Suggestions on moving a 4 x 12 Leader Arch

[hounder]

We have been tapping and selling our sap for 2 years now and we decided to buy an older Leader Arch. It is all lined with firebrick that is mortared in. We need suggestions on how we can get it moved from where we bought it to our house without damaging it (hopefully!) Not sure how much it will weigh, I know we can't budge it by hand. The wall to the chimney side will be removed and we have to take it out lengthwise. Wondering if we jacked the firebox end and put metal pipes under it to roll it out? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[cpmaple]

that is most like the best bet put pipe or cadar post under it and roll it. I'm going sunday to get a 5x10 and its fully brick that is how we plan on moving it on to trailer then into sugarhouse cant wait

[Kev]

It is my understanding, you should remove the brick. then rebrick once it is sitting where it will live. leveled up prior to bricking.;)

[Dave Puhl]

get 2 pcs. of heavy angle iron the lenght of th evap. get it under the legs...then pipe or 2xs and skid it out ...jack up one end and winch her on..good luck....

[PerryW]

It is my understanding, you should remove the brick. then rebrick once it is sitting where it will live. leveled up prior to bricking.;)

Agree. Take everything you can out of the arch (grates, doors, stack base plate, and bricks). It's heavy enough anyway.

[spud]

I have moved several arches in the past with brick in them. Just roll it out the door on some pipe. Two or three guy's can roll a 4x12 up on a trailer. Here is a list of what you will need.

1) Three pieces of pipe
2)Beer
3)Your wife needs to be their to tell you what your doing wrong.
4)More beer.
5)A bag of frozen peas to bring down the swelling in your testicles.
6)More beer
7)Ear plugs for the ride home ( because your wife is going to keep telling you that her way would have worked better)
8) More beer

Good luck:)

Spud

[M&N maple]

I like the last post more beer the better if u take ur wife DD

[hounder]

That was hilarious, I am the wife and I am sure beer will be involved. You should have been able to tell because I took the time to come on here and asked directions.

I was told that taking out the firebricks would be hard and they would break. Are you saying to buy all new bricks then or is there a trick? Any guess to how much it actually weighs? We also discussed lifting it up from the main beam of the barn to get it up to start rolling. Will this tweak the arch? Thanks for the help. We are really excited about being able to finally make our own syrup although it won't be til next year because we have to wait for the concrete to cure. Thought about using one of the pans over our cinderblock pig roast pit this weekend but don't want to do any damage to it.

One more question - This hasn't been used in 4 or 5 years and the pans have some rust on them. We were going to scrub and boil to see if it would flake.

[maple flats]

What are the pans made of? I would not try moving it with the bricks, if it flexes in the middle you will have a bigger headache fixing it. Remove the bricks, move it and re-brick. Most bricks should be re-usable. I have made changes to my evaporator 2x and removing the bricks was never hard. Very few got broken, but on re-bricking it often becomes hard finding the right pre-cut piece and before you are done you buy a few new and cut to fit. The whold ones work fine and if any break in half try to keep the pieces together and the re install won't be that hard. New firebrick are generally cheaper at a large full line masonry supply rather than at a maple dealer, but ironically, I have found Leader's refractory cheaper than the masonry places.

[hounder]

The guy told us the pans are English Tin. They are speckled with surface rust.

[spud]

If you do decide to remove the bricks then you will not need the frozen peas.:)

Spud

[Yorkholomaple]

I just bought a 4x14 were moving tomorrow. I will let ya know how we end up loading it. Plan as of right now is to strip it down doors, grates, brick ect. If its not bolted on its coming off. Then lots of friends to help load it on the car trailer! I told all of them how big it is but i dont think they have ever seen one that big :o so its gonna be great to see there faces when they see what i got them into lol

[Yorkholomaple]

Just got home from getting my 4x14. We ended up backing up to the front of the sap house with are car trailer. Then put two 2x6's under the front of the evaporator with the other end of them on the trailer. Then put pipes under the fire box to roll on. Then with three guys lifting and pushing, we rolled the evap on the trailer while the fourth guy swapped the pipes around. Worked out great didnt run into any problems.

[hounder]

that is good that it worked out, I got 1 pieces of angle iron to do what you did with the 2x4. Did it have brick or no brick? My husband doesn't want to have to cut the bricks out as they are mortared in.

[cpmaple]

I got my 5x10 today got it onto trailer with a tractor but when i got it home getting it into my sugarhouse was fun. thank god for two ten inch i-beams in the roof to pic off from worked great took about 2 hours to get into place and leveled up. took two hours to get truck and trailer out of driveway due to mud 2 feet deep. Now to clean it and start boiling cant wait.