How to truck 1,000 gallons of potable water to a residence

Do you have experience or ideas for trucking potable water to a residence?

We haven't had rain in a year or so, and some of my neighbor's wells are running dry. They asked me to figure out an efficient way to get water to them because the bulk water delivery companies are really lousy on service & costs.

The San Jose Water Company sells water out of the fire hydrants at $2.70 per CCF (i.e., $2.71 per 748 gallons) after we rent a "portable meter", either a

1-inch portable meter (output is a male 3/4-inch garden hose thread) at $29.48/month, or a 3-inch portable meter (output is a male 2-1/2 inch firehose thread) at $176.98 a month.

The returnable deposit for the portable meter is $400 for the 1-inch meter, and $1,550 for the 3-inch meter, which includes the hydrant wrench & hoses (although they suggest hoses from Royal Brass at

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It turns out that most, if not all, of the bulk water delivery companies use this method to obtain their water, so, what you're paying for is the trucking.

Hertz Equipment Rental in San Jose rents a flatbed, which requires only a normal class C drivers license, for $245/day, which will hold about 8,000 pounds (about 1,000 gallons of water in a plastic tank). The first 50 miles are free, and then it's 25 cents a mile thereafter.

They don't recommend the 2,000 gallon 'water truck' which requires a Class A (commercial) drivers license, and costs $459/day, plus 30 cents a mile, because there is no telling what water was in there prior, so you can't drink from it.

A quick estimate for the costs & logistics for a day's rental might be something like: a) $5 for each 1,000 gallons of water from SJWC b) $50 for 1 day rental of the 2-1/2 inch output 3" portable meter c) $250 for 1 day flatbed truck rental from Hertz d) $500 for 1 brand new 1,000 gallon water tank from Tractor Supply Company (or equivalent) e) $100 sales tax on the new water tank & other incidentals

Any other helpful suggestions for me to provide to the neighbors for trucking in potable water during the drought?

Reply to
DannyD.
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DannyD. wrote, on Fri, 27 Jun 2014 21:16:36 +0000:

How much water is in a waterbed? Can it fit in a pickup?

Reply to
Dolcent

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How many of 'em are there? I'd think if they'd just pool together could buy a used trailer for the tank and surely somebody has a PU to pull it? WOuldn't take long to make up for the repeated truck rental.

It's how many of the "city farmers" here haul water to their horses/etc., where don't have wells everywhere. We haul in 300-gal tanks to field tanks but have the grain trucks with which to do it already so that's no additional expense.

Reply to
dpb

dpb wrote, on Fri, 27 Jun 2014 16:56:24 -0500:

There are about 50 neighbors in the neighborhood, but, of course, not everyone will be willing to pitch in. Just those with the shallower wells (less than about 500 feet or so deep).

Can a typical trailer hold 1,000 gallons (8,000 pounds)? Can a pickup pull that up a windy 9% grade for about 5 miles?

If so, that's a good idea, since the truck rental is the largest cost. The water itself is practically free.

Of course, we'd also need a pump...

Reply to
DannyD.

How about several (3 or 4) neighbors with pickup trucks outfitted with smaller (100gal=800#) tanks in the bed of pickup making 2 or 3 runs to/from source ??

Reply to
Retired

A double-axle car hauler is rated at 14k or so...a good stout truck can easily handle 8k, altho over a grade you'd appreciate a 1T. And say if it is limiting w/ a small PU and you only run a 500 gal tank/load, how far is the haul? Still likely a cost-saver.

Iff'en one really looked, one could likely find a used goosneck for not terribly more than a new bumper-hitch car hauler, but that would, of course, take somebody w/ something to pull it. Not a horsey outfit, apparently, or there's be a bunch of 'em around for the horse trailers, I'd think.

The ? is how many are low on water and how many that aren't now will be shortly if conditions don't change shortly?

Reply to
dpb

Which brings up another question. Using whatever method you decide on, how long will it take to break even on just having the current well drilled deeper.

Reply to
Kurt Ullman

did you say how much the commercial water delivery companies charge? That would be interesting to know.

How far apart are these 50 neighbors? How far from the nearest fire hydrant?

Is the meter rental $50 per day, every day? Or is it less by the week or by the season?

what equipment is already available to these residents? Pickup trucks? Trailers?

Reply to
Pico Rico

CY: Never done it, but willing to think some about it.

CY: How close is the nearest neighbor with municipal water? Or the nearest muni hyddrant?

CY: In the NYS areas, hydrant water is often rather muddy brown, the house taps are on top of the mains, and hydrant on the side. So, please note that you may need to flush the hydrant to get the rust out. Or use a hydrant someone else used the other day.

CY: With the 3/4, it may take several hours to fill a tank. Not sure.

CY: And the manpower.

CY: That could add up in a hurry.

CY: I knew some folks who used a tap at the local highway department, and 5 gal cooler jugs. No one liked to haul jugs, so I'd do a couple of thiers when I visited.

CY: My one experience hauling water, is that it's thankless, and you get crap if you miss a day or let em run out. I used to run jugs of drinking water to some ingrates, years ago. I ran average of 3 or 4 gal a day for drinking and cooking, they had bad well water for laundry and bathing. Someone mentioned me to the park super, we're not allowed to truck water out. I mentioned that to the ingrates, who told me not to bother, they had several people offer to haul water. I stopped, and about two days later, they were calling and giving me crap cause they ran out of coffee. What about all the people who offered to bring water? Well, they put empty jugs on their car seats, but no one brought them back full. I was the only one who actually did. And so I got a 12 quart motor oil box that concealed two gal jugs of water, and I carried that in and out of my trailer a couple times a day. No one figured that one out. I set up a system with the "man" of the house, put the empties on a bottom shelf of cabinet. I also arrange the system with the wife, and all three teen daughters. I'd come in, look, no empties. They gave me crap, and they were all out of water again. I checked some of the fullies on top shelf, they were all empty, and no one knew to put the empties on bottom shelf. Idiots.

You might want to consider that you're going to be the only one hauling, and the neighbors may be as ingrate as these idiots I helped.

. Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

How far from the muni water, and practical to tie in?

If someone a half mile away has muni water, can you run a LONG several lengths of hose?

Maybe this is your new job, since there appears be a real need, and very few people have attention to detail.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

CY: You figure to set up a local tank, or just dump water into the wells, and juice up the aquifier?

CY: I'd doubt that weight. You'd have to find some one and check their owners manual for that spec. Might need towing package, and transmission cooler, and all that.

CY: Pump for what? Sounds like you use hydrant pressure to fill the tank, and gravity to drain the tank into someone's well.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

pickup trucks outfitted with

pickup making 2 or 3 runs

Danny will have as much success getting others to haul water, as the HO who I tried to help. Really, there are VERY few people who can and will do this kind of task.

I do wish Danny all the best, but this is my personal experience with a similar situation.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I can't help you with advice for getting the water delivered, but I can give you some advice if you opt for the "firehose" thread option. Back in the day it was not all that uncommon for several neighboring towns to all have different threads on their hydrants. There used to be dozens of threads used on hydrants and I'm confident that has become more standardized over the years. My advice is make sure you know what threads are on the hydrant(s) you would use.

Good luck.

Reply to
Gordon Shumway

If he rents a truck, then he needs a 1000 gallon tank, which isn't going to be cheap, plus a pump probably. Then he has to store the tank when it's not used, put it on the truck, secure it somehow etc. It doesn't sound that practical to me. And if you screw up and the tank full of water slides off when making a turn, you could crush the hippie chick in the VW.

So.... Why not just rent a potable water tank truck? I would think they must be available. And you can probably get one that holds more than 1000 gallons too.

I'm left wondering where the water goes when it's delivered? Are these folks going to get at least a 500 gallon tank to put it in? Or is someone going to be making daily deliveries?

And the final question is how much you all would save assuming you chip in, compared to an existing water delivery service. If it's not a lot, IMO it may not be worth getting involved.

Also, IDK how this all works, but a lot of times, when a community is hit like this, doesn't the local fire company start delivering water for free or some nominal charge? Maybe getting that organized would be more productive.

Reply to
trader_4

Regardless how many of them cooperate in a bulk water purchase, where are each of them going to store the water?

Presumably if you normally have well water, you won't necessarily need or have a storage tank along the lines of a few hundred gallons if the water is (or was) always available.

Reply to
HomeGuy

Cut rest.

Farmers in my area apply NH3 for corn fertilizer. It's not unusual for them to pull a couple 1000 gallon NH3 trailers behind a pickup. Some examples here:

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You could buy just the running gear then mount your own tank.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman

Retired wrote, on Fri, 27 Jun 2014 18:11:53 -0400:

That might work.

Reply to
DannyD.

dpb wrote, on Fri, 27 Jun 2014 17:16:41 -0500:

It's less than 5 miles from the fire hydrant but the grade is a windy 9%. I never owned a pickup, nor a trailer, so I'm unfamiliar with what they can carry.

Reply to
DannyD.

dpb wrote, on Fri, 27 Jun 2014 17:16:41 -0500:

That's the real problem. Right now, only two are actually *out* of water (they are using it faster than it comes in).

The rest of them (including me) are *slow* on water, which just means that it will only get worse since the next forcasted rainfall is some time around Halloween.

Reply to
DannyD.

Kurt Ullman wrote, on Fri, 27 Jun 2014 18:44:25 -0400:

Good question.

How much does it cost to drill a well an additional 100 feet?

I don't know. Mine are something like 400 feet deep (I think), but what would it cost to drill that to 500 feet? I don't know.

Reply to
DannyD.

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