Slurry Tower Sluice

stablegirl · Sep 23, 2020

We have a 400,000 gallon slurry tower on a rented farm, its 4 rings tall in pretty good nick.

But the sluice has rotted and dirty water weeps from behind it, we have just emptied the store and have the opportunity to improve it.

Whats the best set up, or do i just order a stainless sluice from mick moore?

Big_D · Sep 23, 2020

I rebuilt ours with a stainless sluice from mick moor last year, very pleased with it, good guy to deal with.

Blue. · Sep 23, 2020

Bolt a 6” gate valve in the side,whatever you do.

I bought an 18” twist type gate valve off eBay for £160,it would be slow to close but would allow you to fully empty it.

Digester Man · Sep 28, 2020

Why bother with a sluice, just stick a pipe through the wall and suck direct out of it. Two valves for safety.

Ours has a third valve which lets the little bit of slurry left in the tanker pipe run into a small tank in the ground, which then gets emptied by the next tanker which sucks it out again.. but it isn’t needed and I wouldn’t bother with that part if I was doing it again

ColinV6 · Feb 15, 2023

Rob_AD said:
Why bother with a sluice, just stick a pipe through the wall and suck direct out of it. Two valves for safety.

Ours has a third valve which lets the little bit of slurry left in the tanker pipe run into a small tank in the ground, which then gets emptied by the next tanker which sucks it out again.. but it isn’t needed and I wouldn’t bother with that part if I was doing it again

View attachment 910485

we are having a gate valve put in our tower this week and I was wondering what the correct procedure is to eliminate the little bit of extra slurry, as we won’t have a tank underneath probably. I’ve heard to close the valve nearest tower as soon as it’s in top sight glass, before tanker blows off. The tanker should then empty pipe completely and still be almost full.?

Or is there another way?

hally · Feb 15, 2023

ColinV6 said:
we are having a gate valve put in our tower this week and I was wondering what the correct procedure is to eliminate the little bit of extra slurry, as we won’t have a tank underneath probably. I’ve heard to close the valve nearest tower as soon as it’s in top sight glass, before tanker blows off. The tanker should then empty pipe completely and still be almost full.?

Or is there another way?

If it’s not too cheeky, how much to put a gate valve into an existing tower?

upnortheast · Feb 15, 2023

hally said:
If it’s not too cheeky, how much to put a gate valve into an existing tower?

Did ours 18 months ago . The old sluice valves into the reception pit were knackered.
£1450 for the Storth bits from Rickerby & local man with a van took 2 hours to fit it.
Made the Umbilical contractor`s day

Conrod96 · Feb 15, 2023

Yeah put direct pipe onto our tank as well great job, although I’d still fix the valve having it makes to easy to clean it out

dairydurham · Feb 15, 2023

upnortheast said:
Did ours 18 months ago . The old sluice valves into the reception pit were knackered.
£1450 for the Storth bits from Rickerby & local man with a van took 2 hours to fit it.
Made the Umbilical contractor`s day

View attachment 1094264

Same set up here ,but driver forgot to take pipe off before setting off. :scratchhead:

Replaced and concreted the galv pipe into a M3 of concrete so if happens again only the first valve is broken.

ColinV6 · Feb 15, 2023

hally said:
If it’s not too cheeky, how much to put a gate valve into an existing tower?

Approx £1500 installed, it should have been around £2k he said with the way everything’s gone up but he’s doing 2 near farms together I think.

ColinV6 · Feb 15, 2023

upnortheast said:
Did ours 18 months ago . The old sluice valves into the reception pit were knackered.
£1450 for the Storth bits from Rickerby & local man with a van took 2 hours to fit it.
Made the Umbilical contractor`s day

View attachment 1094264

That looks great. I think he said ours will stick out around 2 feet in total, yours looks a bit longer than that.

frederick · Feb 15, 2023

dairydurham said:
Same set up here ,but driver forgot to take pipe off before setting off. Replaced and concreted the galv pipe into a M3 of concrete so if happens again only the first valve is broken.

What was the outcome. Heard of alad with his girlfriend on the seat that drive down the road with a panel from the tower still attached to the tanker.

upnortheast · Feb 15, 2023

ColinV6 said:
That looks great. I think he said ours will stick out around 2 feet in total, yours looks a bit longer than that.

Never could figure out why the 2 valves are so far apart

ColinV6 · Feb 15, 2023

So what’s the correct procedure to not end up with a full pipe of slurry and nowhere for it to go?

frederick · Feb 15, 2023

We were very fortunate with the slope allowing us to suck out the top.
Helps that tanker has a hydraulic turbofill pump. Tanker full in under 5 mins.

Just couldn't get my head round how to use a self loading arm at the bottom without some quite expensive kit and a tank.

160 loads out in last 3 weeks and it's worked a treat.

frederick · Feb 15, 2023

Rob_AD said:
Why bother with a sluice, just stick a pipe through the wall and suck direct out of it. Two valves for safety.

Ours has a third valve which lets the little bit of slurry left in the tanker pipe run into a small tank in the ground, which then gets emptied by the next tanker which sucks it out again.. but it isn’t needed and I wouldn’t bother with that part if I was doing it again

View attachment 910485

Seeing this photo or one similar before convinced me to spec our first valve as a screw one.

Not many of the gate valves shown look lockable. I think that is probably essential in the modern world to remove the risk of some idiot one night walking to the tower and opening both valves up.

dairydurham · Feb 15, 2023

ColinV6 said:
So what’s the correct procedure to not end up with a full pipe of slurry and nowhere for it to go?

Air bleed tap in the line

dairydurham · Feb 15, 2023

frederick said:
What was the outcome. Heard of alad with his girlfriend on the seat that drive down the road with a panel from the tower still attached to the tanker.

ran around to bring big bale of straw to ram against hole with fore end loader

Fraserb · Feb 15, 2023

ColinV6 said:
So what’s the correct procedure to not end up with a full pipe of slurry and nowhere for it to go?

On ours we have a small 2" valve in the section of pipe between the 2 gate valves, close the one closest to the tower when there's a small bit of room left in tanker, then open the 2" valve and it sucks the slurry from the pipe. Depending how full the tower is some times needs a few seconds to allow the tanker to generate a vacuum.

rusty · Feb 15, 2023

upnortheast said:
Never could figure out why the 2 valves are so far apart

The idea of having a gap between the two valves is in case a foreign object like a fence post gets drawn into the pipe. If they are close together and a post is in there you may not be able to shut either valve.

Slurry Tower Sluice

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Attachments

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

0 %

Up to 25%

25-50%

50-75%

75-100%

100% I’ve had enough of farming!

Share this page