Any homemade sap ladder/lifter ideas

[Alex Davies]

Hi,

Looking to build a few sap ladders/ sap lifters. Need to lift sap from about 700 taps up 8 feet or so.

Looking on youtube, the only homemade designs I've seen are using 6 point star adapters and 5/16th line (search homemade sap ladder on youtube).

Anyone else done anything different?

Thanks

[Haynes Forest Products]

I have read about all sorts of lifters. I have always relied on my 6 star lifters. I have 9 mainlines 1700 taps and they all get lifted. I have been able to get my lifters down to 5 ft the height of my releaser over a cage tank.

[Alex Davies]

I have read about all sorts of lifters. I have always relied on my 6 star lifters. I have 9 mainlines 1700 taps and they all get lifted. I have been able to get my lifters down to 5 ft the height of my releaser over a cage tank.

If I understand correctly, you're lifting all 1700 taps 5' to get it up to your releaser?
How many taps approx will you allow for with each 6 star lifter?
Does this system maintain the same vacuum in the lower mainlines?
Do you think this type of system would do an 8' lift?

Thanks!
:)

[Haynes Forest Products]

I would come out of the woods to my last tree and then lift up 10-12 ft. I would put the 3 start lifter at the last tree and then have a mainline 50 ft over to an anchor point on the building the slope it to the manifold. What a nightmare having 5 mainlines all coming together trying to get them to all enter the manifold without torquing it all out of whack. Then 2 years ago I said screw it and after the last tap and tree I ran the mainline across the ground over to the releaser. I made a frame to hold 1" 3 star manifolds both at the bottom and then at the top into the vacuum tank manifold on the Bernards. They don't freeze up any worse laying on the ground asthey did in the air. I drive over them with my ATV and it doesn't hurt them.
The hardest thing before was keeping them straight and even so all the stars were flooded with sap. Now being mounted in frames they stay nice and tight with no tension from mainline wires. I installed a new mainline into new woods and have another 3 star lifter 150ft down in the woods and that one runs just as good as its neighbor. Plan is this year for 2 more mainlines just like it.

[Bricklayer]

I want to say 60 taps per 6 way star. Or basically 10 taps per 5/16 line.
We just set up a 400 tap bush this fall and had to lift 180 taps. I put in 4 x 6 way stars. 3 for the 180 taps and 1 extra.
Haven't seen it run yet but it only lifts 4'.
You could do 2 lifts of 4 feet instead of 8'.

I looked at many different ways of doing the ladder. But I decided to just go with what has been tested and true. And most people seem to use the star system. So that's what we went with. I'll know how it works in a couple weeks.