Help with new tubing user - supporting mainline

[TrentonMaple]

Hi
I'm making the move from buckets to tubing for the roughly 70 taps on my lower sugarbush. It's is on a very nice slope that should lend itself to gravity tubing.

I'm going to use 1" black plastic water line for my mainline (leftover from building our house). I'm having trouble understanding how the mainline is supported as it travels along and the laterals come in. Is it one wire stretched tight that it hangs from? How do I attach the ends? I've read a bit about ratchet straps and tensioners but I'm not really clear.

Does anyone have a pic of how this is done?

[lpakiz]

Anchor both ends of the wire to your end tree. I did it solid, no tighteners of any kind, although some recommend tighteners of one sort or another. I made some lag bolt anchors that resemble gate post hinge thingys that pipe type gates swing on.
Get it as tight as you can by hand. Then go back and "side-tie" the wire to other trees along the route. After a couple side ties, you will have it so tight it will scare you. To get a tight side tie, affix the lighter gauge side tie wire to the mainline wire. Pass it thru a scrap of tubing to protect the proposed side tie tree, then pass the wire behind the tree. Bring the wire back towards you, pushing the mainline wire with your hip, toward the side tie anchor tree, while pulling on the side tie wire. When it's tight, cut it off and wrap the second end around the mainline wire.
Then string out the tubing. Anchor both ends. Push the tubing into the curves of the mainline wire. Put a twisted wire every 12-16 inches, to hold the tube to the wire. As you push the tube into alignment with the wire, the tube will also get very tight.
Most here will recommend a field trip to see some one who has tubing. 2 minutes there will be better than a whole chapter here.

[BreezyHill]

TM,
If you are looking for a way to install and be abe to maintain the support wire with ease the you can try this method with all parts available from a Gallagher Fence Dealer or similar parts off ebay or a farm supply store.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271283212123?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The above link will be driven into the three and will last your life time and the next generation provided it is screw back out every 20 years or so. If attaching to a maple I suggest drilling a tap hole 1" into the tree to set the drive hook so as to not split the outer layer of the tree.

Then attach a galvanized high tensile wire to both hooks leaving enough sag to the line to spool in 12"-18" in to a Gallagher Rapid Tightener( pic below) The left handle can easily be made with 3/8" solid bar stock, a 3/8" flat washer and a section of 1/2" key stock to drive the tightener. The second handle is a spped tightener and will allow only tensioning not releasing of the tightener.

9773

Releasing of the tightener is important for when a tree or branch falls on the line. The extra wire in the tightener is used to mend the failure site with a square knot.

For tensioning of mainline make the handle not less than 12" long. The original design is to achieve 250# tension of the wire with only a slight amount of hard work.

In the event that you loose the original wire stop clip for the tightener use galvanized nails.


9774

Sorry I do not have a good pic of a drive hook but the bottom of the above is a ladder for 300 taps. with a drive ring in the tree.

If you cant see the ring let me know and I will get a pic and post it for you.

We do not support all of our lines but the majority are. Short and small diameter lines can be pulled with tension grips as is the line in the above pic. To tension these I generally use a ratchet winch and slide the grip to achieve the desired tension. CDL has a grip that is removable from the mainline after it is used with the ratchet for tensioning. This saves a good bit of $$$ as you can reuse these many years.

Ben

[BreezyHill]

TM, One more thing. I strongly suggest not going around a tree with a support wire. This will damage a tree over time. I have spent the last three years removing maples that were girdled by using this method. The wire will cut into the tubing and damage the tree. You can use blocks of wood to spread out the force of the wire but a drive hook is much easier, less time consuming in the log run ad will last much longer.
Side tying with products designed to spread out the tension is fine. I do this on nonsupport lines with Rapid Tie product.

Ben