Who has hooked up to a fire hydrant?

pinpointdan said:
We are about to have the ability to run 17gpm! Its going to be awesome, except at places like we were last night when even hooking up at two spigots I think we had 10ish gpm. I have seen mention of people hooking up to hydrants and Im curious how that works.
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Rent a portable meter from the city water. Pay your water usage through that. Most who do this don't use float valves they watch their tanks i believe.
 
Go to your utility company and put up a deposit for one.
The one we use is a 1" and has a garden hose bib on the end so we can run water hose off it.
Some people use a section of fire hose and fill up after they run out. I don't prefer that method unless the hydrant is not within range.
 
We hook up to hydrants everyday. Your going to need to get a hydrant meter for every municipality you will be pulling water from. Also a backflow for the meter and In some cases a vacuum break drop pipe into the top of the tank. If your are just going to pull from spigots on the meter you will still need a backflow. municipalities are going to require deposits for each meter (we have about 6 grand in deposits out on meters it can be costly) and a monthly or bimonthly reading you will be billed just like the water bill at your house or business. 17 gpm eats water quick how big of a tank do you have on your rig. We run with at least 250 gallons at all times and still run low some times.
 
Those prices seem high for hoses, I have a 30' and a 20' that can be hooked together if need be and they are 2 1/2" hoses. I think I paid about $175 for them. Keep in mind with that size hose I can fill both tanks with 550 gallons of water in under 4 or 5 minutes.

I have a 3/4" adapter and it keeps up with the machine with no problem at all.
 
Is the utility making you get a meter? The hose prices seem high. Go to an industrial hose place, and they should be able to hook you up.
 
The water utility may be all under one service for multiple towns...if you are lucky. Different area may have their own requirements too. In one area by me I had to go to a designated site and in another I could go anywhere I wanted with just a backflow device and a weekly fee. As for the hose you could restrict it down to 1" and you should have no issues maintaining 20 gpm. The pressure should be low enough to work with a float valve (like the 1" Hudson) otherwise there are pressure reducing valves available to work with them.
 
Johnson said:
Go to your utility company and put up a deposit for one.
The one we use is a 1" and has a garden hose bib on the end so we can run water hose off it.
Some people use a section of fire hose and fill up after they run out. I don't prefer that method unless the hydrant is not within range.
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Im guessing you work in some smaller towns. I just talked to one we do weekly work in. The guy said they will put a meter on a hydrant but its more for one time use where the utility puts it on, you use it then they take it off. The recommended installing a frost free faucet onto their irrigation system. Have you run into this?
 
pinpointdan said:
Im guessing you work in some smaller towns. I just talked to one we do weekly work in. The guy said they will put a meter on a hydrant but its more for one time use where the utility puts it on, you use it then they take it off. The recommended installing a frost free faucet onto their irrigation system. Have you run into this?
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No. Different areas will have different guidelines. We've hooked into irrigation faucets before, they work great.
Having the utility company come out twice a week to install and remove hydrant seems like a pain. I would try to get your own unless that's the only location you need it at.
 
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