Fair E Hare Guzzler Repair

Back in early 2022  I wasn't busy and was feeling I needed some time in the desert so I asked our Area Captain Scott if he had any old guzzlers that needed  inspections. It turned out that there are plenty in need of inspections and some in need of various repairs.

My initial inspection of SB20 found approximately 44 feet of missing pipe and the float valve was stuck.

This past November with the help from my son Jon, brother Jim, brother-in-law Joe plus Brian and Monty from SCBS we went out to a site known as Fair E Hare or SB20 (Whipple Mountains, near Parker) and were able to repair or replace approximately 80' of pipe from the dam to the tanks. The tanks were about half full at this time. The ball valve next to the drinker had been shut off previously.

Unfortunately I failed to thoroughly clean and inspect the drinker box while doing the inspection earlier in the year. While Brian was in the process of replacing the float and the valve, he discovered the drinker box had rusted through the bottom!  Thank you, Brian, for carrying the old drinker box back to the vehicles and carrying the extra pipe up to the guzzler.

On the third visit to the site Jon, Jim and I replaced the drinker box and added needed supports to  the pipeline from the dam to the tanks. I'm happy to report that between the time of repairing the pipeline and installing the new drinker box the tanks were filled to capacity from the recent rain.

For now, we accomplished our goal of getting the system working again. A future visit will be to replace some gabions and build a better foundation for the drinker box.  - By Marty Ambrose