# Moving a rotor head with swing pipe or PVC



## pp6000v2 (Mar 8, 2021)

I need to move a sprinkler head over ~9 feet to get around an obstruction swing set we added in the back yard. 








Am I cheating myself if I run it with swing pipe and barbs? The tee off the main trunk pipe is 1/2" PVC coming to a 90° FIP. I could throw together a funny pipe extension with some MIP x Barb pieces that I already have. Or I could go buy a 10 ft chunk of 1/2" SCH40 and do it the right way. Running a Hunter PGP rotor as the head.


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## Grizzly Adam (May 5, 2017)

Either or should do it. Both are rated for it.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

9ft on swing pipe can be a problem but it depends on how many gpm thru that pipe and how much pressure you have at that location.

Also, moving it might screw up your throw and head to head coverage. Getting rid of the obstruction is better.


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## pp6000v2 (Mar 8, 2021)

g-man said:


> Also, moving it might screw up your throw and head to head coverage. Getting rid of the obstruction is better.


It sat on a pallet for a whole calendar year in my garage because I would rather park outside than give up the lawn… then I was told I would build it by the boss. I know who signs my paychecks.


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## Sonoran Desert Lawn (Aug 22, 2020)

Just be warned. I have some larger swing pipe runs with 1/2 pipe pvc to 1/2 pipe swing. It lost a lot of pressure. The heads I did from 3/4" pvc to 1/2 swing did better. The longer the swing the worse the pressure in my opinion. I did 50 + sprinklers and if I could do it again I would do 3/4" swing if they were longer runs. Just my experience.

For what it is worth, I have very high water pressure as well. I somewhat lost count of my gpm when my 5 gallon bucket filled in a few seconds, but it is plenty high. Lol


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## pp6000v2 (Mar 8, 2021)

Sonoran Desert Lawn said:


> Just be warned. I have some larger swing pipe runs with 1/2 pipe pvc to 1/2 pipe swing. It lost a lot of pressure. The heads I did from 3/4" pvc to 1/2 swing did better. The longer the swing the worse the pressure in my opinion. I did 50 + sprinklers and if I could do it again I would do 3/4" swing if they were longer runs. Just my experience.
> 
> For what it is worth, I have very high water pressure as well. I somewhat lost count of my gpm when my 5 gallon bucket filled in a few seconds, but it is plenty high. Lol


I ran it for the first time this afternoon since it was dark when I got it moved last night. The stream definitely looked weak out of that 8-ft funny pipe line. 
But:

The PGP head I used has a leaking seal, 
another PGP sprinkler that I added to the zone has a *major* seal leak, 
and all of the heads are using 4GPM nozzles in them without being matched to the area size of their sweep.

I went from (4 rotors + 2 popups) to (6 rotors + no popups) on this zone, and as is, napkin math says I'd be pulling about 24 GPM. I don't think my supply can handle that. I've got 3 heads doing 90° sweeps using 4GPM nozzles that probably can be sized way down to maybe 1 or 2 GPM depending on the area they cover. Gotta do an audit and some mathing.


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