So sorry about last night!
I just couldn’t stay up long enough to win the fight with my computer and/or GoDaddy to load my pics!
This entry is nothing without its pictures!
So let me start again.
Our ramp pump lifts water up out of the 500′ Otter Creek Canyon without electricity. It simply uses water pressure and a series of valves/flaps/pipes to achieve this feat. It was built by the Rife Ram Company… which is still in business.
The water is piped into the left of this photo, through a valve in the rusty area on the left and then will go through this valve that forces water into a chamber on the right.
The water comes up through the little house looking area… it’s actually two rubber flaps that let the water through, and then close behind it.
The upper piece is bolted on… the ram is pretty good about breaking the bolts that hold it together… that just reflects the amount of pressure and force that it can create!
The big tank sits over the house flaps… and gets bolted down. Water will leave this big tank and get pushed up the line to the top of the canyon. In some photos you can see the pipeline leaving this tank and going up and out of the cement block house it sits in.
This is the “balance” lever that opens and closes the valves according to the pressure of the water.
Here it is at work…
Extra water that doesn’t get forced through the system splashes back out and drains back into the creek.
I understand I’m not explaining it very well… if you’re really interested, there are many muchmuch better explanations on the internet! <And I would have linked to something… but *it* isn’t letting me. poo. >
I just believe it is an extraordinary piece of equipment. Fabulous in its design. Simple. Practical. Useful.
I even took some video of it working… however… somehow in transferring it to my computer the video was sped up. I noticed it with my piggysitting video as well… guess I have a kink or two to work out with my new camera! So understand… the ram works MUCH slower than this!
Rife Ram Pump from Carol Greet on Vimeo.
OH, Hey! I’m late for the first week of the month and our usual Question and Answer entry! So… better late than never… Post any questions you have for me in the Comments section and I’ll answer them on Saturday!
Find me here!
