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WILL1E
Moderator
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# Posted: 12 Sep 2022 01:40pm
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We were up over Labor Day weekend and since my son was there i decided to take advantage of that and put the water drilling escapade to bed finally. So i rented the "drill rig" from the local Ace for $100 for 24hrs. Let me just say my google'ing of a towable well driving rig produced no results for anything that looked like what I ended up getting. This thing ended up being an enormous contraption ready to eat fingers!!
The trailer is probably about 14-16' long. You stand the big boom arm upright once you've got the trailer positioned where you want to drive your pipe. Basically it's a giant weight that has a 4' long pin on it's underside. You use a normal pipe pounding cap, but it has a hole in it that the pin goes into to ensure the weight is guided perfectly to the cap each time. The sketchy part was the rope you had to finagle around the drum that was directly connected to the motor...so zero forgiveness if your finger got in there. They told me to put 2 wraps of rope on the drum and pull it taught to lift the weight and then let the rope slack to drop the weight. I found the rope wouldn't slack enough so the weight wouldn't come down as fast as i'd like. So i did more brute work and only did 1 wrap which required me to do more pulling vs. just keeping it tight.
Anyways, pounded 30' in in less than 1-1.5hrs. We hit water at 12' but i put a full 30' in since we had the machine and i had the pipe. Had (2) 5 gallon buckets of dark water and then perfectly clear after that. Ran tests this weekend on the water sample and everything came back good, just need to wait till tonight to find result on the coliform bacteria test. Feels like the whole world changed now that we have water up there!!!
right now we just have the pitcher pump on there, but i already bought the pump/pressure tank setup from Harbor which is what i used at our last place. Not sure if i'll put it on this year yet or not...TBD.
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spencerin
Member
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# Posted: 12 Sep 2022 01:59pm
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Congrats! Yes, water is a game-changer even for small cabins.....
You're fortunate that you were able to do that yourself and that you had to drive down only 12' to hit water. Did you expect that, or was that a nice surprise?
Based on your water test results comments, it seems like you used a store-bought test. If you did, I would advise you actually drop a sample off at a county health department and let the professionals test it, especially if you intend on drinking it. I did a store-bought test and the coliform bacteria test came back negative after 48h, but then I continued to let it sit for another week, after which it flipped to positive. I have no idea what that actually means.....
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rpe
Member
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# Posted: 12 Sep 2022 02:00pm
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Congrats! That's quite an achievement. I've never seen a rental rig like that before. Seems like an injury lawsuit waiting to happen.
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jhp
Member
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# Posted: 12 Sep 2022 03:57pm
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Quoting: spencerin I have no idea what that actually means.....
I had a test kit that did the same thing. On the back of the box in small print it said to throw the test out after a certain period of time, as it will always show positive after enough time goes by.
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gcrank1
Member
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# Posted: 12 Sep 2022 04:46pm
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Great!
What is the biggest pipe that rig can drive?
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DaveBell
Moderator
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# Posted: 12 Sep 2022 04:53pm
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nice! were you able to sleeve/pipe liner the well hole?
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Brettny
Member
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# Posted: 12 Sep 2022 05:57pm
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Never saw one like that. How does it work and who makes it?
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spencerin
Member
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# Posted: 12 Sep 2022 06:42pm - Edited by: spencerin
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Thanks, jhp, that's what I get for not reading ALL the directions.....
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Nate R
Member
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# Posted: 13 Sep 2022 09:33am
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That's fantastic! Interesting to see what that rig is... 
Did you use 1 1/4" pipe or 2"?
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WILL1E
Moderator
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# Posted: 13 Sep 2022 12:30pm
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Yeah we've been hauling 55 gallon drum up every once in awhile to top of the IBC tank. Finally done with that PITA!!
Neighbors with "official" drilled wells were going down 150-200'. Based on my elevation compared to them and the fact that a spot on my property retained water for a couple years i figured it wasn't to far down. So pure luck with the help of my witchin' sticks!! 2 for 2 now with them!
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WILL1E
Moderator
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# Posted: 13 Sep 2022 12:32pm
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Quoting: gcrank1 What is the biggest pipe that rig can drive?
I don't think the rig itself has a limit. The only limit would be having a drive cap with the 1 1/4 or 1 3/8" hole in the center for the pin to slide. The ace i rented from only sold 1 1/4 and i think 2" or whatever the next common sand point size is.
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WILL1E
Moderator
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# Posted: 13 Sep 2022 12:35pm
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Quoting: DaveBell nice! were you able to sleeve/pipe liner the well hole?
Nope. Just put the sand point onto that 1 1/4" pipe along with a check valve and called it good for now.
Quoting: Brettny How does it work and who makes it?
Didn't see or really look for a brand. I kinda described how it worked in my original post. I think my wife took video of us using it, i'll see if i can post it.
Quoting: Nate R Did you use 1 1/4" pipe or 2"?
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Nate R
Member
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# Posted: 13 Sep 2022 01:05pm
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Quoting: WILL1E 1 1/4...didn't see a reason to need bigger.
Agreed, if the static water level is that high... doesn't matter. For me I'd need 2", because I'd probably be playing with some sort of deep well pump. At least the wells around me aren't hitting water until ~ 40-45 feet.
Project for another day.
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BRADISH
Member
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# Posted: 13 Sep 2022 01:18pm
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Water at 12'? Wow what a blessing. The few wells around me are either sandpoint on a hillside, or 300'+.
I will probably haul water from the spring 1/2 mile away as long as i have my cabin..
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