Remote water pump

WS6Man

New member

Equipment
L3800
Feb 11, 2013
18
0
0
Norwalk, OH, Erie
I am looking to purchase a submersible water pump that I can run remotely from my L3800. I will use this to pump water from an old well into my sprayer or 60 gallon holding tank and pump the water off the top of my pool cover. I will not buy a cheap china pump and the smallest quality American pump I found so far is the baby 12 volt from BJM pumps. The data says it pulls 16 amps so I wonder what suggestions you guys have and will this pump pull too many amps for the tractor?

Thanks

Steven

Link to the data
http://www.bjmpumps.com/products/general-dewatering/baby-12-volt/
 

Stubbyie

New member
Jul 1, 2010
879
7
0
Midcontinent
Any pump set at ground level will only lift water from a well about 28-29-feet depth when new--less at it wears. Same limitation for 'jet-type' pump.

This applies to PTO-driven roller- or gear-type pump too.

When you talk about submersible pump you're limited to 120-vac (extremely shallow, low volume) and more commonly 240-vac for any depth at all.

You mention using a 12-vdc pump that I know nothing about nor do you address the depth of your well. You need to check the head pressure against which that submersible pump will be working. If your well is very deep you may find that the pipe or hose standing full of water on 'top' of the pump discharge will be such that the pump can't push it out. Water exerts about 0.5-psi for every foot of depth. If the pump has 20-psi output and the well's water level is 40-ft deep it won't pump water out of the hole.

Solar pump manufacturers offer 12-vdc submersible pumps but most if not all are designed for low-rate virtually continuous pumping instead of producing any appreciable volume (high gallons per minute rate).

You could look into running a 120-vac submersible off an inverter hooked to your tractor battery but I think you'd find the total package cost prohibitive.

Use this to determine power requirements:
Volts x Amps = Watts

so----Amps = Watts divided by Volts

Example using 0.5-hp motor where 1-hp = 746-Watts

Amps = (746 x 0.5) divided by 12-volts = 31-Amps from 12-vdc system

I think this would overload the charging system and battery pretty fast if used more than a few minutes---if no fuses or links blew.

If trying an inverter, you'd have to just about double the electrical draw due to inefficiencies of how inverters work.

You may want to consider one of the less expensive solar pumping systems (and maybe a black plastic storage tank). If the solar pump moves 0.5-gal per minute for 12-hrs of sunlight you'd have 360-gals of water produced.

For an extreme, depending on your needs, you could run a PTO-driven generator to power a submersible pump.

Any any case you need to evaluate the productivity of your waterwell. You may find it only makes a few gallons per minute no matter how hard you pump it. Which if run dry would kill most pumps very quickly.

Please advise back how you proceed that we may all learn.
 

WS6Man

New member

Equipment
L3800
Feb 11, 2013
18
0
0
Norwalk, OH, Erie
Thanks for taking the time to explain this fully. The well is an old hand dug farm well that is about 20-25' deep. I would only be using the pump to pull out water for the garden when really needed. I know the alternator on the
L3800 is a 40 amp unit and from what I understand, the pump listed will only pull 16 amps so for any who would know, how many amps does the tractor use under normal operation during the day(No lights or accessories)?

Will this pump add an excessive load to the system for 10-15 minutes of use or will I be fine as long as I am not trying to pump out 250+ gallons of water at a time?

The well is in a remote location so adding a normal 120/240 pump will not be an option. Any ideas out there?

Thanks
 

WS6Man

New member

Equipment
L3800
Feb 11, 2013
18
0
0
Norwalk, OH, Erie
Anyone know how many amps are available on an L3800 for adding electrical accessories? The tractor has a 40 Amp alternator but I doubt all 40 amps can be counted on for add-ons.

Thanks
 

lsmurphy

Active member

Equipment
B7001
Oct 19, 2012
1,197
5
36
Parrrottsville TN
Your tractor will run that pump for 15 minutes just fine.



BTW......if you run no other accessories there is no load.........it's a diesel.