Red neck engineering required to pull out a 300' well pump (1 Viewer)

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alia176

SILVER Star
Joined
Aug 21, 2003
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Location
Tijeras, NM
Alright, my fellow shadetree engineers, time to come up with a safe solution for pulling out my well pump. It sits at 295' below the grade and I need to pull it out to see what's going on with it. I think it's pulling a lot of silt and clogging up the pump stages which in turn causing the motor to trip on overload. There is no short to ground, each winding resistance is within spec so the actual pump head isn't happy.

When you have no water to your house, you move into a headless chicken mode but I'm not there yet. I'm going to rent a 500g water trailer from United Rentals and he'll get me a brand new tank so that I can use it for potable water. I'll setup the booster pump at the house to accept gravity fed from this tank and charge up the pressure tank in the house so that the house is back to normal, regardless of the well issues. This will calm things down for me.

Pulling the pump requires a boom truck so I'd have to call a local drilling company and pay the $$/hourly rate which I'd like to avoid. Besides, I should have my own solution of pulling out the pump for inspection anyway.

I got 15 sticks of 20' long PVC pipes with a pump at the end of it. This is a 1hp/230v 5gpm pump, nothing special. If the pump is toast, I can replace just the "liquid end" aka pump only, if the cost isn't too exorbitant. Local supply house is looking into it but the MSRP is around $600 just for the pump (no motor). I paid $1200 for the whole shebang back in 2011. My thought is to replace just the pump stages instead of the whole thing as this drought continues. Thankfully, the static level of water is at 235' below the surface and the pump is currently sitting at 295' below the surface. However, I might raise the pump ten feet higher to sit at 285' below the surface in order to pick up less junk.

I have at my disposal a tractor with a backhoe, a landcruiser, various fab equipment, friends who are super creative, lots of time/patience and a super tiny wallet. I figure I can rig something up to raise the shebang out of the casing like the video shows. Static water pressure + pump weight + 10/3 conductor = prolly close to 300 lbs of dead weight. I don't think my backhoe can extend 20' and beyond in order to pull out 20' stick at a time but I'll see. Maybe I can build an extension on the hoe to achieve the height.

Anyway, let me hear your thoughts or see your contraptions for pulling out a pump out of a well casing. I've attached pics of my well house, it's not like most wellhead you're used to seeing. It was well thought out, insulated and heated!

Ali

Another tool I'd love to be able to rent locally Well Pump Puller | PumpTrax

Video link of a pro doing this job in reverse, installing a pump

video link of a DIY using a cool tool that I don't think I can rent locally. Biggest difference is that they're using a continuous pipe vs 20' sticks of PVC pipes like what I have.



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Hi-lift jack and a chain.

May have to do two so you can alternate between them without letting it drop in between.

That's how we used to pull fence posts.
 
As a kid, we pulled my parents' 350' well pump a couple times. We just did it with three people - one pulling it up at the well and the other two working to flex the pipe and lay it out along the ground. The tube will bend a certain distance and the second person "accepts" it as it reaches the ground again and then the third person goes from the second person and continues to carry the end out until the full tube is out.
 
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Lifting with a backhoe or front loader will pull it up but not straight up, bucket will have an arc to it, right? I wouldn't chance busting the pvc off and then fishing the rest out of the casing. Hiring the guy who has the knowledge and equipment sounds better to me. You might wind up spending more trying some save some.

Hi-Lift would be a long day doing. My well is 480 feet and no way am I pulling all that. I'd rather pay someone and then figure out how to make some extra money.

Good luck man!
 
Lifting with a backhoe or front loader will pull it up but not straight up, bucket will have an arc to it, right? I wouldn't chance busting the pvc off and then fishing the rest out of the casing. Hiring the guy who has the knowledge and equipment sounds better to me. You might wind up spending more trying some save some.

Hi-Lift would be a long day doing. My well is 480 feet and no way am I pulling all that. I'd rather pay someone and then figure out how to make some extra money.

Good luck man!

You're correct, the BH would arc it too much and strain the PVC. It'd be a game of crawling fwd/backward while lifting and maybe too much, I dunno. I may use sch 40 rigid conduits to build a 20' tripod type deal with a snatch block up top for the winch cable.
 
I read once an old timer raised the rear end on jack stands, and ran a belt to a spare axle, with a tire mounted on it, and put it right next to the pipe, and just used hand pressure against pipe and tire to lift it out.
 
My pump is 24 years old and thinking I should replace it and would like to put a 24 volt pump inline with the 220 pump, so I could run it on batteries if needed. I understand this is more of a challenge to you than necessity, so yeah I'd build a tripod out of something, wood, etc. hook a come-a-long to it and start pulling.

On our old farm we had a Fairbanks-Morse rocker pump that used old wooden sucker rods, man was that a pain. Sometimes the pump would hangup and you banged on it to it get pumping again.

That tire thing sounds like an accident waiting to happen.
 
The pump trax machine is cool, kinda the same thing as the old farmer using a tire and pressure against it.

Ali, your over thinking this...
A 1hp pump and 300' of PVC isn't to heavy or hard to handle in my humble opinion.

That said, I hardly have time to help you, so...
 
Static water pressure + pump weight = prolly close to 300-400 lbs of dead weight.

If this close to correct, then who is going to just pull that up. I don't have any idea what that would weight. I guess you could try it and if it's a no go then build something.
 
Its going to be super heavy if it has water in the pipe. 300' of inch and a quarter pipe will hold around 150 pounds of water.
 
Spent 5 years working rigs in the oil field. Pulling wet pipe is damned heavy. The foot valve at the bottom won't let the water drain out as you pull it, and once you get the pump above the water level, you lose bouyancy so the entire string becomes dead weight lift.

You can use a pipe wrench as a wedge to hold the pipe at the casing head while you reposition, service rigs do it all the time with tubing. I think a come-along is your best option.
 
Spent 5 years working rigs in the oil field. Pulling wet pipe is damned heavy. The foot valve at the bottom won't let the water drain out as you pull it, and once you get the pump above the water level, you lose bouyancy so the entire string becomes dead weight lift.

You can use a pipe wrench as a wedge to hold the pipe at the casing head while you reposition, service rigs do it all the time with tubing. I think a come-along is your best option.

this is exactly what people forget to realize that the total weight is not trivial. Secondly, once I pull up the very first 20' PVC stick, the entire 300' + pump has to be supported while I unscrew the first stick. I'll build a slide on plate deal that'll support the column, then pull out the second 20' of stick and repeat. No two people can simply hang on to this assembly with their hands and I'd be wary of using pipe wrenches as we're all newbies! If I drop that column, I'd be so FUBAR. Drilling companies do not like to go fetch dropped pump columns.

I got a line on 4" rigid conduits on CL so I'm thinking of using them to create a 25' of tripod with a Harbor Freight ATV winch up top.

I updated my first post with pics of the well house.
 
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I spent a couple of days on a rig once fishing for a 24" pipe wrench that a hand dropped down a 4000' well. Can't drill thru that. Had to grab it with a magnet. Took 2 trips to get it out. Driller wouldn't let the hand off the rig floor until it was out, then he fired him on the spot as soon as they got it out. Good times...

Nice setup. Good excuse to put a nice bumper and winch on the front of the Cruiser?
 
Wooohoo, the water guy brought me 500g of nice, clean water. The house has been recharged with water again!

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I saw your picture and had to check where you're from. I live up by Yrisarri
 
I had my ~165’ deep pump die a bit back, the well dude hired a stinger truck (straight boom crane) and pulled the sticks off as they came out, he had the new pump back in & running in like 4 hrs, minimum charge on the crane was well under a grand.
 
I had my ~165’ deep pump die a bit back, the well dude hired a stinger truck (straight boom crane) and pulled the sticks off as they came out, he had the new pump back in & running in like 4 hrs, minimum charge on the crane was well under a grand.

Yup, that's exactly how it's done. The first video shows the process and it's pretty simple when you have the equipment!
 
Secondly, once I pull up the very first 20' PVC stick, the entire 300' + pump has to be supported while I unscrew the first stick.

They've always used continuous polyethylene well pipe on my parents' well: Polyethylene Well Pipe - Submersible Well Water Pumps & Irrigation Systems

As brittle as PVC gets, I'm not sure I'd want it down a well for precisely the issue of what to do if it breaks and drops down.

Sounds like a good excuse to put together a gin pole for your Cruiser! ;)

326888d1190592464-bootyfab-crane-project-jeepcrane.jpg


(please forgive the heep image - I searched for a Cruiser…)
 
They've always used continuous polyethylene well pipe on my parents' well: Polyethylene Well Pipe - Submersible Well Water Pumps & Irrigation Systems

As brittle as PVC gets, I'm not sure I'd want it down a well for precisely the issue of what to do if it breaks and drops down.

Sounds like a good excuse to put together a gin pole for your Cruiser! ;)

326888d1190592464-bootyfab-crane-project-jeepcrane.jpg


(please forgive the heep image - I searched for a Cruiser…)


Hmm, a gin pole. Now there's an idea that's worth looking into as it has just the right amount of red neck engineering.
 

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