Length of Funny Pipe

[greenhorn123]

Originally Posted by PurpHaze

Your "greenhorn" status is showing. Nipples break off with impact. And I can't count the number I've seen where the tee isn't vertical so the sprinkler tilts. Maybe the standard for DIY people is nipples and cut-off risers but the professional irrigation standard is some type of swing joint, whether it be prefabricated, funny pipe or the type we use. THAT is a personal choice based on locale and experience. Nipples are NOT a choice.

hey im a poly guy from massachusettes. but i lived in florida for a year and worked for a pretty succesful company. we would use both nipples and funny pipe depending on the situation. but if youre any good you can glue a head on straight. seem to work well there, i'll stick to pulling poly over trenching pvc any day. thanks

[PurpHaze]

Originally Posted by greenhorn123

hey im a poly guy from massachusettes. but i lived in florida for a year and worked for a pretty succesful company. we would use both nipples and funny pipe depending on the situation. but if youre any good you can glue a head on straight. seem to work well there, i'll stick to pulling poly over trenching pvc any day. thanks

Aw, gee wiz... pull away.

[Critical Care]

Hey, make life easy Burlap.

Don’t run your pvc line directly beneath sprinklers. Don’t make your lengths of funny pipe too short by tapping off of the pvc too close to where the head needs to be placed. Don’t end your lateral pvc line too close to a head as well – same thing. You need working space. You need flex room.

Do put on a marlex street ell between the head and the funny pipe barbed fitting. This will allow you to adjust the head back and forth, right and left, without any problem at all. Just make life easier.

[londonrain]

Originally Posted by greenhorn123

hey im a poly guy from massachusettes. but i lived in florida for a year and worked for a pretty succesful company. we would use both nipples and funny pipe depending on the situation. but if youre any good you can glue a head on straight. seem to work well there, i'll stick to pulling poly over trenching pvc any day. thanks

Our soil conditions in my neck of the woods do not allow you too pull in pipe. A lot of rock and hard red clay at the base of the Blue ridge mountains. A few companies try it but only stay in business a year or so around here. I would whip a contractor with some flex pipe if I caught them using nipples in this day and age. Any time I run into a nipple I replace it with swing pipe. The last time we used a nipple was before we even had flex pipe. I was 12 years old putting in systems with my dad on the weekends. I still go and work on a system we put in over 20+ years ago with my dad(He was a Engineer so we went around the area putting in systems on the weekends. I was paid $25.00 for the weekend and I was fired about 3 times...lol
We would pull up in a 1976 Cadillac with the pipe tied on the roof and put all the supplies and tools in the trunk and pull a trencher plus the entire crew could get in the car about 6 of us, can you say "Trunk slammers"....lol-lol-lol) , believe it or not some of the heads are still on riser and they are the green Rain Bird 1800's and Toro super 600's and some are still working after 20 plus years. I have a degree in construction Engineering's and worked as a planner and scheduler and a autocad engineer. I always loved irrigation so in 1991, I started doing irrigation on the side and turned into my full time job. Designing system on autocad with a add-on program called Landcad which I still use today on a 386 computer with a plotter. Sorry to jack the tread but I did not see a introduce yourself thread.

[Wet_Boots]

I dunno about not being able to pull in clay. I know Ditch Witch made a mammoth puller for laying telephone cable on a cross-country basis, with a 36 inch burial depth. It would more or less work out to machine weight and power, and maybe operator patience. Some of the ancient dinky machines had a recommendation to 'pre-plow' before pulling the pipe. That might mess up a lawn as much as trenching would, maybe.

[londonrain]

Originally Posted by Wet_Boots

I dunno about not being able to pull in clay. I know Ditch Witch made a mammoth puller for laying telephone cable on a cross-country basis, with a 36 inch burial depth. It would more or less work out to machine weight and power, and maybe operator patience. Some of the ancient dinky machines had a recommendation to 'pre-plow' before pulling the pipe. That might mess up a lawn as much as trenching would, maybe.

lol I guess you have never seen South Carolina red clay, this stuff gets like concrete in the summer. This clay has a lot of iron ore in it. Its more about the rocks we have. I use a 2310 diesel with a upgraded 3500 boom with shark teeth and if the rock is big enough I use the backhoe and get it out.
It can be done but the system is only a few inches deep because of rocks.

[Wet_Boots]

Okay, but that's slightly short of the hundred-plus horsepower that Ditch-Witch applies to the cross-country puller, which wasn't made to be stopped by anything short of genuine rock. I run into all sorts of geology, from clays of various colors (I think I hate blue clay the worst) to glacial moraines, to properties that are mostly rubble from the blasting needed to create the subdivision and foundations in the first place. I always find myself wishing the clay-soil owners had phoned me in late winter, when the soil still had enough moisture to be much more workable.

[londonrain]

Originally Posted by Wet_Boots

Okay, but that's slightly short of the hundred-plus horsepower that Ditch-Witch applies to the cross-country puller, which wasn't made to be stopped by anything short of genuine rock. I run into all sorts of geology, from clays of various colors (I think I hate blue clay the worst) to glacial moraines, to properties that are mostly rubble from the blasting needed to create the subdivision and foundations in the first place. I always find myself wishing the clay-soil owners had phoned me in late winter, when the soil still had enough moisture to be much more workable.

Are we talking about the same thing here, residential irrigation installation?

I think anything bigger than a 2300 ,2310, 3500 or 3600 would be a little much on a residential install. Like I said pulling pipe is really not an option in our part of the world, I cant comment on your neck of the woods because I have never installed a system up your way. All I know is that it will not go easy in my area and I work on systems that have been pulled in since the contractor is no longer in business.
I don't think a homeowner would like a machine the size of a truck installing a 4 zoner, might be hard getting it in the back yard...lol

By the way almost every thing in our area is directional bored if they are laying underground utilities, that alone must tell you something... plowing is not an easy option around here.
Just my 2cents worth but what do I know..

[Wet_Boots]

The trenching is an easy eough call when it gets to be dry, heavy clay. You can make less of a mess chewing out the soil than powering a plow blade though it. I'd still want to see a Vermeer LM-42 with a brand-new (sharply pointed) blade fail before I would declare a site to be unplowable. Ever use one of the 'circular-saw' wheel attachments, with the carbide teeth? Those will pretty much go through anything, even frozen soil and rock..

[londonrain]

Originally Posted by Wet_Boots

The trenching is an easy eough call when it gets to be dry, heavy clay. You can make less of a mess chewing out the soil than powering a plow blade though it. I'd still want to see a Vermeer LM-42 with a brand-new (sharply pointed) blade fail before I would declare a site to be unplowable. Ever use one of the 'circular-saw' wheel attachments, with the carbide teeth? Those will pretty much go through anything, even frozen soil and rock..

Bring all of your plowing techniques to my area and I guess you will see how quick and easy plowing in a system would be in my area. Believe me if it was that easy every contractor in this town would be plowing in pipe because it is cheaper and easier than trenching and laying PVC and covering up(by the way we use a McCullough Cover-Up machine for back filing).

So let me see ,if I could buy one plow machine and get the job done then I would not need the 3 trenchers that I have; a 2310 with backhoe and boring unit , a j20 rider and a 1010 walk behind plus the cover up machine.
Am I missing something here?

Also the very first system we installed was back in 1976 in Richardson Texas, it was a poly pipe pulled system. Let me see that was 30 years ago, so I know a little about pulling pipe. just-my 2 cent worth but once again what do I know.