making a sap hauler

[maplefarmer]

I bought a tank mounted on running gear with a small deck in front over the tongue, i would like to put a short tank on it with some kind of maybe sump pump so as we go thru the woods thet we use sap sacks, we could dump them in this small tank and it would auto. keep pumping to the 1000 gal tank without having to start a transfer pump to do this. Any ideas on a good setup to this, or any better ideas?

[maple flats]

battery and 12v bilge pump

[Bucket Head]

I took a plastic 55gal. barrel and cut 2/3's off of it and mounted it on a frame that I welded up and it goes into the receiver hitch on my truck. We dump pails into it and I have a Rule 3700 marine-use bilge pump in the bottom that pumps into the gathering tank in the truck. I ran a dedicated line, with an in-line fuse from the truck battery for power instead of tapping into a light or trailer light circuit. That way if I have a failure, I don't do any harm to the truck lighting circuit or fuse panel. Be certain to get a good pump with a decent gallon per minute rating. Its no fun waiting around to dump a pail of sap when a slow pump has'nt emtied the 'dumping station' enough! -Steve

[maple maniac65]

one suggestion is to make a filter for the sap in the dump barrel. i alawys seem to get sticks, bark and bugs in the sap when hanging buckets. Also the bucket trees need to have the brush cut back around them. That is why I now have goats.

[Bucket Head]

I put a disposable milk filter over the end of the hose from the bilge pump. It filters the sap before it goes into the tank. It would be nice to keep debris out of the barrel, but its not hard to rinse out once I get home. The slip-on filter was the quickest and easieast way for me to get clear sap.

Steve

[maple flats]

Steve, does such debris pass thru the bilge pump OK or would a maple pre-filter around the pump be better?
Dave

[Bucket Head]

Yes, the debris passes the pump fine. Its all small stuff- small bits of bark, moss and some bugs- everything you normally find in the pails. There is a strainer around the base of the pump that won't allow big stuff in. If someone had a prefilter that would fit over their pump, that would work too. They would have to get creative with wire ties or clothespins or something to secure it. Its just simpler for me to put the sock filter on the end of the hose than it would be to get a filter over the pump in the barrel. I originally wanted to have some sort of frame that would hold a filter over the top of the barrel, and someday I might still devise one, but the sock filter required no more 'engineering' on my part when I built my dumpstation, lol.

Steve

[Paul VT]

I also built a pump setup this spring with a rule bilge pump and a float switch. The whole thing goes into my trailer receiver. I used the seven way trailer plug for power and ground. There is a hot leg that is for charging a trailer brake away battery. It is a fused circuit. Most trucks with a seven way have this. I also installed a toggle switch before float switch so the pump won't start and stop when on bumpy roads.
For a filter I used a pop on sap filter on the end of the hose in the tank in the back of the truck.
The whole thing worked better than I expected.

[fishman]

I use a prefilter over my pump to keep debris out and it works great. I don't even thing about filtering out in the woods anymore. Just dump it in the tank and everything gets filtered back at the sugarhouse when I dump.