main line questions

[Sugarbear]

I was in the woods today planning my next installation whjch will be next years project.I am gradually changing over to tubing one section of the woods at a time.Anyway on this run i am starting at the highest point that slopes toward the sugarhouse.There is a dip i have to cross over and then there is a rise that is quite a bit lower that the starting point.I want to keep it as low as i can over that rise in order to keep the height down as much as possible over the dip.How low to the ground can I run the line?Also what is the best way to fasten the line to thewire in the dip? Just leave the wire sag and tighten after the line is fastened? It appears like it will be about ten feet high. Thanks

[spencer11]

i have seen a mainline that was about a foot above the ground that was held up with wire. i would run the wire and then put the line up in the dip and just stand on a step ladder to get up to the wire. this year is my first year running tubing so i am just learning to. hope this helps.

spencer

[markct]

i have mainline thats about 6 inches off the ground in places where it goes over a hump or thru a culvert, usualy shovel the snow away so they dont freeze but no probs other than that. a few places where there is a hump or ridge to get over i simply dug a ditch thru to make the mailine pitch better

[dabamvt]

In places that the line will be over our heads, we have run the wire from anchor point to anchor point, leaving it loose enough to lay on the ground or at least loose enough to hang down so you can easily work on it. Next run your mainline out through, then come back and wire tie from one side of the dip to the other. Lastly, anchor on end and use a wire ratchet or fence wire tightener to tension the line. This takes a bit more traveling back and forth along the line, but much easier to get the line attached to the wire. Hope this helps.

[adk1]

I have the same issue in one location. about a 10-15' section of my mainline is about 5" off the ground. There was no other way around it since I have alot of dips and bumps that Iam cutting across. I will just watch it and shovel as needed.

[Sugarbear]

I was worried about it being more vulnerable to animal damage.This line is close to the edge of the woods and there are alot of groundhogs nearby.I dont know if they would bother it or not.

[adk1]

good question. I dont have any groundhogs, just alot of squirrels. But I also havent rrun any laterals yet. I havent heard of any animal damage to mainlines.

[Farmboy]

It cant hurt to prevent the animal problems before they happen. Moving target practice is always fun.

[Sunday Rock Maple]

We have a similar situation in an inaccessible spot and did what DABAMVT said and it worked well. We also crossed our driveway at about 15' and there we put the wire up first with ladders and then used the bucket tractor to tie the line on. Lastly we had a line in a very flat spot with two small knolls that we had a big hoe come in and knock about 3' off the top of the knolls prior to running the wire and that worked great.

Good Luck!

[Greenwich Maple Man]

[QUOTE=adk1;170492]good question. I dont have any groundhogs, just alot of squirrels. But I also havent rrun any laterals yet. I havent heard of any animal damage to mainlines.[/QUOT

In my one bush this year the 3/4 mainline was chewed in half by squirrels.

[adk1]

great, good things to look forward to! I learned something today. I walked the last section of mainline, about 475 of of it. It had fallen down on the ground. I walked to the end tree and found that the hook that I used bent! It must have happened during that really cold snap we had. I must have had it tightened too much. What a PITA. I went back down and let the tension off at the ratchet. then back to install ha stouter hook. I couldnt get the wire loop to re-hook even with the ratchet strap I had so I added another 2' section of wire and re-hooked. Then took up the tension on the other end with the ratchet. At least I got it off the ground before we get snow! that would not have been good. I will go back at some point with a long rope and a rathcet strap and get a better angle on it and re-hook as I had it originally.