I was driving thru the Texas Panhandle this weekend and saw quite a few of those very large spider-like irrigators. The ones that rotate around a center point to irrigate a circular section of crops.
- What is the official name for those things?
- How the hell do they work?
- Are the wheels electrically driven?
- How does it keep itself straight?
- How many sections (bays?) can be strung together. The longest I saw was sixteen.
- How fast do they move?
- Are they a maintenance nightmare?
- What is the point of the flashing light when it is operating? Collision avoidance?
- Does each one pump water from it’s own well or is water piped to them?
- How does it keep from flooding the inner sections while providing enough for the outer sections? Are there metered nozzles calibrated for that?
- What happens if it gets stuck in the mud?
I’ve been thinking about this for 2000 miles and just have to know!