I’ve had this impulse sprinkler for a few years now. Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.
Except for that spike. You can never get that darn spike to hold the sprinkler in place very well. Plus it’d be nice to get the body of the sprinkler a bit higher off the ground to water a larger area. I’ve eyed those rainbird sprinklers in the store that come attached to a chintzy tripod, but they didn’t seem like they’d be worth the money. This is a farm, and chintzy aluminum tripods won’t last very long around livestock. As I often do, I got myself an idea.
This is a 1/2″ FPT elbow fitting (cast brass), a few 1/2″ copper fittings and a hose. Oh, and a 3.5″ puck cut out of a 2×6, pressure-treated of course.
Just about any impact sprinkler head will thread into the 1/2″ threads up top, and the bottom is graced with this 1/4″ T-nut. As luck would have it, 1/4″ is the same size as a standard tripod thread.
Add a Leitz Tiltall tripod (or Davidson Star-D as the case may be), one of the classic heavy-duty professional tripods, and you’ve got a farm-worthy sprinkler.
The newly-seeded grass around the chicken coop is getting all the water it needs. And the best part is that no Tiltalls were harmed in the making of this sprinkler. If you get the urge to photographize, just detach the sprinkler head and get shooting!
Very cool adaptation! It’s so much fun when you can take something that is kind of OK and make it loads better!
Also looks like a fun thing for three year olds to play under.