Pumping sap across a cold swamp

[Cedar Eater]

14187

I'm looking for a cheap way to either pump sap or suck sap from my collection point across a swamp to my house. The topo map above shows my situation. I live on the hill on the right side of the map. About sixty tappable maples are on the left above the 850' elevation line, but there are a few more on the slopes leading down into the cold cedar swamp below the 830' line. The red blob on the red sapline is my collection point. I can reach it from the left by coming down the slope with my tractor. I can sometimes travel along the swamp edge with my tractor but it has some wet spots.

I've only shown one sapline, but there could be up to five 3/16" lines leading to that collection point from along that ridge next year. Some of the trees in some of those lines will be in the 840-850 elevation range, but there should still be enough gradient to get some natural vacuum on them. From the red blob to the house is 400-500'. I'm concerned that if I try to move sap across the swamp, the line will freeze in the swamp while sap is still flowing down the slopes, so I would want to draw from a barrel or tote that would continue filling if the line froze.

Would it make more sense to try to use vacuum from the house side of the swamp with a 120V pump or to go to the collection point and try to pump through the swamp with a 12V pump? Is this beyond what I could do using a Shurflo pump?

[Russell Lampron]

If you can suspend a pipe over the swamp you could use a gas powered pump and pump the sap from the tank across the swamp. As long as the temperature is above freezing the pipe won't freeze. You will need to drain the pipe after pumping to keep the sap from spoiling or freezing between uses. I pump sap almost 1500' with a 25' uphill elevation change. I leave the pump at the tank for the season and just bring a gas can down when needed.

[Cedar Eater]

If you can suspend a pipe over the swamp you could use a gas powered pump and pump the sap from the tank across the swamp. As long as the temperature is above freezing the pipe won't freeze. You will need to drain the pipe after pumping to keep the sap from spoiling or freezing between uses. I pump sap almost 1500' with a 25' uphill elevation change. I leave the pump at the tank for the season and just bring a gas can down when needed.

That doesn't sound as cheap as I'm trying to achieve. I was thinking either 5/16" or at most 1/2" tubing across the swamp and I was really hoping I could use vacuum to pull the sap across the swamp from the holding vessel and then pump it uphill about 20' to my deck with just a Shurflo or some other diaphragm pump. That way, when the line wasn't frozen, it would be very convenient for me to just plug in the pump at my deck and get the sap. There just aren't that many maples over there. I can suspend the tubing. There are plenty of cedar trees, enough to keep it dark and cold beneath their canopy. When the line is frozen, I would have to go pump sap into something I tow behind the tractor. I was hoping I could use a 12Vdc pump for that.