High lift jack question

fishhead · #1 08/28/10, 08:44 PM

How do you use a high lift jack to pull a well. It seems every time I try to use mine for things like that it just tips forward and becomes worthless.

I just spent 8 hours trying to raise a new 1 1/4" sandpoint well that I pounded in last December and gained a whole 6-7'. I'm using a rented lever-on-a-tripod type tool and even with all my 190 lbs on the lever it barely budges. Sometimes it helps to twist the pipe with a wrench but I only gained 4" in the last 2 hours.

agmantoo · #2 08/28/10, 09:35 PM

Your jack is insufficient. You need to increase the capacity. I have tried to pull fence posts with as much as a 50HP tractor unsuccessfully. It rocks my trackloader to where the nose of the machine is badly tilted to get some posts extracted and the posts do not have a wellpoint to wedge in the soil.

fishhead · #3 08/28/10, 10:24 PM

I think what is happening is that one of the couplers is making it's way through a hardpan. I remember hitting one when I was driving the well. I wish they made tapered drive couplers so they would slide through the soil easier.

Most of the well is in sand so once I get through the hardpan it should be okay.

If I could figure out how to use the highlift jack I would at least put a lot of upward pressure on the pipe and then tap it with a hammer.

agmantoo · #4 08/28/10, 10:36 PM

Fishhead
Do you think you could put a larger pipe over the driven one and then use pressured water and wash out around the driven wellpoint pipe? I have not tried this!

Ed Norman · #5 08/28/10, 11:40 PM

Could you tie on to the side of the lifting arm and then chain the top of the jack to the pipe? It would make it harder to tip away.

And you could always take a belt sander or grinder to the ends of your couplers to give them a bevel. You would remove the galvanizing if you are using it instead of black pipe.

fishhead · #6 08/29/10, 07:29 AM

I may try that chain on the top idea if I can't make progress today. I think once I make it through the hard pan it will just be hard and not really really hard.

It looks like someone would make a hydraulic pipe puller similar to a vertical log splitter. If I had the tools I'd make one and rent it out.

agman,

I could jet around it with a large pipe but that would destroy the hard pan seal that protects the aquifer. To do it right well drillers pump a slurry of high swelling clay like bentonite to seal the well channel.

HermitJohn · #7 08/29/10, 09:40 AM

When jacks are used on vehicles, the vehicle stabilizes the jack. When trying to pull fence posts or well pipe using a chain, you have nothing to stabilize the jack, its trying to balance on equivalent of one leg. Try standing on one leg and picking up a heavy box with a single length of rope, same difference.

I've not tried it, but if it were me and I had to do this, I'd weld up a wide base tripod that firmly attaches to the jack. So jack can stand on it own very stable. Doing this without interfering with the jack handle or lifting part of the jack is the difficulty. But I think its doable.

By way I have pulled lot fence posts with a handyman jack, have to really wrap chain around when pulling wood post and let top of jack push against post. I welded up a little clip dealie to use with jack on T-posts that made it lot easier process than using a chain. Chain lets jack move around, the clip doesnt. Maybe could make a simular clip dealie for pipe, though might tend to crimp the pipe?

**Cabin Fever** · #8 08/29/10, 10:11 AM

I would be using the method Ed Norman described where the High-Lift jack is parallel to and touching the casing pipe. If the chain slips, I'd bolt on a U-bolt to the casing pipe for the chain to catch on. Then, make sure that I placed a wide base under the jack so it doesn't sink into the ground.

Speaking of well protection, what I did for my sandpoint was dig a ~12" hole with a post hole digger about three feet down. I started pounding the well in from the bottom of this hole. When I was done pounding the well in, I backfilled the 12" hole with bentonite pellets.

fishhead · #9 08/29/10, 12:02 PM

If I had the tools I would fabricate a U-shaped guide that bolts on the top of the jack so that the pipe can slide through the guide as it lifts and keep the jack from tipping forward. And maybe build a slip on fitting for the jaw to keep it centered on the pipe too.

I'm down to about 1/8" per lift now. So much for a quick job.

fishhead · #10 08/29/10, 01:27 PM

I just brought the puller back to the rental place. While I was there I mentioned to the guy in the shop that I was looking for a U-shaped accessory to pull the well. He said that people have rigged those jacks up to pull pipe but it ended up bending the pipe.

I'm going to think about while I hang from my ankles but right now it looks like I'm am going to take a gamble and redo the coupler and tee I can reach with teflon pipe dope and drive it back down. Then hook it back up to the pump and cross my fingers that the offending joint was one that I was able to reach.

If nothing else it should make it a bit easier to pull the next time.