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.

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].

Works well for saturating your lawn and you can adjust the radius of spray. Seems well built

I was a little skeptical about it's performance before I bought it but figured I'd give it a try, but I{'m glad I did try it. This thing is heavy for it's looks which allows for it's good stability. I have a Zero G fabric type of hose 100' which I use with it. The front tires track very nicely over the hose and it pulls it along with no issues. It tracks along an 8ft turn radius well. It evenly waters the yard without paying to much attention to it, but I do check on it from time to time to ensure no issues. It has two speeds slow and slower. The instructions say the slow speed will give a 1/4" of water and the slower speed distributes 1/2" of water. I really haven't check that for consistency. The spray area is adjustable by turning the spray nozzle bars up or down. The thing I like most about it is that the spray pattern is kept low and there is little influence from the wind. The only issue I have with it is during the end when it suppose to shut off by itself. It comes with a plastic hump that fits over the hose that front tires are to translate over and as the rear of the tractor hits the hump it activates a plunger which shuts of the water at the tractor. The plastic hump has a single small stake that secures it to the ground but not very effectively. I cut my grass at 3 1/2" during low rain conditions the taller grass and the soaking that the ground gets as the tractor moves along allows the hump to dislodge and move which keeps the tractor from translating over it properly and prevents it from shutting off. This results in the tractor hanging up on the hump and the rear wheels continuing to spin and pull up the grass and mud when it gets stuck on the dislodged plastic hump. I[m pretty confident this can be over come by using a couple of add on stakes to secure it down. For that reason I give it 4 stars rather than 5. Lastly after using this a few weeks, the folks in the subdivision have seen this work and now there are several of these in the neighborhood which should tell you a lot.

We bought two and wish we bought these sprinklers years ago. We used two new hoses (150 feet total) for our front yard and two old hoses (200 feet total) in the back, and quickly figured out that the Nelson RainTrain travels best on new hoses, perhaps because they are slicker, so we purchased two new hoses for our backyard too. Anyhow, we think it really runs best not using more than 150 feet of hose because of the weight it has to pull, and you can help it along about halfway, if you are using a lot of hose, by pulling up the hose to where the RainTrain is at. Turns really need to be very gradual, we found that out the hard way. It goes over the junction where two hoses meet just fine, in case you were wondering. It moves very slow and uses a lot of water. I thought I read somewhere it was a water conservation device, but I was wrong. My water usage did go up a lot. But we were using it daily because we just planted huge expensive trees that needed daily watering because we had feel like temps in the triple digits. I think when using this for regular watering, one would only need to water twice a week at most, because it waters so heavy, which is better for your lawn. We turned the nozzles downward and no longer have to worry about a sprinkler hitting our windows, and it still covers a lot of land, which is so cool. If you have acres, the nozzles pointed upward sprays water crazy far. The time it takes to water our yard is doubled, because of its speed, but our yard is watered well. We have binoculars on stand by to look out our windows to make sure it is moving. It is so funny how slow it goes, but it's doing its job. Our grass gets quite high before we mow, and the RainTrain still manages to travel through it quite well. Do not use on grass seed you just put down. You will need to wait until the seed has sprouted and is firmly sprouting in the soil. Also, it is not recommended for use on bare dirt. It can get stuck there. It has taken us a few times to get the hang of it, and to figure out the best path for it. Remember do not ever push it along, pick it up so you don't ruin the gears. If it gets stuck, get to it as soon as possible, to protect the gears. We do not recommend using it and leaving your house or going to bed. You want to be able to check on it now and then, to make sure it is not hung up somewhere. Now, I know there's a lot of do's and don'ts, but don't let that sway you. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes a piece of cake. The RainTrain has made watering the yard fun. We used to have to take multiple trips outside to change our sprinklers, usually as a team, my husband would do the front and I would do the back, every 15 minutes when the kitchen timer goes off. Now we just look out the windows periodically to check to make sure it is trudging along. The only time we have to move it is in the front yard to do grass on the other side of the driveway. You do not EVER want this to go over cement. That will hurt the gears. Anyhow, this has saved us so much time in our lives. And it is way cheaper than installing a sprinkler system, which we cannot afford. The first day we had them running, we sat back on our deck, drinking cool drinks, while we watched it go ever so slowly. We were cracking up. This is the neatest thing.

OK, this thing is awesome! Only had it for a couple of weeks, but this works like a charm! I wish I would have bought one years ago. We have a “U" shaped lawn in out yard around a sun deck. I used to use a rotary sprinkler and would have to move it 9-10 times to water the lawn completely. I'd set the timer on my phone and move the sprinkler every 20-30 minutes. Would take 4-5 hours of nearly constant monitoring. Decided to take the plunge and get one of these. I use it on slow speed and it takes nearly 5 hours to complete its path, but I just let it go! Wow! I love it!!! The first time I used it on the fast speed, but it didn't lay down enough water. Things get pretty dry here in the central Texas heat. Slow speed is perfect! Now, the first time I did the slow speed, was almost right after I had done the fast speed. As the auto shut-off worked fine with the fast speed, I didn't worry about the same with the slow speed. I let it go and went to bed. Woke up a few hours later and decided to check on it. The sprinkler was up on the shut off block, at a weird angle. One of the rods had fallen off and it was just spewing water. Apparently the soil was soft, and the weight on the machine along with the weight of the hose caused on of the wheels to just dig into the soil all the way down to the "axle". I thought that the gears were probably stripped. I guess I was lucky that the rod fell off so it was not producing spin. Tried it the next week and all was well! The unit seems to be well constructed. It does weigh a ton, but it needs to. We'll see as to the longevity. But from what I've seen, you can pick up a transmission for these for around $25. Not bad if you have to replace one a year as most of the oscillating sprinklers seem to last a year (even the more expensive metal ones which cost more than $25) I'll provide updates if appropriate, but so far this thing is gold!

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.

This is day 4 after opening the box. I set it up to work on my flat lawn on day 1 and it ran well for a couple of hours. I then did the same the next day. On day 3 I turned it on again and it emitted water but no longer moved. There was no opportunity for anything to happen to the gears by human intervention. The device had not even been touched. There was no hill, mud, or interference of any kind. The length of the hose is only 175 feet and the description says it will go 200 feet. It had stopped long before it even reached the 120' mark. (It did get by the coupler between the 75 foot and the 100 foot sections of the hose so that wasn't a problem either.) I got on the phone with a customer service person and she played semantic games with me trying to blame me for stripping the gears. I told her that when the device is in neutral the wheels can turn but when it is set to high or low the gears don't turn. She immediately jumped in and said "well if the wheels turn when it is in high or low then you stripped the gears." I told her that is not what I said. Later I told her that I was watering my lawn because it was just seeded. She again jumped in to tell me that the device was made only for established lawns. I had to explain to her that it is common for people to seed even established lawns. It was only then that she said that I could send in a copy of the invoice and get a replacement for the "plastic motor assembly". Bottom line: First, the product should not be sold--it cannot handle the tasks they say it was designed for. Second, the customer service folks are so defensive they are probably taught to try to catch people who didn't follow the directions to the letter. This bad attitude leads me to believe that this is a common occurrence due an inept product but is also supported by the business. I am just hoping that they are not still making this piece of crap and instead they are just trying to get rid of their current stock by conning a limited number of new customers. Think twice before joining me.

This is a tough guy lawn sprinkler. It is heavy, appears to be well made and even with our poor mains water pressure, it still slowly trundles across the lawn, watering as it goes and pulling to hose behind it. It means I can set my water timer to a few hours at night and leave the sprinkler to do its work. I have tried all the cheaper sprinklers that are supposed to spray around 300 degrees. None of them work because of the lack of water pressure. Recommended.

Me encanto! Estoy feliz con mi compra! Es pesado y muy bueno para regar!

Tolles Produkt!!! Schnelle Lieferung, solide Verpackung. Der Zug macht einen sehr hochwertigen Eindruck, Gewicht, Lackierung, Verarbeitung alles top Super easy zu installieren. Winkel und Ausrichtung der Düse vor den Start beachten und dann geht es schon los. Wurfweite ist genau richtig für unser Grundstück, Geschwindigkeit lässt sich in 3 Stufen einstellen. Kann ich nur empfehlen.

Idéal pour éviter une installation d’arrosage intégrée sur un terrain peu large et long

Great sprinkler for big lawns. It crawls and waters as it goes. Two speeds. Very good spread of water. Nice and even as it goes. If something goes wrong you can get replacement parts too. My mother has owned one for 10 years. Thing is still going. Built really well.