fittings

[3rdgen.maple]

Sunday me and my daughter were putting up some tubing and I ended up throwing out a dozen fittings. The fitting I was having troubles with were leaders. Seems the plastic is thinner than the other brands I have. When I was putting the tubing on them the plastic would just end up bending or crushing. I figured out that although it was in the low 70's and in shaded woods the couldnt hold up to that little heat when installing them. I was even wetting the fittings to get the tubing to slide on faster. I ended up taking the pail down to the creek and filling it up with cold water and it seemed to help but never the less I was not pleased. Anyone else see this before? It was just the T's and tree saver spouts doing it all the other fittings I have are not from leader and had zero problems with them.

[Maplewalnut]

I have had the same problem with leader T's in the middle of winter. Not sure about the thickness of plastic but the barb is a little bigger than other brands and if the tubing is not perfectly lined up, it bends the barbs and mangles the tube all in one shot.

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

Are you using Leader tubing? Their tubing and fittings are supposed to be slightly larger then 5/16 so other brands of tubing may be smaller and causing problems.

[Randy Brutkoski]

Actually i like to use leader tees with the lappierre tubing. Goes on a little tougher but will never come off. I made a mistake and bought some lappierre tees last week. I put the drops in this past week and went back a couple days later and half of my laterals were on the ground because the tubing pulled off from the lappierre tees.I like my laterals real tight, maybe that was the problem.I am definatly going back to the leader tees.

[Maplewalnut]

Randy- do you get scoring with the lapierre tube and leader t's? My set up is mostly leader T's and lapierre tube also since I changed most to CVs last year. I am concerned the scoring that occured may split the tubing in a year or two and I will really have a mess on my hands

[3rdgen.maple]

Are you using Leader tubing? Their tubing and fittings are supposed to be slightly larger then 5/16 so other brands of tubing may be smaller and causing problems.

Nope like others Im using Lapierre tubing. I did not have any problems in the winter when I used the same setup. My personal thought is they visibly look thinner to me than the other fittings I have and they soften up enough from the warm temps that caused it. As far as any scoring on the tubing goes I havent noticed any and all last years tubing still looks good and nice and tight. Was going to put more out tonight after letting them sit in ice water but the darn mosquitoes where so bad they carried me back to the house. My ears are still ringing from all the buzzing.

[adk1]

I bought the Leader Saddles. Does anyone lubricate the gasket prior to installing? I watched the Lapierre video and they did..Thoughts?

[Randy Brutkoski]

#1 They are not Leader saddles, leader carries them but they are made from CDL.
#2 There are 2 groves on the top of the saddle, make sure you wire tie the saddle to the mainline. Because the CDL. saddle leaks horrible. But they will not leak with the wire ties. The 1 good thing about these is that they are easy to install. Good luck.