Nelson Rain Train 13,500 Square Feet Cast Iron Outdoor Lawn Traveling Water Sprinkler for Yard, and Garden, with Auto Shut Off, Yellow

This is a great product. Sure, it weighs 17 pounds, and to the neighbors it probably looks like I'm hauling around a big yellow child's plaything, but it gets the job done!Yes, I've had to replace the gearbox (just once, so far). Yes, I've come out to find that it had jumped the hose and was trying its best to escape the confines of our yard. Yes, I've come out to find that it had "thrown a rod", and was hence spewing water onto a small patch of grass.I can't say I've been the best owner to it, though. It once sat in a corner of our backyard for over a year, unused. Sitting there under the hot Texas sun. Neglected. Or what about when I set it on "Neutral" so I can drag it around the yard on the end of my hose? I'm sure that doesn't do its hose connection any good. Poor guy.But it works! Set it and forget it. Plug and play. I despised the other sprinkler choices. An oscillating sprinkler? Umm, no thanks -- it covers too wide of an area and doesn't put sufficient water down, given that our Texas wind carries most of the water over to our neighbors yard. The RainTrain lays down water where I tell it to lay down water. What about one of those stationary "square area" sprayers? Haha, do you think those little tiny itty bitty droplets of water actually make it to the ground before they evaporate in the hot Texas heat? The RainTrain delivers big heavy purposeful drops of water that land on the grass, not in the air. What about one of those rotary sprinklers? Same problems as the other two. And they all have to be strategically positioned at various points around the yard at various times and I have to remember that they're running or otherwise I'll leave them on overnight and water all the lawns downhill from us. The RainTrain moves where I tell it to move and stops when and where I tell it to stop.I'm more of a real-time guy. With the RainTrain, I don't do the "turn it on, see how far the water is thrown, turn it off, adjust it, turn it back on, see how far the water is thrown, turn it off, adjust it, repeat..." I turn on the water, walk out to it (while its in neutral), gently apply pressure with my hand to the top of the rotor until it stops and then manually adjust it there and then. Once I'm happy, I set the transmission to the forward gear of my choice, release the rotor and let it do its thing. Sure, I get my pant legs wet, that's why I wear shorts.Do you have one? No? There's probably an "Add to Cart" button or something on this page, usually toward the top. Click that, checkout, wait for it to arrive. Your life will change. The grass will be greener (probably because more water is reaching it with the RainTrain than with any of the other so-called "sprinklers" that you may have used). Neighbors will be nice and talk to you ("What's that?" they'll ask, pointing to your RainTrain, because, you know, it IS a conversation piece first and foremost). You'll be more relaxed and at peace with the world (because you'll be mesmerized by the RainTrain as you watch it go quietly about its duties). You'll lose weight and/or build muscle mass (from carrying around its 17-pound heft between watering applications). You'll be richer (time is money, and this saves you a lot of time, which means it saves you a lot of money). It will make you want to be a better person...well, maybe not, let's not get carried away.

We need 200' of hose to water our entire lawn and it works perfectly. For those that have issues with it going backwards, you have the watering wands pointed in the wrong direction so they are pushing it backwards. Easy fix...just adjust those wands. Our lawn has numerous corners and little hills, yet this has no problems going up, down and around them. I almost spent $4,000 on an irrigation system but luckily the guy didn't show up on time. My son-in-law recommended this and helped me set it up. Very easy to do. I believe it would struggle pulling a heavy normal hose. I bought a Zero-G hose that is extremely lightweight and flexible so this Nelson Rain Train has no issues dragging it behind...all 200 feet of Zero G hose. I love it. It doesn't leak and is simple to adjust to size of lawn. Only have had it for several days now so will update on durability as summer arrives and I use it more often. I would highly recommend, especially with the Zero-G hose.Update: Still working perfectly. Only issue I have is getting the wands adjusted properly so they water where needed. This takes me numerous tries (turning water off, adjusting wands, turning water back on…then repeat and repeat) until I get it right. If they could somehow add numbers or letters on each wand so I knew exactly how to adjust them for the varying sizes of my lawn, this would be perfect.

The Raintrain sprinkler can be purchased with confidence. It works as advertised. I've got a 17,000 sq ft yard which someday will be a good candidate for an inground sprinkler system. But until that day, the Traveling Sprinkler is a good workaround. I was always having to go back outside every hour or so to move the oscillating sprinkler, now the little yellow tractor does the job by itself. I still use an oscillating sprinkler for back corners and small spots, while letting the Tractor Sprinkler handle the big open areas.I use and recommend 5/8" hose. You're going to be running a hundred, maybe 200 feet of hose when you use this sprinkler, so water pressure loss will be a factor with 1/2" hose.With experience you will learn the best courses to run this sprinkler in your yard. As you know, you lay down the hose in the course you want the sprinkler to take, and the front grooved wheel rides on the hose and guides the sprinkler along. The manual says make your hose turns very wide and gradual, and this is important. The tractor will have trouble following sharp hose turns if they have a radius less than about 3 feet.Another thing to remember is that the tractor sprinkler drags the hose behind it as it moves along. Early in the course, there will be just a small loop, but as the course runs along, the dragged hose loop gets longer and heavier. This can give the tractor a problem handling turns late in the hose's course -- at this point the mass of the water filled hose being dragged behind, can overcome the steering authority of the nose wheel, making the tractor jump off course.This may not be a problem for smaller yards if you're not running more than 50 feet or so of hose. At 200 feet of hose, it's an issue. To avoid this, either keep the programmed run fairly straight... or put the biggest turns in the course early on in the run, where there won't be so much heavy hose being dragged behind. Or you could take a tip from the big tractor guys and add a little more weight to the nose, which would keep the wheel pressed down better on the hose. I haven't yet tried this myself, as the little tractor is already pretty at about 25 pounds.Where you want the tractor sprinkler to stop, place that little yellow plastic stop bumper over the hose at that point. The Tractor nose wheel runs over it, then the top of the stop bumper hits a kill switch on the belly of the tractor, and she halts. This is a great feature which lets you start the thing and then go out for a while, or even go to bed for the night... and the tractor will be stopped there waiting for you when you get back.You can fine tune the spray pattern from the rotor head. Point the spray heads up for high spray, or level for spray directed more horizontally. I like the horizontal pattern -- here in TX we get some wiiinnnndy days, and with this low horizontal pattern, the sprinkler shoots the water efficiently onto the yard without throwing a lot of it up into the wind where it gets lost to evaporation.Vary the hose pressure and you can go from a coverage width of about 15 feet up to nearly 50 feet. There are two drive speed settings. I've always used the slow setting. This tractor lays down a LOT of water into the ground at the slow speed. If you've had trouble keeping your turf sufficiently hydrated, this is the answer.This Tractor Sprinkler is meant for established lawns. Newly seeded turf can be chewed up too much by the lugged drive wheels, and the dragged hose. Nelson recommends an oscillating sprinkler for newly seeded lawns.Can't think of much else to say about it just now. If I do, I'll come back and edit :). Bottom line, I give it a good recommend. Any questions, email me at [email protected].