Summer tubing

[rayi]

Last year in the middle of winter I ran some tubing By the time the sap ran it was real loose and I messed with it all year. I am now redoing the whole trubing thing but now I'm worried that I may be pulling it tight for now but when it gets real cold I'll have problems Any comments

[sjdoyon]

We are running some 2" wet/dry lines this summer and have always run our lines in the summer/fall. We put them up tight and we have 62 mainlines, averaging about 700 ft each line. We've never had issues with our mainlines but we've had our wet/dry lines come apart on a couple of occasions in the winter. A quick fifteen minute repair job. We have run some 5/16 lines in Nov/Dec but never tried anything larger due to our steep slope and deep snow.

[spencer11]

Pull it tight, it will sag cause of the heat but will tighten up when it gets cold

[BreezyHill]

The issue with running mainline in the summer heat is it is much easier to over stretch. 3% is the designed stretch factor of most mains. If you pass that number you will have issues like: oblongation of the tubing, tubing split, rupture, disconnection in cold weather. etc.
Tubing should be stretched in not more than 500' sections to achieve a uniform stretching of the product. This can be achieved by using j bolt,(Drive rings), a tubing grip, length of high tensile fence, and a tightener.
Consider double clamping if temps are over 70, but remember never saddle a dead horse rule. Clamp the tail end first then the stretched end. Otherwise the second clamp is ineffective.

Personal choice for me is summer laying mains, fall is ok...but it tends to get wet in my area. I had some tubing fail under high vacuum last season...Thanks GOD we had no snow...that would have sucked.
Also if you unwind the coil it relives the coiling that the tubing has due to it was wound on the reel hot. I heard of a guy that drags it thru the woods to get the coiling out...that will prestretch one end and results in weak tubing at the pulling end, and damages the tubing wall.

When measuring to figure 3% don't use gps...the error rate is to high.

Good Luck

Ben

[Vermonner]

we put up tubing from August until October/November last year and worried it might pull itslef apart in the cold. We had no problems with anything we hung in the warm weather and the system performed excellent.

[rayi]

Thanks everybody for the info. I'm pulling by hand but not real tight like I tried in the cold. Hopefully it will be a happy medium. I think I would rather they be a little loose than too tight. I have become a master at tying binder twine to things to tighten laterals

[BreezyHill]

Check out the rapid tube video on youtube ...it has CDLs way of attacking the issue of attaching laterals to mains and keeping them tight. The lateral holder is adjustable as needed.

Pretty slick!

[GeneralStark]

Or you can use 3/8" plastic braided rope as a lateral tensioner chinese finger cuff style by putting the lateral through the inside of the rope and tying it to the lateral mainline or a nearby tree. Adjustable and no tubing coupler needed.