I have been scouring the Internets and found this forum which seems ot have more knowledgeable people on these things than anywhere else I have found. Any input or suggestion is greatly appreciated.

My "plan" (wishful thinking?) is to build a trailer/cart that has a gas powered pump and 1-2 hose reels on it, one reel for the intake hose and a 2nd reel for the output. I want the output to be garden hose since that is cheap and I can get a long distance with it onto one big reel.

Our property has a river all along almost 2/3 of the property line but there is anywhere from 10-20' vertical cliff from the pasture level to the water. I have built several "natural stock tanks" (basically small man made ponds in elevated mounds around the property and I want to be able to fill these during the summer from the river.

How big of a pump will I need to get the water up the cliff to the pump? What size intake would be min for this?

What kind of pump or adapters would I need to be able to taper down the output to get a garden hose(or something similar) to attache to it without blowing up the hose or burning up the pump?

Pumps are designed to push water, not to suck water. You will have to look at some engineering tools (calculators) to determine friction loss for the particular diameter hose and head pressure for the elevation rise from pump to output of hose.

It's a function of volume of water you are trying to push, how far it is pushed and how far the end of the hose is above the pump.

As for sucking water to get to the pump in the first place, it all depends on the pump specs., but I try not to have the pump more than 5' above the water level and within a foot or two if at all possible. You have to use a special non-collapsible hose for the suction side.

You might want to consider having a portable gas powered pump that you can place right at water level that pumps to the trailer, then another pump to move the water from the trailer to wherever you want it to go.

I would start by figuring out how many gph you want to move and size everything accordingly, including what your budget is for this.

I had built a mobile pump unit, and really liked the aspect. When the water level was down below like you describe, I would cut the bank down at an angle. Then back the trailer down to the water, or close to it. I left the tractor hooked up to it so there was no need to worry about the angle and unhooking. Of course the motor was mounted at a slight angle so the oil-level shutoff wouldn't prevent it from working. If water level was close to ground level, I could still drop the trailer just of the edge to get the motor at the right angle. Intake pipe/hose was always attached and extended so that it was an easy deal.

From my experience, the output hose would limit the whole deal. I Suppose that the intake hose would too. But I could hook up my 4" output hose, or my 2" hose, and it didn't matter to the pump. My intake was 4". I don't think you will blow out a garden hose on the output side. It will just limit how much water you get thru it in an hour. The garden hose won't work on the intake. Like Esshup said, you need a non collapsible hose on the intake.

I have been pumping from a small creek to my pond on occasion. I try to keep the suction lift to 5 feet or less. The output lift is about 15 feet, for a total of 20 feet on 460 feet of pipe. I am getting about 3,400 or so gallons/hour. My pump is 2" gas powered from Harbor Freight. You need to have a non collapsible intake hose at least as big as the pump output. You won't get much out of a garden hose. I use a 2 inch poly pipe for the output. You can do this with a similar setup. PM me and I will tell you how to get free or low cost scrap pipe, if available in your area.

John, I don't think it is mandatory to have the intake as big as the output hose. If the intake hose is the smaller of the two, it will be the limiting factor in reaching the potential of the pump. Sure the pump will run longer(using gas) and/or more time required. Have to weigh cost of that versus cost of hoses. Personally, I would equip it to run the size the pump is rated at, and get it done.

The intake hose should be at least as big as the pump inlet, or cavitation can occur and destroy the impeller. I run a 2" intake and a 2" outlet hose on my 2" pump. It would pump more water if I could get a bigger outlet hose. Refer to the "Honda Pump Select" application.

John, thanks for jumping in and correcting me on that. I am including a link that has the info on this and ALOT of other usefull info that a pump owner/beginner needs to know.

http://powerequipment.honda.com/pumps/pump-theory