Ram pump on a creek that has little to no drop?

Can you send me in the right direction for how to make a ram pump that would direct water from a creek to a house if the creek has little to no drop?

The creek flow is one factor, you will also want to understand your head distance. That's essentially the vertical distance you want to lift the water.

I believe these three videos will be informative for you.

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3 -  

Dan Grubbs wrote:The creek flow is one factor, you will also want to understand your head distance. That's essentially the vertical distance you want to lift the water.

So is lack of a drop not as huge of an issue as I first assumed? I understood it to be essential. I really don't think damming it is possible. Maybe not even legal. It is fairly flat land. The area where I was going to put it has decent flow rate, though I haven't yet done an official test. The vertical distance it needs to be lifted is not more than 15 feet. I will see what measurements I can get this weekend (if the heat doesn't kill me!)

you will need a certain amount of pressure to activate a ram.  this is usually accomplished via head.  

Rm pumps depend on velocity of the water to work.  The faster the water moves, the more/higher you can pump it.

If you have slow water without much head one possible alternative idea I've seen is to use a teeter-totter type pump.  This only needs 1-2 feet of head.  The water flows into a 'bucket' one one side until it's full and gravity tips the arm down, when one side goes down the water is directed into the other side and starts to fill it, meanwhile the bucket that is down starts to empty.  The tipping back and forth drives a standard reciprocating pump to move the water.
The larger the buckets, the more force you get, but the slower it pumps.

It doesn't have the elegance and simplicity of a ram pump, but it does have the advantage of being able to work with very low head and very little flow.

I came late to this posting, but check if these pictures help somehow.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/imrKpPXXQ5dZbyTv7

Almost identical to this site:
https://www.centragua.com.ar/Productos/Arietes_Hidraulicos

There's a video available here on the site where Tim Barker describes how he solved the insufficient drop problem. Looks as if the ram pump will have to be heavier duty than normal.

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