I have take down system as I lease 13 acres. It hard as we have a ton of snow to deal with. Some years I have had 25” of snow. I can put 2 main lines up in December after the deer seasons are done, so this helps in the spring to put up 25 laterals. But as I get older it takes a lot of work to do this. Usually it takes 2 men 3 days to complete the tubing. My lease by May 15 all tubing must be taken down and out of the woods. I have a 10 year lease.

This was our first year using gravity lines and we couldn't be happier. Glad we went with 5/16" in lieu of the 3/16" tubing that is heavily pushed in order to get enough natural vacuum. We are getting vacuum readings in the mid 20's inHg pretty consistently. Still using a StarCat!!

@SmokyLakeMaple

Жыл бұрын

Yes, it's interesting how the industry presented 3/16 tubing as though it was the advent of creating natural vacuum in tubing systems. 5/16 has been doing the same thing for a lot of years.

Please do a video on the clean up and take down process.

@SmokyLakeMaple

Жыл бұрын

Will do!

🍁

Didn’t see any mainlines? All laterals end up in your tank? And how do you drain the tank to another tank maybe on your truck to the evaporator.

@SmokyLakeMaple

3 ай бұрын

No mainline needed. 5/16" home runs to the tank with quite a bit of slope down. Anywhere between 10 and 20 taps per line. Works fantastic and so simple. I use a small submersible pump to pump the sap from that tank into the tank on a John Deere Gator to haul it out of the woods.

What are you using to connect the tube to the container?

How do you ‘tie’ the end line to your tote; and #2) How do remove sap from the tote,i.e., how do you get the sap from the tote to your sap/syrup shack? I drop independent lines into 55 gallon food-grade plastic barrels and remove 1/2 the top cover (large enough so i can use a small sump pump to transfer the sap to a 65 gallon tank on my UTV). In that manner, I have formed ~ 10 ‘collection points’ I can easily access and pick up sap and transfer to my syrup shed. I’m also able to utilize gravity due to my terrain (I use 3/16 line). Just wondering how you handle yours? Thanks!

@SmokyLakeMaple

5 ай бұрын

Search for "wire union" on smokylakemaple.com, this is how we tie the lines to our totes. We pump this tote out with a 5" diameter submersible pump and a generator into a 100 gallon tank in a John Deere Gator and haul it out of the woods and pump into a truck, then haul to our evaporator.

@patrickwolf4373

5 ай бұрын

Thanks so much!@@SmokyLakeMaple

How do you clean and sanitize lines between seasons?

@SmokyLakeMaple

Жыл бұрын

After taking the lines down and cooling them, I run high pressure water through them for about an hour each. Works well.