What do y’all use to fill your water truck?

[Queenslander]

The bulk of our work is rural gravel road maintenance and resheeting so we’re rarely able to suck from the same hole for more than a week.
It might be tempting to use some whopping great pump that needs three men and a dog to shift, but we’ve been using these little Honda 3” transfer pumps for many years now.
Two will fill this 14000 litre tank in 9 minutes and they can easily be handled by one person.

 

[Welder Dave]

I think most trucks set up as dedicated water trucks have a PTO pump.

 

[Queenslander]

Yeah, this tank has a 4” pump with pto hydraulic motor, but it doesn’t pump near as much as the two little red suckers.
Also you can’t always get the truck as close to the water as you would like and often end up with a high suction lift which kills performance.

 

[John C.]

In this area water trucks are filled off of fire hydrants most of the time. Pumping stream water or lake water usually takes permits and all kinds of regulations. Around here fish have rights to. In the last dozen years I've only seen fire fighting crews pumping from steams. When I was a kid and my dad was in the woods all the time the road construction guys would put up a tank below a spring or by a river and pipe water down hill to that tank. Water would gravity feed the trucks from the tank. Thanks for the idea and the photos.

 

[Junkyard]

Depends on where we are. Some of the time it’s hydrant, some it’s a farm pond or some other body of water. We have a large assortment of pumps based on hole size etc so we can pump a little or a ton of water. The trailer we use for slurry holes will vacuum itself full and does so fairly quick. Our go to pumps for surface and shallow holes are just like the ones you have. For deep down in a shaft we use a couple different setups. Big air pumps or hydraulic driven.

Only thing with hydrants is to have somebody who knows what they’re doing so the water line isn’t floated out of the ground!

 

[Queenslander]

I think some people get all excited about the size of the pump and forget about the plumbing side.
We had a couple of csg pipelines come past here recently and they were using big 6” pumps but putting it through 4” layflat and ended up delivering no more than the two Hondas.

 

[Junkyard]

I think some people get all excited about the size of the pump and forget about the plumbing side.
We had a couple of csg pipelines come past here recently and they were using big 6” pumps but putting it through 4” layflat and ended up delivering no more than the two Hondas.

For sure. We’ve got pallet racks full of hose and fittings. I think we’ve created about every conceivable combination of fitting and hose over the years when we were in a jam for water whether we were coring or stumbled into a job that suddenly became a slurry hole.

 

[CM1995]

Most of the time we use hydrants which is a PIA because you need a hydrant meter.

I have used onsite detention ponds to pull water from and a 3" Tsunami pump will fill a 2K gallon single axle water truck rather quickly. Never pulled from a running body of water as I figure we would be breaking all sorts of state and fed rules and regulations..

 

[Ronsii]

Well...... you don't *need* a hydrant meter... but they do get really mad these days if they catch you... especially if you don't have a backflow device on it!!!

 

[CM1995]

Well...... you don't *need* a hydrant meter... but they do get really mad these days if they catch you... especially if you don't have a backflow device on it!!!

I've been there without a meter....yeah won't do that again...

 

[Ronsii]

They stole all yer' parts didn't they

 

[Queenslander]

So, is the hydrant water potable?
We would never be allowed to use treated water for construction here.

 

[Ronsii]

So, is the hydrant water potable?
We would never be allowed to use treated water for construction here.

Yep, just fire hydrants connected to city water supply.

 

[Delmer]

And you pay for it if you use a meter, and apparently sometimes even if you don't use a meter. Even the fire dept keeps track of water use, not sure what they pay for it, but I suppose the water dept gets paid.

 

[mitch504]

Here the FD doesn't pay the water dept., but they asked us to keep a guess of how much we used, so when they treated more than they billed for, they knew if it was a leak, or what.

 

[John C.]

Years ago no one here cared about using the hydrants. It just meant that they weren't going to need to be flushed on the next maintenance go round. I don't think I've seen one used today that didn't have a meter on it. With all the development in this area in the last bunch of years I think it's only fair the construction industry pay for it just like anyone else has to.

 

[CM1995]

So, is the hydrant water potable?
We would never be allowed to use treated water for construction here.

Yes - regular municipal hydrants. In my area the water is cheap but the sewage rate is very high. The hydrant meters only charge for the water side though.

There are some raw water industrial mains but they are few and far between.

 

[Ronsii]

Years ago no one here cared about using the hydrants. It just meant that they weren't going to need to be flushed on the next maintenance go round. I don't think I've seen one used today that didn't have a meter on it. With all the development in this area in the last bunch of years I think it's only fair the construction industry pay for it just like anyone else has to.

Yep, for small uses it was a win - win situation for all involved but I think a few guys ruined it for everyone else like what happens in most situations where trust is involved.... Now every time we think we might need big water for a job and check with the local water company most of them will rent you the meter for around 500-1000 a month plus the cuft. used.... I got no issue with paying for water even at a rate that's higher for commercial like most other things.. but a thousand bucks a month to rent a meter whether you use it or not...that's insane. So for not we find other avenues of water supply when we need it ... may not be a fast as a hydrant but you get what you can...

 

[CM1995]

The local water departments around here will charge you a deposit on the meter but will refund it when you bring it back undamaged.

 

[Ronsii]

Yeah, I think they wanted a deposit too... but the rental rate was ridiculous!!!! a small outfit can't afford rates like that...

It was kinda like they didn't want to deal with little guys accessing their hydrants...