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View Full Version : How high to place taps


seclark
03-23-2013, 03:31 PM
I'm sure this question has been covered but was wondering if there is a best height off the ground to tap.Yesterday while driving I seen trees tapped at at least 8 feet high or more.The person had tapped about 6 or so trees and had one collection barrel.The trees were on fairly level ground and each tree was just a little lower than the highest one tapped until it reached the barrel and at the last tree the tap was still quite high off the ground.Is there any advantage to this much pitch?
spencer11
03-23-2013, 03:57 PM
If your on buckets just tap at a comfortable height, on tubing tap as high as you need to to get the slope. The height really doesn't make any difference
cur dog
03-23-2013, 05:54 PM
I was driving up RT 12 last week, and saw some set up as you are describing. Some of the taps looked to be 10 plus feet high. I was guessing that they were either trying for some natural vacuum, or wanted to make darn sure they had enough slope.
seclark
03-23-2013, 06:02 PM
cur dog, were you on rt.12 n.y. because that's where I seen the setup I was referring to.
MapleLady
03-23-2013, 06:23 PM
If you are using buckets, you might want to take into account how high those taps will be when the snow melts. 4 or 5 of mine are above my head -- oops. I must have been standing on quite a snowbank when I drilled those! I now feel silly as I go to empty them! :emb:
whitetail farms
03-23-2013, 06:55 PM
im on RT.9 ny and i have about three laterals where my last tap is 8 feet high and the rest are beetween 6 and 7 feet high, im on very flat ground in this spot and luckly i can drive my truck pretty close to carry the ladder in...but im getting great natural vacuum on this line you can really hear it hissing when theres a leak.
cur dog
03-24-2013, 06:17 AM
cur dog, were you on rt.12 n.y. because that's where I seen the setup I was referring to.

It was somewhere between Greene and Norwich. I actually saw quite a few big old, yard and roadside trees tapped this way. Its always cool to see what somebody else is doing.
PerryW
03-24-2013, 07:30 AM
Yes, you can tap the tree anywhere when you use tubing. In low-snow years, I will sometimes tap only 12" above the ground to spread out the tapping damage to the tree. In high-snow years, I will tap as high as I can reach.

Also, I will tap high to get pitch. In flat areas, I will sometimes even use a ladder to tap high.