OT: New waterer

Local guy here builds waterers out of old mining tires. They cut out one sidewall and cast a plug in the other. There is a riser built out of a section of plactic culvert also cast in the plug. I bought a lid for it, which is nothing more than half of one of those big wooden cable reels. I'll add insulation under the lid and install some drinking tubes through the lid. A sinking heater on a timer will keep it from freeezing up overnight. I'll try to post some pictures later.

John

Have you seen those "bleeders" that the guys are using now?

Instead of a ball valve in the tank, they use a flat headed "valve" with a little adjustable "bleeder" valve.

Put a little hose on it and aim it to "squirt" at the floats to keep 'em ice free.

They say they really work great and require no heat. Just a tiny bit of "overfill" around the tank.

Allan

Haven't seen one of those. Who makes them? The valve going into this is made by a company called Apex.

Lots of these tire waterers up here. Just about indestructable, which is really nice with cattle. Seems if it is possible, the old girls can wreck just about anything. The insulated lid and drinking tubes cut the heat loss tremendously. That heater will only need to run overnight on the coldest of days.

My other waterer has no heat whatsoever and only gets a quarter inch of ice in the drinking tubes overnight. Those drinking tubes made by Kell'n Solar out of Saskatchewan are the real cats meow.

John