uk/irrigation-boom-four-wheel.php it is pulled in place of the gun. The do a very good job. The company does export them and their service is very good.
The output for ours to put 15 mm of water on is about 35 meters per hour pulling in speed with a width of 72 meters. Factor in about up to 2 hours, certainly 2 man hours, to move the machine, set the boom up and get it running. The machine has a 110mm hose.
Do not ever buy a secondhand machine. They are being sold for a reason.
Briggs market reels, Bauer are good machines. | |
|
traveling gun irrigation
