sap lift options

[tuckermtn]

anyone running one of the commercially available sap lifts? Leader Lapierre and Bernard seem to all have options. I have a choice of installing a sap lift out in the bush about 300 ft and pumping the sap up to the tank roadside or putting the tank 300 ft into the bush and pumping from there to the roadside with a little honda pump. Lifting about 350 taps about 10 ft. Not doing a sap ladder since there is a wet/dry line out in to the bush.

It was Glen Goodrich's idea to run the sap lift. But this was before I realized I could put the tank out at the low point and pump to roadside or do the sap lift.

if you have used a sap lift in the past, how was it for daily maintaince, etc. If I understand correctly you typically put a small tank under the sap lift so that when the vac is not on but some sap is still flowing it will drain in to the tank. Then you when you turn the vac back on you have a little line with a valve on it in to the tank to suck it back up in to the system..

-thanks for the input...

-Eric

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Hi Eric,
I have several sap lifts and they work quite well. Only fault I have with them is that when I first start in the morning, sometimes the drain seal does not close completely and there is a vacuum leak. This stops as soon as I push up on the seal with my finger and seems ok after that. I think that it fails to seal at first because the vacuum is too low and the vacuum is too low because of this leak. The one I had problems with is furthest from the vacuum pump, and there are 3 lifts and 2 ladders between there and the pump so vacuum there tends to be lower until the entire system builds up.
I have tanks under most of them to catch drainage and/or gravity run sap. It takes a long time to suck up 50 gallons of sap through a 5/16 line. I put a 3/4 suck line on one of them that is valved to the mainline. Much better.
If you want to try one, I have revamped part of the bush and installed a second tank and vacuum system so have eliminated 2 of them and I would sell one for 1/2 price of new.
Doug

[Amber Gold]

If it's only 300', I'd put the tank in the woods and pump up. Any time you lift sap there's a vacuum loss beyond the lift which means less sap, which means less money. If possible, you could have the pump line pump right into the truck tank and save you from pumping it twice. Also, having a lift is one more thing to futz with when the sap's running.