I have 10 valves settings. 9 of them had 21-foot steel pipes matched with 40-foot aluminum pipes. The tenth valve was made up with three 21-foot steel sections. So Myron cut some of his old 30-foot aluminum pipes down to 21-feet. For the last valve we used two 30-foot sections of pipe. One 30-foot section had a valve attached. 8 out of the 9 21-foot section had a valve attached. Myron didn't have any more extra valves but that was ok as one of my 40-foot sections of pipe had a valve on it.
Now the valves we added, plus my current 40-foot section with a valve, are 4 valves. That is because the mainline is 4 inches. On my 4 inch steel mainline pipes the valves are 3 inches. They made the valves different back then. I didn't want to buy new 3 inch valves for the aluminum sections as that would have cost a lot more for each valve. Instead, I bought two new 4 by 3 valve openers to use with these 4 inch valves. For the rest of my steel pipes that lay in the pasture and I don't move, I will use my old 3 by 3 valve openers.
Today Myron brought over the aluminum pipes. He ordered two new valve openers as the two he had on hand had the "bump" hook mechanism. Most of my pipes have the Western (triangle) hook mechanism. I can mix the two hook styles but then I have to make sure the pipe's hook is long enough, and the hook has more of an angle, for the bump mechanism. I prefer the triangle hook mechanism - long or short hooks work on those mechanisms.
So this year moving my mainline irrigation pipes will be a lot easier as the 21-foot aluminum pipes are way lighter. The 21-foot steel pipes were about twice as heavy as the 40-foot aluminum pipes I had, and the 21-foot aluminum pipes are even lighter.
This cost me over a thousand dollars but it is worth it.
Newer pipes.
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