High Tensile Wire or not?

[OCHTO]

I'm running 400 ft of 1/2 in from the middle of the edge of my sugar bush to my evaporator. I have 8 ft of drop from a 15 gallon dump tank to a 30 gallon tank. There are a lot of trees in between tanks to support the tubing. Do I need wire? I'm going to use tension grips and ratchets to tighten the tubing. Any tips? Thanks

[tcross]

I would use the high tensile wire! around here it goes for anywhere between $65-$75! I'm not as experienced as most, but I've tried it without wire, I've tried it will different types of wire (trying to be cheap) and once i used the high tensile wire i was kicking myself in the backside for not doing it earlier! 400' will require an awful lot of side ties to keep your slope and not have the tube droop when a good run occurs! Be careful how tight you try to get your tubing... you don't want to distort the shape of the tubing! that will create other issues with saddles and such!

[maple flats]

I would use the HT wire. That is only 2% slope. At such it will be very hard to prevent sags and potential freezes preventing transfer. If the slope was 4% or better, I'd go without the wire, but that's just me.

[BreezyHill]

It will depend on the tubing quality. Good quality tubing of that size can be tensioned enough to utilize support trees and not require a support wire. I have done this on 2% slope with 1/2" & 3/4" tubing with no problems and used trees every 30-50 feet. 1" you will need trees every 20'.

I also fly a 1" dry line 60-70' over a brook with a support wire and attached to trees at 50' for support and it sags with just the weight of the tubing.

1/2" can be tensioned at a 2-3% stretch to utilize tree to save time and materials. Take a spade bit and pieces of 2x4 to make supports that can be nailed to trees and push out as the tree grows.

Good Luck!

Ben

[OCHTO]

Thanks everyone! I have tubing ordered from leader, should be here next week. Wire is $95. I don't know if that is one or two thousand ft. roll. An extra expense and a lot of left over. I could make a zip line with left over! I know I get indecisive when I start projects with no prior experience and I don't know anyone with a tubing setup to look at. I am going to use the wire as if I don't get it perfect this year I can tweek it next.

[maple flats]

Get the wire at a TSC form store. When I bought my last roll of 2000' it was $79, likely more now. Most (but not all) of my tubing is strung without wire, I have not used it up yet.

[adk1]

Yup. same here. Its usually located in the outdoor fenced area. pretty heavy!

[unc23win]

$95 should be a 4000' roll its on sale at TSC for $79.99. I think you will want a spool jenny they were $35 the last time I was there. You don't want to carry that anymore than you have to.

[OCHTO]

I checked the leader catalog and it's a 2000 ft. roll. The local farm and fleet has it for $89. So I'll get it at All American Maple Outfitters where I have my tubing ordered for $95. The owner spends a lot of time on me as I pick his brain about everything maple. He's a Leader dealer. He has the tightening sleeves and ratchets. I saw in the CDL catalog that they advertise tubing that doesn't need wire but I think I might have more room for error with wire. There isn't a TSC real near here but I can see the need with the shape of the wire spool for a jenny. The local farm store probably has one. Thanks again all! Can't wait now to get started.

[mellondome]

Keep tight hold of the wire spool when you cut it loose... unless you like 2000' spring knots that cannot be undone without cutting every 10 ft.