stormy873
I am located in a very rural area of Oregon. To clarify, this would be a monumental, costly and possibly impossible task if required to replace my aging pump at the wrong time. It is quite one thing to drag a new pump in but bringing in the kind of digging machine I would need to bury in a new 4 wire line could be impossible. I live in an area where there are occasional DEEP winter snow accumulations and it is miserably rocky. A backhoe most likely won’t be able to get the job done to put in new 4 wire underground so I am looking at a trackhoe. Couple that with the possibility of losing my main service if we mess with the pole (it already has a nasty lean to it but it is a project for next time we have two jobs!) and it could be a disaster of epic proportions. Our well is only 40 feet deep and it is located 125 feet from the main power….However, it is a very looooong 125 feet given the soil conditions. This whole thing got started ’cause my (blank) pumphouse is falling down and I got the bright idea to move the pressure tank, and controllers closer to the house, have a pitless? adapter installed and get the pump house out of the middle of the livestock pasture. It took a week of digging before I gave up and rented a locater to find the water line and power where it ran across my yard…It was buried at 38 inches…no wonder I coulndn’t find it. BTW, The pump is operating fine at the moment but I am only trying to think ahead as I don’t want to do work more than once if I can help it and this pump is OLD. The “you gotta have four wires” issue put a monkey wrench in the plan. Being a capable farm wife, I thought to myself by golly I will take my little shovel out and dig me in a 4th wire a by hand and put the 4th wire in conduit and dig it down at both ends so it “looks” like it comes out of the same hole as the rest of the wire. Either that or run the ground from the breaker that would be at the new location of the controller/pressure tank…. I just can’t run 4 wire all the way from main power source to pump house-clear as mud? Thanks for any and all advice-I am running out of weather and really need to get something done. 
