September
2006
Vibratory Plow - Save your Grass
This is kind of a big tool. Probably one of the bigger ones you will ever use installing sprinklers. This is a vibratory plow, or sometimes called a “pipe puller”. You can usually rent them at different places that rent similar equipment, and common ones are made by Ditch Witch and Toro, among others. The rental places will call them a “Vibratory Plow”, but everyone else I talk to calls them a “pipe puller”. If you think those names are funny, Toro’s machine that the vibratory plow attaches to is called the “Dingo”.
It’s main use is to pull poly pipe through the ground without having to dig a trench. This is very handy if you are installing a sprinkler system in a yard that already has grass, or you just don’t want to dig a big trench with a shovel or a trencher.The way it works is that it appears to go backwards. The blade that you see sticking out is behind the machine. Behind the blade will usually be a short chain with a small device that will connect the to the flexible poly pipe.
This is only for use with flexible poly pipe, not the stiff white PVC pipe.
The little connector often looks like either a small threaded cone that goes inside the poly pipe to hold it on, or is a metal mesh cylinder that the poly pipe goes into. Both get tighter as the pipe pulls.
The vibratory plow will vibrate and go down a foot or two into the ground, pulling the pipe underground behind it. You can go varied distances depending on the pipe your are pulling and the type of ground you are going to. You’ll have to experiment some, but if you go too far the pipe will strech and break, and you’ll end up digging to find it and re-attach or start over.
This works very well becuause it only makes a small cut in the ground, which is much smaller than a trencher or digging with a shovel. If you lose traction the wheels can damage your grass a little too, but still not as much as a trencher would.
If you plan where you need the pipe before hand, and you have an average size yard, you can plan on renting the vibratory plow / pipe puller for just a day.