Pig (not flue) story

[kide]

So, the neighbors driveway has a 12 inch drain tube under it that was partially blocked.

I'm on the opposite side of the road,

sitting between an acre of flooded property and the county drain - but the way the land lies, the drainage is under the road, under the neighbors driveway and into the large (80 foot right of way) major county drain. Most of our property is dry, but a corner of the lawn by the road is under water and I'd like to "drain the swamp" before the mosquitoes get too bad..

I had tried getting some of the dirt out of the neighbor's driveway tube with a long handled hoe, but needed to get all the way through - 30 feet. The 129 looked like the obvious tool (the old "when you have a hammer, the whole worlds a nail...."). A little rebar, some scrap 3/16 plate, a hundred and ten foot piece of 3/8 cable and about a half hour of sunburn and we had a "pig" ready to drag through the drain.

I cut the cable in half and put loops on each end. The coned end was pulled through first and then I Tom Sawyer'd my long suffering next door neighbor into helping.The flat side really worked on scraping the bottom of the tube. As the tube cleaned out, we decided to add a larger disk to the flat side, and a little later, cut another, larger disk. We slotted these disks to put them on and used some of those nifty self drilling screws to fasten them in place. (this shot after we were done, it's a little "used" at this point).

...The good news? Drain tube cleaned. The bad news?? NO ACTION SHOTS. More bad news? The rains in the last few days have flooded the river to the north that the county drain flows into, the county drain is backed up and the water has been running BACKWARDS through the now cleaned drain tube..(Guess where it's going.)

 

[bbrigham]

Thats pretty much what I was seeing in my head. Good to see that it works, may have to build something like it. We have 2 sluce pipes here that are plugged. One got plugged over the winter and I see where the water is coming up through the driveway so it must be a 2 piece pipe. The town is supposed to get to them but never got to the first one last year they were so backed up so I really don't see them getting to them this year....

 

[kide]

Brendan:
Our county won't clear driveway tubes, despite the fact they put a lot of 'em in and even though they're on the road right-of-way - and also that the reason they're plugged is winter snow plowing puts the road in the ditches...

If you try something, don't plan on starting with a full size plate as it'll jam. We actually started by "backing it in" about 5 feet, then 8 feet, then 12 feet, etc. It actually pulled pretty easy until the last disk, but it only tool about two hours total.. As usual on these things, YMMV, etc.

Oh - trickiest part was getting the rope through the tube, to pull the cable through.. I used a 20 foot aluminium pole (boom off of a 4 element Antenna Specialists 11 meter beam with 20 feet of fiberglass chimney cleaning poles radiator clamped to it..)

 

[bbrigham]

They will still clean them here but...if they wash out we're on our own. They have one of the FD's retired pumpers that they fill at the lake then cram a hose down it and let it rip.

Now thats another thing...the town does plow the blacktop into the ditch, and the county 2nd shift road crew (who used to sit around when not plowing) come by anywhere from 11pm - 3am patching the road in front of our place so it can be pushed right back into the ditch a couple days later. It's the same never ending cycle all winter. Taxpayer money at work...

I was wondering how you get the cable through. Luckily we only have 20' to go through, my mother has a bunch of poles layin around from some of her HAM antennas....wonder if she'll miss them...

 

[proessler]

Kendell I use a length of flexible Black 1.25" poly water pipe, duct tape the correct end of whatever needs to go thru the culvert then feed it thru. When finished ,coil in 4' circle leave it in cube van ,ready for next time I need it. I use it to stretch garden hoses & 2" lay flat hoses thru culverts.

 

[snicklas]

Pretty cool Kendell, thanks for the pictures and I am glad that it works well. I know of a few drains around here that could use that treatment.....