Hooked

As Sentinel 7109 progresses through its new working life, I run into many little irritating operational problems that can be solved quite easily. Filling the water tank is one.

We use a 6-wheeled tanker wagon as reservoir. It's simple to fill the tanker slowly from a domestic supply tap when there is plenty of time. For rapid watering during operations, we use an impeller pump at the tanker to pump along sections of flaccid hose linked by claw couplings to Joyce's tank.

The trouble with a flaccid hose is that it's flaccid. It flaps around merrily in the top of Joyce's tank while filling and is partially blocked by the weight of the tank lid sitting on the hose to prevent it from jet-propelling itself out.

I made a more resilient hose extension to overcome the problem.

Not-so-flaccid hose extension

It neatly hooks over the tank filler rim and doesn't get squashed by the lid.

Simple but effective

Hopefully, we also won't get quite so wet when the tank overflows (which never happens, of course!).