Reversible irrigation lines

Abstract

Abstract A long hose having sprinklers at both ends forms, with a cable running over a reversible, powered capstan, an endless, reversible towline. The length of the hose is about one-half of the length of the area to be irrigated and the hose is advanced through an injection tube at the central portion of the area to be irrigated, and water under pressure supplied to the tube enters the hose through check valves in thick-walled coupling portions spaced along the hose. The check valves are in the form of elastic sleeves fitting in the coupling portions, each sleeve normally covering two oppositely disposed openings in the coupling portion and adapted to buckle from the higher water pressure in the injection tube to admit water into the hose. Each sleeve preferably has stiff backing plates on its inside and plugs on its outside filling the openings in the coupling portion. The openings preferably are elliptical. Washing chambers at the ends of the injection tubes wash the hose before it enters the seals in the injection tubes. In one construction, two hoses with sprinklers are disposed in parallel relationship in one side of a field with two cables connecting their ends and forming an endless towline therewith, one cable being on a capstan of a drive unit midway between two sides of the field. Two other parallel hoses and cables are positioned in the other half of the field and are pulled by a second capstan of the drive unit. In another construction, a power unit midway between two sides of the field pulls two parallel cables to pull two hoses through injection tubes from one side of the field to the center of the field. The injection tubes then are disconnected from a fixed pipeline in the first half of the field, the cables are disconnected from the hoses, the hoses and injection tubes are towed by a tractor to the second half of the field, the injection tubes are connected to a pipeline in the second half of the field, the cables are connected to the other ends of the hoses, and the power unit pulls the hoses to the power unit from the far side of the second half of the field.

Inventors

• 👤 Gregory J Wieck

Bibliographic Details