The Ram Pump Field Guide: Lift Water Uphill With No Power
Pump water uphill 24/7 with no electricity, no fuel and only two moving parts.
A hydraulic ram pump uses the momentum of falling water to push part of that water uphill to your tank, garden, cabin or barn. It runs day and night, costs nothing to operate, and the best ones last for decades. The Ram Pump Field Guide takes you from "how does that even work?" to a working pump on your own land.
Who it's for
- Homesteaders and off-grid builders with a spring, creek or pond below where they need water
- Livestock farmers who want troughs filled without power
- Permaculture designers and DIYers who want to understand the machine, not just copy a parts list
What's inside (27 pages)
- The pump that runs on water. What a ram can and can't do, a short history from 1772 to today, and a quick "is your land right for one?" checklist.
- How it works. A labeled cutaway, the four-stage pumping cycle, and water hammer explained in plain language, with a pressure-and-flow chart.
- Read your site. Measure fall with a board and a level, supply flow with a bucket and a timer, and lift to your tank.
- Size it. The extension-service delivery formula, two worked examples, a gallons-per-day lookup table, and pump-size, drive-pipe and air-chamber rules.
- Build one. A 1¼" ram from hardware-store fittings (about $150–$200), based on the Clemson Extension design, with a full parts list, an assembly diagram and 9 step-by-step instructions.
- Install it. Intake screen and settling box, laying the drive pipe, footing, delivery line, storage tank, freeze protection and water-rights notes.
- Start & tune. First start-up, reading the gauge, and setting the waste valve for maximum flow or the dry season.
- Troubleshoot & maintain. A symptom-cause-fix table and a seasonal maintenance calendar.
- Buy instead of build. Ready-made rams, kits and free plans, with links and prices checked October 2026.
Plus: real-world photos of working rams, a printable site-survey worksheet, a sizing calculator worksheet with a tuning log, and a full source list.
By the numbers
- 13 original low-poly vector diagrams
- 10 reference and sizing tables
- 10 openly licensed real-world photos
- 2 printable worksheets
Built on real engineering
The figures come from Clemson Cooperative Extension, NC State Extension, the PFRA livestock-water fact sheet hosted by Alberta Agriculture, and Practical Action. Every source is cited in the back, and where they disagree, we show the range instead of pretending there's one right number.
Format
Instant PDF download: 27 pages, US Letter (8.5 × 11 in), full color, about 10 MB. Read it on your phone at the creek, or print the worksheets.
From Alt Ordo, "alternative order": practical systems for living freely.
Educational guide. Check your local water-rights and stream rules before diverting water, and treat creek water as unsafe to drink until it's filtered and disinfected.