New water trailer for Foothill

With spring here, we need an easier way to get water to the pigs. The little water trailer we had used at the main farm was not up to the task of bumping across the pasture at foothill, and thus fell apart.  Not wanting to string hundreds of feet of hose, we came up with a better idea... a full size water trailer made from the old car chassis that used to hold the turkey breeding coop.

If you remember, the turkey coop went "belly up" in a windstorm last winter, basically totaling it into a pile of lumber.

So, we pulled the old car chassis from the old turkey coop, and built on it to create a water trailer capable of carrying somewhere around 300 gallons of water. After mounting the tank on the "trailer" we attached the hardware from the small water trailer... the 12 volt pump, battery, pressure switch, check valve, and solar panel. With this setup, there is 50 psi of pressure 24x7 from the solar powered pump. We can attach the hose going to the pig waterer float valve. The pressure switch will turn the pump on and off to fill the waterer through the float valve as the pigs drink.

Sure, it would be improved by using a bladder tank to slow the cycling... but that costs a tad more and... I dont have one laying round. So not for now.

Here are some pics of the finished unit:

Here you can see the plumbing and electrical. The feed from the tank is on the left going to the 12 volt utility pump. From there it goes through a check valve, past the well pressure switch, and to a 4 way T for delivery.

Another view showing the feed from the tank to the pump. We left a large 1 1.5 inch pipe for a drain in case we need to drain the entire tank. One thing we forgot is a valve at the tank itself, to turn off the flow to the pump for maintenance. 

Here it is loaded on the trailer for delivery to foothill

The solar panel got a new stand, at about 45 degrees to maximize the sun.