"Hose Trolley" Helps Water His Garden

"Hose Trolley" Helps Water His Garden MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 33-5-44 "After years of dragging a garden hose through the plants in my garden - and often breaking them off - I decided to build an overhead hose trolley. It works great and was easy to put together," says Darwin Keiper, Pocono Lake, Penn. Keiper built the "hose trolley" over his 100 by 35-ft. garden. It lets him water any part of the garden with a 100-ft. long hose that never touches the ground. The hose rides on homemade plastic "saddles" that are connected to pulleys that ride along a cable suspended overhead. "I just walk down a path through the center of the garden and pull the hose along with me," says Keiper. "When I'm done watering the garden I walk back, and the hose folds back up behind me." The hose saddles are made from 5-in. lengths of 4-in. dia. pvc pipe with muffler clamps bolted on top of them. The hose runs through the muffler clamps, which hold the hose in place. The saddles are attached to pipe hangers that are connected by snap hooks to the pulleys. A boat winch at one end of the garden tightens up the cable or lower it to the ground. "It works better than using a sprinkler system because I don't knock anything down, and because I can water just one part of the garden if I want," says Keiper. "At the end of the growing season I unsnap the saddles from the cable and bring the hose into the house for the winter. I can attach bird feeders to the pulleys for winter. The feeders are above the ground where squirrels can't get at them." Keiper sells a kit that includes the cable, pulleys, pvc pipe, pipe hangers. pulleys, snap rings, clamps, and boat winch. Contact for price. He's also willing to sell plans. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Darwin Keiper, HC 87, Box 3, Pocono Lake, Penn. 18347 (ph 570 646-9141; info@dirtbuddies.com).

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