Lifting water 101….learning the hard way!

[BC Placer gold]

Finally found the ‘sweet’ spot on our ‘new’ tier 2 (230h Ritchie bros. Nisku) Cornell pump. Kubota V3600 85hp.

Feeding with a 4” Tsurumi portable pump at the big river (Quesnel). So as to save disturbance & future reclamation.

The pump is doing a 150’ head lift (around 800’ of 175psi layflat ‘black dragon’ hose layed out)

This setup is yielding around 450gpm at plant.

1850rpm, 125-130 psi at pump. Had to gently ‘release’ air from volute in order to achieve steady 125psi pressure. Also
using some 30’ sections of Goodyear ‘petroleum’ hose in critical areas. These were used for pumping canola oil in the port of Vancouver!

Was worried impeller
could have been damaged in oil patch use…engine paint etc did suggest nearly new.

Pleased as is doing required lift without excessive strain. BEP is 350’ @ 800gpm. We have a significant amount of frictional loss due to some lengths of 3” layflat.

 

[Welder Dave]

Can I ask what the pump cost? It's barely broken in.

 

[BC Placer gold]

Can I ask what the pump cost? It's barely broken in.

We were very pleased to get this pump for $7750 (plus fees). I went up to Nisku in March to check out 4 identical units. One had not been drained and was cracked…

One showed 1.2h. Another had around 33h. Looks like they spend time on standby (2013 Models). I wonder if tier 2 just wasn’t allowed anymore? Hence they just got rid of them.

Our unit had the original little plastic covers still over the (pristine grease zerks) could see these had never seen a grease gun - beyond factory fill.

 

[Welder Dave]

If they were used in Alberta I don't think they'd be outlawed. I'm guessing yours was a little cheaper (or was it the best one?) but that's a great price! Did they sell hose too? The hose often costs as much or more than the pump. What is a new pump like that worth, $25K? RB Nisku has a HUGE 5 day auction coming up next week. It's a major commitment just to look on their site to see what's in the auction. I'm about 40 minutes from Nisku and have been there many times. I could use a golf cart to get around as the site takes forever to walk around. With my crazy glued back I ache for days after checking out what's there. A lot of really good equipment and not really that much junk as many people think. I just see $$$$$$$. RB Nisku set a Canadian record selling $250,000,000 gross in a 5 day auction in 2024. 21,000 bidders from 43 countries and 14,500+ items!! Nisku is RB's biggest/busiest site in N. America but Orlando has the biggest single sale. Nisku has several big sales every year. Some smaller stuff I don't understand why consignors put it in the auction because it sells for peanuts. Must just want to get rid of it.

 

[BC Placer gold]

The other 3 sold for $10,500-$12,000. The one with the cracked volute went for $11,000…the crack was not really visible in the pictures!

Ours was stated as: ‘inoperable’—-I think perhaps they didn’t know you had to hold the tattletale down until oil pressure fully built. Therefore better price. Also was removed from trailer (which we didn’t really need).

The high pressure pumps are expensive for sure. Godwin dealer in PG quoted us $85000! (For the Godwin equivalent) my wife’s jaw dropped and I said: do we look rich! lol! They deal large pumps mainly to mines and big industry I suppose. I said to the young lad; we are a small ‘ma & pa’ operation. A rental was around $4800/mo

We got a bunch of the really heavy Goodyear petroleum hose used for super cheap. And around 1500’ of the 175psi black layflat used (old stock, still in boxes). For $100/50’. About 1/3 of new. Your are right about hose…expensive. We were lucky to get all that used hose….

 

[BC Placer gold]

Yes I heard about the big one coming up…probably good I am not going!

There sure are a lot of high quality machines at Nisku, quite amazing to see all right.