I have a big yard and I rent so I can't just put in a sprinkler system.
Any ideas of equipment that can be used to crawl across the yard unattended and water large sections?
I was hoping to connect the water hose to some piece of equipment and have it go across the yard and water on it's own and turn itself off when it's done.
If anybody knows of any options for accomplishing this, please let me know.
Lots of traveling sprinklers some times also called water tractors.
Get the ones that follow the hose
They will run along the hose then turn off when they hit a stop
With these kinds of sprinklers, weight is important so go for a metal one with big spikey wheels
The cheap plastic ones filled with water will only work on short well maintianed level & low cut grass.
NExt problem is water pressure
They all require good water pressure to turn the sprinkler head which turns the drive wheels via a couple of gears.
Good water pressure requires a good hose because when they get to the end & shut off, the hose fittings on both the sprinkler & at the tap will pop off or the hose will pop out of the fittings.
This of course is worse on a hot day when the hose is soft.
NExt you need a long enough hose to do the whole yard as they can not run over a hose joiner so on a big lawn it will either need to be done in a couple of hits or you will need to buy a very long hose.
Down side of a long hose is they are heavy so in some cases the sprinkler will not be able to drag the weight and in other, the pressure loss over the length means the sprinkler head will not be able to spin .
Most have a limit of 40 to 50 yards .