Once we had metal roofing on all of our buildings, adding water catchment jumped way up the list. We have a creek and a spring on the property, but wanted an option that kept us from having to lug water for the animals and drag hoses across the drive for the garden. It also let us position water storage where we wanted it.
The first one to go up is by the barn, to provide water for the animals and water for the garden.
I got 250 gallon IBC totes from a winery, that way I knew what was in them and knew they were safe for potable water.
I wanted to get them up off the ground to give them some head pressure to hopefully be able to run 100’-150’ of garden hose for the garden. I decided a 4’ rack combined with the natural several feet of elevation change should do it, plus I was worried going higher would be more unstable.
I thought about buying it out of treated lumber, but I can’t swallow the current prices of lumber, so I decided to build it out of steel. More expensive than the lumber, but a whole lot more durable too.
I built the fram for the tote to sit on the same size as the tote frame, with tabs to keep it from being able to slide off. Think it ended up being 38”x46”.
First thing I did was test my welds, it’s been a while since I’ve run my welder since there was no electric in the barn until a couple months ago, an I just wired in the 220 this weekend. It held the tractor up, and that was with only two sides of the tube welded.
The frame, made from 1-1/2” square tube with a 3/16” wall:
Squaring the legs was obviously pretty important since it will have 2000lb of water plus the weight of the tote on it, and doing it with no extra hands was tough.
I used 3/8”x3” flat bar for the tabs and for diagonal bracing for the legs. I used 5/8”x10” flat bar to make pads for the feet because I didn’t want to set it in the ground, I wanted to keep it mobile if I chose. This is all rigged up to move with the tractor, I’d guess it weighs about 220-250lb.
The spot where were locating it is on a bit of a hill, so I had to dig down in one side and build up on another. I put down a couple inches of gravel to keep it from getting muddy and to keep it from sinking. I could only get it to about 10’ from its final location with the tractor because the ground was too soft, so getting it to final position was a bit of a wrestling match for one guy. Wrestling the tote up on the stand was even more so.
I used a cam-lock fitting with some PVC adapters to get it to a brass hose bib. I have a drinking water hose from and RV supplier for potable water, couple hundred feet of rubber hose for watering the garden.
Welcome any thoughts and opinions, ways to improve, tips from y’all’s setups.
Love to see some setups from others here, I’d like to have 4 total systems for myself with each being one of those totes.
The first one to go up is by the barn, to provide water for the animals and water for the garden.
I got 250 gallon IBC totes from a winery, that way I knew what was in them and knew they were safe for potable water.
I wanted to get them up off the ground to give them some head pressure to hopefully be able to run 100’-150’ of garden hose for the garden. I decided a 4’ rack combined with the natural several feet of elevation change should do it, plus I was worried going higher would be more unstable.
I thought about buying it out of treated lumber, but I can’t swallow the current prices of lumber, so I decided to build it out of steel. More expensive than the lumber, but a whole lot more durable too.
I built the fram for the tote to sit on the same size as the tote frame, with tabs to keep it from being able to slide off. Think it ended up being 38”x46”.
First thing I did was test my welds, it’s been a while since I’ve run my welder since there was no electric in the barn until a couple months ago, an I just wired in the 220 this weekend. It held the tractor up, and that was with only two sides of the tube welded.
The frame, made from 1-1/2” square tube with a 3/16” wall:
Squaring the legs was obviously pretty important since it will have 2000lb of water plus the weight of the tote on it, and doing it with no extra hands was tough.
I used 3/8”x3” flat bar for the tabs and for diagonal bracing for the legs. I used 5/8”x10” flat bar to make pads for the feet because I didn’t want to set it in the ground, I wanted to keep it mobile if I chose. This is all rigged up to move with the tractor, I’d guess it weighs about 220-250lb.
The spot where were locating it is on a bit of a hill, so I had to dig down in one side and build up on another. I put down a couple inches of gravel to keep it from getting muddy and to keep it from sinking. I could only get it to about 10’ from its final location with the tractor because the ground was too soft, so getting it to final position was a bit of a wrestling match for one guy. Wrestling the tote up on the stand was even more so.
I used a cam-lock fitting with some PVC adapters to get it to a brass hose bib. I have a drinking water hose from and RV supplier for potable water, couple hundred feet of rubber hose for watering the garden.
Welcome any thoughts and opinions, ways to improve, tips from y’all’s setups.
Love to see some setups from others here, I’d like to have 4 total systems for myself with each being one of those totes.
