One-man Rig To Pull Well Pipe?

Tinstaafl

I replaced the ejector ass'y in a 125' well last weekend. With a helper, I got the lines pulled up without quite looking like I needed an ambulance.

But it got me to thinking, how would I do it if there was no helper available? Short of buying a commercial rig, has anyone come up with a relatively simple homebrew contraption to at least just hold onto the lines while you reach down for the next grip & pull?

Aggie67

I'm not a well guy, but I'm an engineer who has built his fair share of contraptions over the years (lifters to get steel in place, build bank vaults, build runs of large bore pipe in place up in a pipe rack, etc).

I need to know outer diameter, the material, and if there are any couplings or it's continuous tubing. I won't count the cable. Also, 1 line?

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Tinstaafl

Sorry to hear that Aggie; hope you feel better soon.

That's where it gets cute. If it's a surface jet pump, there are typically two lines of differing diameter. In this case the ODs would have been around (guessing) 1.25" and 2.25". Normally there are no couplings; the lines are flexible black PVC.

If it's a submersible pump, there's only one line, about 2" in diameter, accompanied by wiring for the pump and circular standoffs every 10' or so to keep it all centered in the well casing.

In principle, I picture something like a pair of floppy jaws that would allow the pipe to slide easily in one direction, but tighten up on it when the motion is reversed. The trick is to do that without damaging the pipe.

I'd guess that what I pulled last weekend was 150-200 pounds at the beginning of the pull, getting lighter of course as less of it was hanging down there with each pull. The pipe walls are probably about .125".

This isn't something I do on a regular basis (only twice in the last year), so I'm not concerned with buying or building anything elaborate. But you never know when some old-timer has a trick or two up his sleeve that only requires a couple of 2x4s and a wad of bubble gum. Y'know?

Williams Ex Co

Google 'Kwik Klamp' Thats what the local pump guy uses around here. Nearly every well around here has a submersible in it, generally on 1.25'' PVC. Threaded ends. Pull 20+ feet, clamp it in 'Kwik Klamp', unscrew pipe and lay aside, repeat until you get the pump up....

Tinstaafl

Thanks, but if it's deep enough to require hard pipe, I doubt I'd be fooling with it. I'm talking about straddling the well casing, bending over and pulling up 3-4' at a time, pausing every 5-6 pulls to gasp, wheeze and have another smoke.

That deep a well takes bigger prunes than I can afford to drop.

mrmike

I have pulled a few well pumps with a co-worker at my old job, using a deadman, in our case a towmotor, with a big pulley block on it & we actually pulled it up using a pickup truck. We had to pull it by hand though for the first 20 or 30 ft to make the "loop" to the truck hitch. Our electrical cable was sheathed "industrial" type so it didn't hurt it. Also one of us would watch it going thru the pulley block too. THese wells were down a couple hundred feet or so & this route was such a "backsaver"

Tinstaafl

Every time I've done this, I've found myself gazing wistfully at my truck. I think I've just come one step closer to finally mounting a winch on it.

Driftwood

I have a genie lift. It lifts 600 lbs 23 ft Hi. Galvy pipe, fab. a fork to place under each coupling so You can remove that stick of pipe. I'm also a welder,
I would make a 3 legged tri pod of 1 1/2" pipe for cumalong. Just drill and run a 5/8" bolt through the 3 pipes at top!

Tinstaafl

Oh, quit bragging!

I'd love to have one of those babies, but for what I do it would rust away before it paid for itself. Heck, even a pipe tripod would just lay around eating storage space 99% of the year.

Maybe I'll just quit doing that sort of job and take up knitting instead.

Williams Ex Co

Theres my smile for the day....LOL! Never heard that one!

ILPlumber

Buy or rent an easy riser pump puller.

I think it's pumppuller.com

Tinstaafl

www.pumppuller.com

Thanks; looks pretty painless with that critter. I don't do this often enough to justify buying one, but I'll definitely see if the rental places around here have that or something similar.

protechplumbing

2 chain wrenches and a back hoe.

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Plumber, Repiping, Replumbing, Leak Detection, Solar Water Heater, Polk County Plumber, Lakeland Plumber, Winter Haven Plumber

Tinstaafl

This just keeps getting better!

Guys, I'm looking for absolute mini-tech here. Hark back to the days when men were men and the sheep were scared.

protechplumbing

No back hoe? OK, a shop crane then(engine lift).

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Plumber, Repiping, Replumbing, Leak Detection, Solar Water Heater, Polk County Plumber, Lakeland Plumber, Winter Haven Plumber

protechplumbing

You could buy everything you need for about $500

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Plumber, Repiping, Replumbing, Leak Detection, Solar Water Heater, Polk County Plumber, Lakeland Plumber, Winter Haven Plumber

Tinstaafl

Okay, seriously. I do really appreciate any contributions to this thread--if they don't help me, they may help someone else with the same problem.

But the bottom line is that I get a call for this maybe once or twice a year. If I'm busy, I just pass it on to someone who's better set up for that kind of work. If I'm hungry, I'll take the job--but the very fact that I'm hungry says that I'm not too keen on investing anything at all in equipment that would take several jobs to pay for itself, and require dead-space storage during all that time I'm better occupied.

Way back when I was younger and dumber (I like to think), I had an AMC Javelin that popped a freeze plug at the back of the engine block. I was asking around about prices for renting an engine hoist to operate on it when an old-timer commented, "If you can't move the engine, why don't you just jack it up and move the car?"

Duh.

mics_54

I stand scaffold up next to the well casing and attach a chain hoist. to the scaffolding. I use a 1/4 flat plate about 8 inches square with a 1" slot cut half way thru. I place the plate around the pipe under the coupling and unthread the upper pipe. Let the upper pipe lean against the scaffold on a piece of wood so it doesnt screwup the threads and get filled with crap. If it's plastic pipe (which is getting common) you can use one hand. Man up.

Tinstaafl

Now that's closer to what I was looking for.

If you can one-hand a couple of hundred feet of water-filled pipe, you're a better man than me!

OCRS

Time for one of my superb cad drawings