Pump Water With Your Outboard Motor

Pump Water With Your Outboard Motor MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Pumps 6-3-23 "I've gotten a lot of good do-it-yourself ideas out of FARM SHOW magazine. Here's one of my own I'm happy to share with anyone of your readers who can use it," writes Australian farmer Alan Black, of "Kimberley" Katamatite, in Northern Victoria. Black has rigged his 10 hp. Honda marine outboard motor for high volume water pumping for gravity irrigation, quick removal of water from flooded fields, and other emergency uses. Here, excerpted from Australia's Power Farming magazine, is how Black's "outboard motor pump" works: The outboard motor is carried on a frame which clamps onto a 9 in. pipe arrangement. The unit is set right in the water (river channel or the edge of a lake or pond) for pumping. With this application, gravity irrigation can be speeded up as much as 100% by being able to raise the height of the water in the channel, explains Black. The outboard motor, when clamped to the delivery part, is equipped with a cavitation plate which is firmly held on rubber-lined fittings. Anti-spiralling vanes are inserted immediately after the propellor. Although the motor used by Black is a 4-stroke unit, he notes that a 2-stroke outboard would also work satisfactorily since the small amount of extra fuel used for a 5 to 10 hp., 2-stroke engine would be trivial compared with the benefit of faster irrigation. Black notes that an air-cooled engine would be an advantage in offering the greater safety of not being damaged in the event the water supply runs out. However, he notes that a float switch can be arranged so a water-cooled engine automatically shuts off if the water supply is exhausted. Although the exhaust on the Honda outboard Black uses has given no trouble, he notes that there would be extra pressure encountered in using it for pumping, compared with boat work, and that this would have to be watched. The outboard Black uses for pumping water for irrigation and other uses around his farm has been left absolutely standard so that he can put it back into, his boat for weekend fishing trips. Black believes the pump's efficiency could be increased by designing special turbine shaped blades and fitting them into a neater shape than is offered by the straight pipe that he uses. However, he feels that he would rather trade some inefficiency for the ease of being able to interchange the motor for weekend boat use and special-duty pumping.

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