Last year I set out to build a Ram Pump on my farm. I had never seen one working (except my sister's high school science project model) and there were no people in the area who could help me. I trawled YouTube for help and found various iterations of pumps which allowed me to make mine. However, I often found the videos lacked some of the critical information about the pump.
After fighting with brass valve and discovering the wear gives them a life span of only 2-3 months I decided to have a crack at making my own. The swing check has been replaced with a 4" set of fittings with almost 1kg of lead weight inside and a piece of car tire as a seal. The spring check brass valve to the pressure tank was shearing the bottom guide and after replacing it 3 times I have used a similar approach to making one. Inside is the brass valve seal drilled out and a piece of S/S thread bar put in its place. I welded a guide inside the connection only on one side and used a smaller piece of car tire for its seal. The drive head is at 6.5m and it charges to 9.2 bars.
This is a quick and dirty introduction to the Ram Pump site and its 'current' components. The journey of a Ram Pump has been tough but I finally have something working the way I had hoped it would. It has been an expensive learning curve as no two sites are identical and the theory is sometimes hard to tweak when understanding and practical experience is limiting. I have loads more clips that are not in a video format yet but could be someday.
This is a quick and dirty introduction to the Ram Pump site and its 'current' components. The journey of a Ram Pump has been tough but I finally have something working the way I had hoped it would. It has been an expensive learning curve as no two sites are identical and the theory is sometimes hard to tweak when understanding and practical experience is limiting. I have loads more clips that are not in a video format yet but could be someday.