Irrigation pump trolley

BY EVAN SAMUEL You’ve installed water tanks to fend off the drought, but how do you get that water out into the garden? A pump mounted on a home-built trolley could be the solution you need.

WHEN THE long drought and resulting water-use restrictions struck the Western Cape last year, just like countless other homeowners, I installed water tanks to catch water runoff from my roof. My property slopes downwards towards the road, so feeding the front garden was easy using a hosepipe connected to the water tank outlet, but the 12 mm hosepipe and the distance involved certainly made it a very slow process. As the back garden is higher up, we needed to fill a watering can from the tanks to water the plants up there, which wasn’t convenient or efficient.

While shopping at our local farmers’ co-op for fertiliser, I saw a special on an irrigation pump with an integral pressure controller and decided to buy it. I added a few couplings, some hoses, and voilà – irrigation became a much quicker process!

1. Rip the pine to make two uprights.

2. Reject the 40 mm bannister, which is too big for the uprights, in favour of a section of broomstick. 3. Drill holes for the broom handle into the top ends of the uprights. Use a drill press to keep them nice and square.

4. Carefully mark and drill clearance holes for the M6 coach screws, using a centre-punch for accuracy.

5. Clamp the uprights at a slight angle to the oak pump base – the sloping uprights just look better.

6. Drill 4 mm root diameter holes through the holes in the uprights into the pump base while keeping the uprights clamped in place.

7. Secure the uprights to the base using the M6 coach screws. A hammer tap or two helps the threads to bite into the 4 mm holes in the base.

8. Insert and fasten the broom handle.

9. Then, drill root diameter holes into the uprights for the axle bolts. (Refer to Dave Gous’ tip on tapping into wood on page 98 of the recent Jan/feb issue.) Notice the groove I ground into the bolt using my Dremel. Depending on the wheel size you have available for your trolley, you will have to judge an appropriate position for these holes. Wheels can also be mounted on an axle fastened right to the underside of the trolley – it all depends on what you have available. I then mounted the wheels.

10. Finally, fit two pairs of coach screws to hang the hoses on. You could also use coat hooks for this purpose. With the hoses secured using a bungee cord, it’s easy to trundle the pump to any of my garden tanks, and to connect it to the tank outlet and the garden hose. With this setup, watering any part of our property is simple and easy, but this leads me on to a final word of advice. With an irrigation pump connected to your water tanks, you’ll likely find that the water delivery is so fast that, depending on how many tanks you have and their capacity, you’ll overwater and drain your tanks before the next passing shower can top them up. Always actively monitor the level in your tanks.

Happy gardening.

But carrying all that equipment around from tank to tank became quite tedious, so I set about making a trolley to accommodate it all. Having spent more than R1 000 on the pump, I was determined to use materials already in my possession. After a scratch-around in my garage and garden shed, I found the following: 950 mm of 100 × 38 mm rough SA pine, an oak off-cut measuring 280 × 120 × 25 mm, 500 mm of 40 mm diameter bannister off-cut, two 75 mm used castors and eight M6 × 65 coach screws.