Should I Pump into truck or somehow wrestle up drums?

[BlueberryHill]

I have some 55-gallon plastic drums. I have gravity lines feeding 1-2 drums at a time. These collection drums are right at the end of a driveway so I can back a truck right up to them. There is a 120V outlet about 8 ft away from the collection drums. Jealous yet, haha?

Once these drums fill, I was thinking about capping them off and wrestling them into my truck with the help of a plank. I've done this with full drums before and really, it's not much fun. I plan to go there with spare empty drums to put in their place. Once I get the full drums in the truck I just have to drive across town with them.

So at first I was really brave and figured I would just muscle it, but now I am thinking that unless someone has some slick trick to get that done, then maybe I should get a pump and just pump from that drum into an empty drum already on my truck.

I'll be doing a maximum of 100 gallons per day. Pumping up about 6ft or so. These are closed head drums so they have only 2" bung holes on the top. I can't remove the whole top and drop a submersible pump in there. I would rather not get a pump that is going to take a long time to do this. I'll probably be in a hurry most of the time so that I can get back home to boil.

One other thing while I am at it. I have a Tacoma and it has a factory installed 120V outlet in the bed. I know it does not have much for amperage. Some power tools trip the breaker pretty easily. Is anyone using a setup like this to power a pump? In my specific application above, I won't need it cause there is power right there. But I have some potential roadside collection points in the future and I was wondering if this would be useful and if there is a certain pump that I should get with this in mind for the future.

[adk1]

I collect the same way on one bush that I have to travel to. No way would I try to wrestle a 55 gal barrel full or sap up. Definatly pump it. Last year I used a small Wayne transfer pump. It worked ok but was alittle slow. At the end of the year I bought a 1" gas transfer pump that I will use from now on

[MN Jake]

I have the same situation. My thought was to wire a half way decent 12 volt pump with a trailer plug (the round plugs, not the flat 4 wire) and wire it to the constant power terminal. That way you can plug it in like a trailer. I think that is 20-30 amp in most vehicles with a tow package.

[BlueberryHill]

How many HP or GPH was your Wayne pump? Gas would be nice cause I could use it anywhere but I imagine that is quite a bit more money.

This is a tough hobby for a cheapskate.

[adk1]

I dont know, its 115 volt "puddle Pump" like $80

[lakeview maple]

If you have power that close you could use a sump and call it good as long as its new and not used .

[Father & Son]

There are a couple of ways to go here. You could get a 1" gas pump from someplace like www.waterpumpsdirect.com. I have one and it works great. About $170.00. Second option would be a Rule bilge pump. These you can get on ebay for a reasonable price and that would give you a 12v option. Don't wrestle drums.

Jim

[BlueberryHill]

I did some more pump research and there were none that I thought were of particularly good quality that also looked like they might suit my evolving needs. At least not in the price range I was looking at.

So.... screw the price range I guess. I'm leaving shortly to head up to but a Honda WX10. That should solve any pumping challenges that I have for the near future. So much for the maple budget.

[MN Jake]

I did some more pump research and there were none that I thought were of particularly good quality that also looked like they might suit my evolving needs. At least not in the price range I was looking at.

So.... screw the price range I guess. I'm leaving shortly to head up to but a Honda WX10. That should solve any pumping challenges that I have for the near future. So much for the maple budget.
I feel your pain. Because of the 3 areas and the river where I collect I will likely end up with 2 of those!!

[Father & Son]

Maple budget. What is that? Sometimes buying the proper piece of equipment the first time eliminates the need for a second purchase. Have fun and enjoy your maple addiction!

Jim

[lpakiz]

I vote that you cut the top of the barrel off then make a cover to replace the original. This will gain you access for a sump pump AND for cleaning the barrel. Could be as simple as a plywood disc with a 2 inch wide band of flashing stapled around the rim. In later spring, with warmer weather, the barrel will get scuzzy and need to be brushed out every other day or so. A pump that will draw and prime itself from the two inch bung will be $$ and much harder to find.
And you can use the sump pump back at the syrup shed to unload and pump up to a head tank.

[BlueberryHill]

Yeah, that makes sense. At first I did not want to cut the top off because I was still planning to transport it full. But this 1 drum can just be stationary now and I'll pump out of it, into a drum already in my truck. So no reason to leave the cover on the "collection tank". It'll be nice to be able to scrub it good too. Thanks.

[lpakiz]

Blueberry,
Do you have a way to empty the barrel off the truck? And clean THAT barrel? Sorry.
You could lay that barrel (or two) horizontally, in a cradle in the truck and have a valve in the bung. Attach a hose and gravity it out. I used to drain it into 5 gallon pails, then carry it up a step-leader to dump it into my feed tank. It would be nice to be able to re-pump the sap into storage or a feed tank. I bet the Honda pump will pull or lift liquid enough to get primed and then pump to wherever you want the sap. The sump pump would be way cheaper, for now.
Perhaps a strong spray nozzle and hot water would clean the barrel good enough when the grungies show up.
Keep thinking. There is a perfect solution out there. You just have to discover it.

[BlueberryHill]

The last 2 years I had a drum set up on its side. I had a funnel with a neck to feed the top hole from pails and I had a spigot on the bottom hole to drain. I kept this drum in my snowbank. Never had and grungies. Gave it a good hot water rinse at the end of the season with a hose. Plan to do the same hot water rinse on it again once I tap in here. My plan with the drums on my truck was to basically back up to a snowbank, dig out a hole, and slide it down in. I have done it a few times before and it was no problem. Gotta keep this stuff chilled since I can only do weekend boiling mainly. Now that I have the WX10, I probably won't even bother with the vertical setup. I'll just have them sitting upright in the snowbank and pump out of them as needed.

[MISugarDaddy]

We use a Honda pump like you purchased to empty our collection barrels and it works great! I suggest you get a piece of 1" PVC and attach the hose to the pump to it to make pumping out the barrels quicker and easier. We tried it using just a piece of 1" hose and found it was a real pain. We did cut a small notch in the end of the pipe so it couldn't suck itself to the bottom of the barrel. Just a thought.

[BlueberryHill]

Thanks MISugarDaddy. Thanks to all of you guys. This site is great. I have gotten so many helpful tips and tricks from you all. Earlier I was trying to visualize the best type of hose to hook up to suck out the drums and this PVC wand idea is fantastic.

One other question. I looked inside the new pump and it looks like there is white lithium grease or something inside on the impellers. Any tricks to clean that out? I was thinking of pumping soapy water or vinegar through there and then doing a hot water rinse.

[eschoon]

Here is what I did, which worked very well for my situation. I use 55g. plastic drums for collection and transport as well. I took a 4 or 5 gallon bucket and cut some holes in the bottom with a hole saw, size only needs to be as large as or larger than your transfer hose. Next I laid the 55g barrel on its side with the bungs lined up vertically and set the 5g bkt on the side of the drum about half way along the length and traced around it. Next cut out the circle you just marked with a jeg saw or sawzall, cut as close to the line as possible. When finished cutting clean off the "fuzzies" and set your 5g bkt in the hole. It should be a snug fit as the buckets are tapered. Snap a cover on the bucket and you have an almost watertight closure which is still easy to remove for cleaning. For the collection tanks, I cut the bottom completely out/off of the bucket and then your pump can easily be dropped in. I drill a hole in the side of the bucket to insert the sapline and secure with a ziptie or clamp. For my transport tanks I built a cradle for 2 of them and then put some pipe fittings and a valve on the lower bung for unloading. Just make sure if you intend to do the plumbing this way, that you set up the barrel with the bung with pipe threads in the bottom if yours have different threads. Mine had pipe thread on one bung and a much more coarse thread on the other bung. There should be pictures in old threads here on this system, that is where I got the ideas.

[Bjoslyn33]

I bought this pump last year and it Was worth the money. It works great and is somevwhat fast, just an idea I gathered 210gal in around 10min from two different spots

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200380049_200380049

[lpakiz]

Once primed, will this pump "pull" liquid up, like out of a barrel? Or out over the top of a tote?

[CincySyrupPusher]

Little of this...
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_74569_74569

With some of this...
http://www.e-rackonline.com/store/drum-equipment/multi-purpose-overhead-drum-lifterwrench/#gsc.tab=0

Depends on how valuable your time is.

[handtapper]

I bought a 40$ pump from harbor freight its ss pumps 300gph (55 gallon drum in 10min) has 30feet of lift and hooks up to trucks battery 12v. I bought a food grade rv water hose 35feet for 20$ at walmart, cut it in half and put on a female adapter to the cut end. I pump into the truck from drums (or carry 5 gallon buckets to truck). I then pump from truck to holding tank and from holding tank to feed tank for evaporator. I don't think its safe trying to wrestle even half full drums into the truck its just to heavy.

[BlueberryHill]

I got a pump all set up now and it works great! But I could not pump out the last drum cause it was frozen solid. We wrestled it up onto a snowbank and then rolled it onto my truck from the snowbank. That sucked. Glad I have the pump. Now I just need the weather, haha.

[Forrest hunters]

I have this pump at home that I do not use anymore. Would this be a good option with my 1800 watt generator that I have used to power it before. I could hual this to my drums and an extension cord and empty full barrels in less than 5 minutes? I know you cant run it dry but even if it did and burned up I'm out nothing as I don't use it anymore. Would a sump pump be a better option as this pump in not self priming.

http://www.marinedepot.com/Gen_X_External_Water_Pump_Up_to_1000_Gallons_Per_H our_External_Aquarium_Pumps-Gen_X-PI1115-FIWPEPZT-PI1117-vi.html

[Ausable]

Forrest hunters - I have used a Wayne submersible sump pump with a portable generator to pump sap from barrels on a truck to the sugar shack and also from storage drums into my feed (head) tank. Works great and I wouldn't be with out it. I bought a 12' length of hose to go with it - to fill my head tank and use longer hoses when pumping from a truck.

[Forrest hunters]

Mike,

Do you have any pics of your storage tanks and your pump with your pick up tank?

Love your neck of the woods by the way.