Tightening mainline question

[Lazy Crazy Acres]

A little background to start...I am new to the forum and somewhat new to sugaring. I helped my grandfather tap a few trees when I was a kid and then my brother got into it in high school and I would help him where I could, but never really needed to know too much til my friend and I took over my brother's operation last year. It had sat unused for about 5-6 years before we started it back up.

So to start, we had about 570 taps, with about 470 of those on vacuum. The lines are around 10 years old or so. Yield this season was 80 gallons.

This year we are looking to expand by around 500 taps. Picked up 5000' of sapline and 1000 CV's. Working on getting mainlines up.

So, now I can get to the point! What is a cost effective way to tighten the mainline pipe? I see Bascom's has a mesh thing that grabs the pipe, but they are $16 each! Seems like this would add up pretty quickly! Seems like there has to be another way that doesn't cost over $30 per line.

Thanks, Jake

[Thad Blaisdell]

You stiff hitch the farthest end, then you use those on the end near the manifold.

[BreezyHill]

Hey, if u figure something out, we all will be happy. If you dont use them, you risk damaging saddles and connections when the straps slips. Been there did that. Tried 1500# cargo strapes and hose clamps on the woods end and grips at manifold. Clams slipped when line was full. Everything was good then the line was not running well. Luckly took the atv and had a grip and a ratchet. Was able to tighten back up.

[mountainvan]

Jake, come see me in Oliverea, I'll show you 20 years of sugaring.

[red maples]

Buy 1 of those finger trap things. first lay out the tubing, the attach loosely to the wire every 10 + feet with wire ties then put on one finger trap on one end and tighten with a heavy ratchet strap, or come along or something. then put in your wire connected at the end and put in your wire ties. every 1 to 1.5 feet or so to hold it tight. take off the finger trap and reuse. saves a lot of money on those things!!! and its pretty easy.

[treefinder]

i think they are called cable kellums . anyways run your mainline to the end . if your using 1" then cut i piece of 1" about 4" long slice length ways put it around the the main then take a hose clamp and clap it to the wire thats around end tree. go back down the line to the tank end put on the cable kellum up by the the anchor tree hook up a ratchet strap or we use a winch off the 4 wheeler and crank it tight . then put on another sliced piece of 1" and hose clamp that end to the wire and then let off and it will stay. wire tie every 8 ' till your saddles are on then hard tie it every 16". wet dry lines you can tie every 16" once its stretched and clamped.

[CharlieVT]

What is a cost effective way to tighten the mainline pipe? I see Bascom's has a mesh thing that grabs the pipe, but they are $16 each! Seems like this would add up pretty quickly! Seems like there has to be another way that doesn't cost over $30 per line.

I use ratchet straps in place of the "Mainline Tension Grips" in Basom's catalog. About 5 wraps of a ratchet strap around the mainline will grab it like those 'spensive stainless tension girps. I now leave them up as part of the mainline installation allowing retensioning at anytime. This method does tend to put a slight kink in the mainline but I find I can plan around that and it doesn't cause a problem. The direction of the kink can be influenced by locating the point at which the strap pulls on the mainline. I suppose you could use two ratchet straps opposite each other to avoid the kink, but I haven't found the need to do that.
Sorry for the pic quality, I just trotted out to the sugarhouse in the dark with my phone camera to take pics of where a 1 inch line comes into my holding tank from a pump station:

http://mapletrader.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=8207&d=1386586736

http://mapletrader.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=8206&d=1386586725

http://mapletrader.com/community/attachment.php?attachmentid=8208&d=1386586784

I prefer the green ones 'cause the disappear in the woods during summer. I have found cheap ratchet straps for $3-4 each in packs of 4 at Walmart Here's another source:
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200344925_200344925

You can also use a ratchet strap as a mainline tool for cutting in a coupling for a manifold or "T" without detensioning the line. Here's a previous post on the subject:
http://mapletrader.com/community/showthread.php?18366-putting-Y-s-and-couplings-in-mainline&p=200260#post200260