Couple questions on shurflo pumps

[lyford]

After collecting buckets for years I've had enough. Just a hobby producer trying to make 20ish gallons a year wanting to make the transition to vacuum. Based on what I've read seems like a shurflo pump is the best option for us financially (ie there cheap). I have 13 acres of mostly reds, and as we all know they can be quite varied in production with buckets and bags. My property is pretty long and narrow (350ishft x 2000ishft) and the maple trees are sporadically clustered throughout. Our land is very flat with the lowest area about 100ft behind the sugar shack, which is about 1500ft from my back property line. After doing some research on this site I still have a few questions, keep in mind I'm a total rookie when it comes to tubing and vacuum.

1. Is it better to use a mainline with a shurflo or should I use a pvc manifold with several 5/16 lines coming in? Why?

2. Should I place the pump near the middle of my property or at the lowest point (keep in mind the lowest point is not much lower than the rest of the property)? Also I could run a cord to the lowest area but the middle of the property is without power.

3. Will a shurflo pump really make that much of a difference with my reds in terms of sap volume? Will the trees that barely drip still produce very little or will there be a noticeable increase?

I think thats it for now, thanks. -justin

[mol1jb]

1. It would depend if you can pick up the majority of trees in one part of the property. Then taking the lines into a manifold would make sense and then pumping the discharge into a main that runs by gravity to your shack. But if they are too scattered you might be better off running one main centrally and bringing in the 5/16 lines into that. In general a shurflo pump can only displace a small amount of air and works better when the length of mainline is shorter. So putting all your 5/16 into a manifold attached to the pump would create a super short piece for the pump to create vacuum in.

2. If you did a central pump manifold then the middle of the property may make sense. If you did a central main then you could put the pump at the shack.

3. For every inch of vac applies to your trees you will be getting around 5% more sap. On my setup with shurflo I average 15" vac on my manifold and that has generated significantly more sap this season. On my 120 taps and pump I would be getting over 200 gallons per day on good flows.

[achesser]

This year I used 2 4008 shurflo pumps on 140 taps. I used the manifold set up and have 2 tanks in the woods because of where the trees are. I just use a small 1.5" gas pump to transfer the sap to the sap house 600 feet away because it is up a hill. On decent runs I have 200-300 gallons to pump in the evening. I am at over 2 times the sap I collected with 200 buckets last year. My gauge is usually between 15"-20".

[Biz]

Regarding question #3, yeah, a pump or even a small amount of vacuum on reds makes a dramatic difference in sap flow. I have a line of 27 smallish reds on gravity 3/16, the highest tap is about 18' elevation from the barrel, but most are scattered between 8 and 15' drop and I see 15-18" on a gauge at the top. On good days I run over a 30 gallon barrel. I get maybe 2/3 the amount of sap as a similar gravity line on sugar maples. If I had a pump on it I would get a lot more. If on buckets I would not get nearly as much.

Dave

[Cedar Eater]

1. Both a mainline and 5/16" tubing require you to slope your lines very carefully and keep your lines very taut and as straight as possible. Without special procedures, they are intolerant of even slight upslopes when they are supposed to be going downslope. With 3/16" lines you don't need to worry as much. I had an 800' 3/16" line with 25 taps on it last year and it handled changes of elevation very well.

2. When you say not much lower, how much is that? If it's not much, you can just pull all the way to your sugar shack. Multiple 3/16" lines to a manifold right at the pump might be all you need.

3. Yes. You should be prepared for sap tsunamis, so much sap that you have trouble processing it fast enough.

If you can get a good straight downslope from the center of the property to your sugar shack, a 1/2" mainline to there and 3/16" laterals could pull everything from the far end of your property and 3/16" lines could pull everything from the near end.

[SSS2017]

Regarding question #3, yeah, a pump or even a small amount of vacuum on reds makes a dramatic difference in sap flow. I have a line of 27 smallish reds on gravity 3/16, the highest tap is about 18' elevation from the barrel, but most are scattered between 8 and 15' drop and I see 15-18" on a gauge at the top. On good days I run over a 30 gallon barrel. I get maybe 2/3 the amount of sap as a similar gravity line on sugar maples. If I had a pump on it I would get a lot more. If on buckets I would not get nearly as much.



Dave

Justin,
Last year I was on 45 buckets and averaged 23 gallons a week (5 weeks)on all reds 16-25” in diameter. I went to 3/16 lines this year and bought one of Dave’s smart sap sucker units with the shurflo pump. The difference is night and day. I have a 1000’ line and a 750’ line on one unit. I have 41 trees on the two lines. So far from February 9th (tapped) until today (4 weeks) I’ve averaged 104.5 a week!

My 3/16 lines run from tree to tree without a mainline. I just found it easier this year to do it that way without a mainline. I have very little slope on my property. I think maybe 15’ of elevation change from the back of the 1000’ line to my porch where I have the smart sap sucker and my collection tank. Dave’s unit also measures vacuum and I am consistently 24-26 inches.

Hope this helps

[SSS2017]

I forgot to add, I also have 39 reds that I have on gravity on 5/16. 4-5 trees per line running to a bucket. Last year all my single buckets seemed to dry up quick and stop producing. The lines this year seem to be doing really well and holding out a lot longer than I expected. Since my tap date of February 9th I’ve averaged 15.5 gallons a week. Not great, but better than singles drying out quicker.

Next year I plan to get another unit from Dave along with a solar panel to charge the battery because I cannot run these to my porch and a power source because they are on the other side of my property.

[rhwells2003]

Lyford, maybe I missed it somewhere but how many taps are you expecting to have on the system?

[lyford]

rhwells, I was thinking around 100 taps for next year, seems from what I'm reading I would need less taps on vacuum than i do on gravity to get a similar amount of sap.

SSS2017-those are some very encouraging numbers, do you think you'll ever need to install a mainline or do the 3/16 lines work well enough on their own.

BIZ, SSS2017, and CedarEater- As I said I have little to no change in elevation over the entire length of my property. My concern with the 3/16 is that if for some reason my vacuum is out, say while I'm at work, I will completely miss any possible gravity run. Also since the 3/16 is so forgiving can i just eyeball my slopes from tree to tree as I zigzag thru the woods or will i need some sort of level to determine slope. Thanks guys I really appreciate your help.
Does the smart sap sucker run off of a shurflo or an air compressor, I'm a little confused. Where does one purchase the sap sucker? Thanks again.

[Cedar Eater]

rhwells, I was thinking around 100 taps for next year, seems from what I'm reading I would need less taps on vacuum than i do on gravity to get a similar amount of sap.

SSS2017-those are some very encouraging numbers, do you think you'll ever need to install a mainline or do the 3/16 lines work well enough on their own.

BIZ, SSS2017, and CedarEater- As I said I have little to no change in elevation over the entire length of my property. My concern with the 3/16 is that if for some reason my vacuum is out, say while I'm at work, I will completely miss any possible gravity run. Also since the 3/16 is so forgiving can i just eyeball my slopes from tree to tree as I zigzag thru the woods or will i need some sort of level to determine slope. Thanks guys I really appreciate your help.
Does the smart sap sucker run off of a shurflo or an air compressor, I'm a little confused. Where does one purchase the sap sucker? Thanks again.

Based on my numbers from last year when the sap sugar percentage was low, I could easily have gotten to 20 gallons of syrup with less than 100 taps. You can eyeball the slope with 3/16" tubing. You can even route it up and over trails or obstacles because the downslopes compensate for the upslopes with only slight losses due to friction. It might be a good idea to use check valve spouts to prevent sap from sucking back into the trees as temps drop below freezing.

The Smart Sap Sucker is an electrically powered control system that will turn your pump on when the temperature gets warm enough, turn it off before it freezes, and open a dump valve to allow a gravity vacuum flow when your mechanical vacuum is not running. It can be tuned to optimize it for your situation. I can't say that it will respond to all conditions that "loss of vacuum" covers, but it seems pretty smart. I'm not a user of it, but if I had 100 trees on 3/16" vacuum and a goal of producing 20 gallons, I probably would be.

[Biz]

rhwells, I was thinking around 100 taps for next year, seems from what I'm reading I would need less taps on vacuum than i do on gravity to get a similar amount of sap.

SSS2017-those are some very encouraging numbers, do you think you'll ever need to install a mainline or do the 3/16 lines work well enough on their own.

BIZ, SSS2017, and CedarEater- As I said I have little to no change in elevation over the entire length of my property. My concern with the 3/16 is that if for some reason my vacuum is out, say while I'm at work, I will completely miss any possible gravity run. Also since the 3/16 is so forgiving can i just eyeball my slopes from tree to tree as I zigzag thru the woods or will i need some sort of level to determine slope. Thanks guys I really appreciate your help.
Does the smart sap sucker run off of a shurflo or an air compressor, I'm a little confused. Where does one purchase the sap sucker? Thanks again.

Lyford, the smart sap sucker is a controller/valve assembly that works together with a diaphragm pump (12V or AC). The controller allows for unattended operation and will turn the pump on or off off based on temperature, vacuum, or fault conditions like a low battery or pump failure. The diaphragm pumps usually do not like being run when lines are frozen (but I haven't tried it), so the controller handles pump on/off control. PM me if interested in one for this season or next.

I believe the Lunchbox releaser works off compressed air and can be left running all the time, no need for a controller.

Dave

[SSS2017]

Honestly, with my woods, I don’t think I will run a mainline. The way the smart sap sucker worked this year with my setup going tree to tree and the numbers I got from it... it doesn’t make sense to me to go through the hassle. I used semi-rigid line from Bascom and I was able to stretch it pretty good right from the start and have very little sag till this day. The only places I have sag is the long 300’ + run from my woods to the house and that made no difference in my vacuum on 3/16. Before I had a pine fall on my lines from last Friday’s storm I laid them on the ground and they still ran at 25 inches.

This will help with your setup
https://www.bascommaple.com/item/tsl/

[lyford]

SSS2017- thanks for the link, ordered it last night. Also, how careful are you when you run the tubing to maintain slope and reduce sagging. I'm also curious if I will get any runs on gravity (if the pump were to go out for any reason) with 3/16, having the minimal slope that I have. Are there any other downsides to the 3/16. Just trying to look at this from all angles before I jump in and make the investment. I am at this point leaning towards 3/16 with a SSS and a shurflo for next year. Thanks for your patience everyone, I appreciate the help. SSS you had the lines on the ground before the tree fell?

[SSS2017]

18048
SSS2017- thanks for the link, ordered it last night. Also, how careful are you when you run the tubing to maintain slope and reduce sagging. I'm also curious if I will get any runs on gravity (if the pump were to go out for any reason) with 3/16, having the minimal slope that I have. Are there any other downsides to the 3/16. Just trying to look at this from all angles before I jump in and make the investment. I am at this point leaning towards 3/16 with a SSS and a shurflo for next year. Thanks for your patience everyone, I appreciate the help. SSS you had the lines on the ground before the tree fell?

I actually shot everything with a transit for my 3/16 line but looking back I could have gotten by with the pocket level. The pump really does a good job even with sags. Where my lines come out of the woods, I have long stretches where I have slack in the lines so I was able to take them off the fence post support and lay them on the ground before the tree falls.

[Jolly Acres Farm]

Justin,
Last year I was on 45 buckets and averaged 23 gallons a week (5 weeks)on all reds 16-25” in diameter. I went to 3/16 lines this year and bought one of Dave’s smart sap sucker units with the shurflo pump. The difference is night and day. I have a 1000’ line and a 750’ line on one unit. I have 41 trees on the two lines. So far from February 9th (tapped) until today (4 weeks) I’ve averaged 104.5 a week!

My 3/16 lines run from tree to tree without a mainline. I just found it easier this year to do it that way without a mainline. I have very little slope on my property. I think maybe 15’ of elevation change from the back of the 1000’ line to my porch where I have the smart sap sucker and my collection tank. Dave’s unit also measures vacuum and I am consistently 24-26 inches.

Hope this helps

Where can I find one of these units from Dave, this soulds like the kind of setup im interested in.......

[lyford]

Well after reading the responses to this thread and many other older threads on the subject my biggest concern with the 3/16 is that I will get little to no flow from the taps if the vacuum goes out. Can't seem to get much of an answer from anyone with experience on the subject. Now maybe my land has more slope than it appears to the naked eye. Any way to inexpensively figure out just how much slope i do have? I like that fact the 3/16 is more forgiving of slopes, ie the down slopes make up for the up slopes, my concern is that I dont have enough down slope. thanks

[mike103]

The way i do it without use of a transit is with a regular level on a flat surface. Find a spot where you can see both your nearest tree and your farthest tree. look across the top of the level and mark the tree with tape, without moving level up or down, pivot level pointing at second tree, again sighting straight across, put piece of tape on that tree. Measure distance between trees and also distance in height from tape to tubing at both trees. take difference in height divide by distance in feet and you have slope. (approx). an example would be tubing is 3 feet above tape at farthest tree and 1 foot below tape at nearest tree equals 4 feet divide by 100 foot distance is 4 degrees slope. There is probably a better easier way but this works for me....

[mol1jb]

Well after reading the responses to this thread and many other older threads on the subject my biggest concern with the 3/16 is that I will get little to no flow from the taps if the vacuum goes out. Can't seem to get much of an answer from anyone with experience on the subject. Now maybe my land has more slope than it appears to the naked eye. Any way to inexpensively figure out just how much slope i do have? I like that fact the 3/16 is more forgiving of slopes, ie the down slopes make up for the up slopes, my concern is that I dont have enough down slope. thanks

You can get a $20 sight level that will get you close to knowing. I usually sight it to 100 ft level and then walk over the my sighted spot and measure up to my eye to calculate the raise or fall.

[Cedar Eater]

Well after reading the responses to this thread and many other older threads on the subject my biggest concern with the 3/16 is that I will get little to no flow from the taps if the vacuum goes out. Can't seem to get much of an answer from anyone with experience on the subject. Now maybe my land has more slope than it appears to the naked eye. Any way to inexpensively figure out just how much slope i do have? I like that fact the 3/16 is more forgiving of slopes, ie the down slopes make up for the up slopes, my concern is that I dont have enough down slope. thanks

My experience with a level line is that you will get some flow if the vacuum goes out if you provide a path other than through the pump. The flow from higher trees might try to feed back into lower trees. That's why you would use check valve spiles. Also, the flow will not go through a pump. That's why you would put a dump valve near the pump that opens when the pump shuts off to provide a bypass around the pump and a direct path into your collection tank.

[maple flats]

With 3/16 you do not need to have a continuous slope, it's the total drop in elevation that you need for it to give you vacuum.
Try this program, it might help: http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/elevation
I used it on one woods to plan how to get the sap out of the woods. Just locate your woods on the map and expand it as much as you need, then you can click on any point on the map and it will give the elevation above sea level. Plan from that. Then give us some details and someone on here can help you with some answers and suggestions. The things that will help most are the distance from the high point that will be tapped, to the lowest tap and the distance between them. That free program will give you all of those answers as long as you can pinpoint them on the map. When I did it, I could identify old stonewalls, the remnants of which were still there, which made it easy.

[lyford]

Thanks for the advice guys, my sight level hasn't come in yet so not able to go that route until it does. Flats, thanks for the link. Nearest I can tell using that map I have around ten feet of elevation change from one end of my property to another, about 2000 ft in length. Pretty flat. Thoughts?

[SSS2017]

I have 12-15’ drop in elevation from back to front- 1000’, and if the pump kicks off because of a fault, I still have gravity flow. And, if you see the sag in my lines in my last posts picture, it still works on gravity. Since my unit faulted that one time(btw I had 4 gallons in my bucket from vacuum), I went through the settings and changed some of the numbers that I thought would be better with my setup. I changed the vacuum setup it shuts off at and the temp setting it shuts off at. Since those changed my unit has been dialed in and shuts off when the vacuum goes to 7, or if the temp goes to low, I don’t remember exact temp I put in. But again, it has been flawless since! Literally, the only time it shuts off now is if the sap ain’t flowing or the sap in the lines is just about to freeze.

[lyford]

Mick, I appreciate your help, seems like we have a similar property layout. Thanks for for taking the time to pass on your information.

[CampHamp]

The diaphragm pumps usually do not like being run when lines are frozen (but I haven't tried it), so the controller handles pump on/off control.
I run my Shurflo pump down to 30 degrees and start it at 34 degrees using a $3 temp switch. I have a car battery hooked up to a 2A charger and can keep pumping for a day without power (useful if there is a power outage). I haven’t needed to switch to gravity for 4 years. I’m not sure why people choose to “pop” all the vacuum out of the system while the trees are still running at the end of the day. These pumps can run dry and that’s what they do for a bit until the temp switch click off.

I would put my pump at the lowest point to get the benefit of slope and power access. You can think of 3/4 lamb tubing with 6-way tee connectors as a long manifold. It may be cheaper to run a mainline stretch part of the way like that rather than all your lateral tubing down to the tank. Since there’s not much slope from there up to your shack, you could probably just long line the outlet to one big head tank instead of having a separate collection tank.

[lyford]

Camp hamp, what size shuffle do you Use? How far could I run the outlet to the head tank and how high? Would 200ft of distance and 8 ft of elevation be too much?

[CampHamp]

You will lose about 20psi in 1/2 tube at 4gpm due to friction (see Friction (https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/water-pressure-loss-hose-d_1525.html)) and another 3psi to lift 8ft (see Head (https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/hydrostatic-pressure-water-d_1632.html)).

So given 23psi on your outlet...

The smallest 4008 (http://shurflo.com/images/files/RV_Product_Data_Sheets/Fresh_Water_Pumps/pds-4028-100-X54.pdf) will leave with 1.3GPM and the large one 4088 (http://shurflo.com/images/files/RV_Product_Data_Sheets/Fresh_Water_Pumps/pds-4048-153-X75.pdf) will be pumping over 3GPM (I use this model, myself).

However, the flow rate will ultimately be restricted by the amount of sap flowing — you cannot pump more than that. I do not believe that 23psi on the outlet will have a significant change on vacuum capability on the inlet (maybe you get 23” instead of 25”). This info is not documented, but may be worth some experimentation to benefit the community (inlet vacuum as you increase psi on outlet — need recirculator to keep diaphragm wet).

I have pumped up 26’ over 100’ of tube to my head tank while doing sap sucking using this same 4088 pump (when my bottom tanks were both full of frozen sap) and it worked. My standard config uses 2x60G collection barrels and I transfer to a 150G head tank, so I do not have much experience in what I suggest you try. Also note that if you want a gravity “backup plan” then you will need the collection tank.

[Gratefulmaple]

I've got a hedgerow of about 80 taps or so some slope. I've got it all on 3/16. I have about 15 or so close to my collection tank that are maybe 3 ft above the tank and the line picks up a few trees below the tank. It flows great with the pump on. When the pump is off it slowly will work its way to the tank. With 3/16 some vacuum is better than no vacuum. A roll of 3/16 800 ft long is about 45 bucks. Try it. My lines aren't tight at all and do great.

[Gratefulmaple]

I've got another hedge row of about 800 ft of about 80 taps or so. Not much slope and I thought about using a shurflo in the middle and 3/16 tubing running to the pump as an experiment to see what happens with it.

[Wanabe1972]

I have found runnimg a shurflow on 3/16 is awesome. I have 40 taps with 5/16 drops into 3/16 line about 500 feet long and minimal drop. I pull 1 gallon per tap per day and today the 55 gallon drum was running on the ground when I went to pump them out. With that many taps you won't need a recirculation line on that pump. But may want to do 2 lines. I just reread your post and see you were going to put the pump in the middle. That should work fine.

[lyford]

Well I’m not exactly sure where the pump is going sit on the property, but it’s ordered (4048) and I plan on using 3/16 line. Still not totally sure if I’ll run a mainline or a manifold either, but I’ve got time. Wanted to thank everybody for all the help so far, and I’m sure I’ll be posting more questions as I move through this process. I do have one question right now, is there a maximum number of taps Incan put on each line? Say for instance is an 800 ft line with 50 taps too much? Check that, I just reread grateful maples post saying he was tapping 80 taps on 800 ft of line, so 50 should be doable.

[motowbrowne]

Well I’m not exactly sure where the pump is going sit on the property, but it’s ordered (4048) and I plan on using 3/16 line. Still not totally sure if I’ll run a mainline or a manifold either, but I’ve got time. Wanted to thank everybody for all the help so far, and I’m sure I’ll be posting more questions as I move through this process. I do have one question right now, is there a maximum number of taps Incan put on each line? Say for instance is an 800 ft line with 50 taps too much? Check that, I just reread grateful maples post saying he was tapping 80 taps on 800 ft of line, so 50 should be doable.


50 is too many. You can probably get away with it, but 25 each on two lines would be preferable. The length should be fine.

Best cheapest manifold I have found is a short piece of 1" pipe (I'm using blue mainline) and with a 1" barbed X 1/2 Female NPT elbow that you put a star fitting in. The syrup suppliers all have the star fittings. Easier than messing with saddles and cheaper than a manifold with brass fittings. They'll probably even cut you a 2' scrap of 1" mainline for a dollar or two.

[Cedar Eater]

A vacuum guage at the end of each line will tell you whether you have too many taps on the line, but that problem will only show up when the run is fierce. I had 45 taps on an 800' line and I think it would have been better to limit it to 25 or 30. But there's no real way to know that your lines are swamped other than to see zero vacuum at your far tree when you have no leaks and a high vacuum at your pump.

[Biz]

Great discussion on the Shurflo pumps! On the pump control side, my unit allows the pump to continue to run as long as sap is flowing (pump still pulling good vacuum), regardless or temperature. I do have a secondary temperature shutoff which I set to 28 degrees (adjustable), but as long as sap is running and the pump is pulling vacuum, it will continue to pump sap. I usually see the lines running down to 30 degrees or maybe lower, when buckets are already forming icicles. Once sap has stopped running, whether from cold temps or trees have just quit giving sap, the pump stops and purges sap out since it isn't doing anything useful other than depleting batteries. Flow via bypass valve is allowed after that. I don't have AC power available anywhere near my pumps. There are a lot of other ways to control the pump, even just manual operation, either way it's great that there is a low cost way to coax more sap from the trees!

Dave

[Gratefulmaple]

No my max is 30 on each run. They do well.

[SSS2017]

Well I’m not exactly sure where the pump is going sit on the property, but it’s ordered (4048) and I plan on using 3/16 line. Still not totally sure if I’ll run a mainline or a manifold either, but I’ve got time. Wanted to thank everybody for all the help so far, and I’m sure I’ll be posting more questions as I move through this process. I do have one question right now, is there a maximum number of taps Incan put on each line? Say for instance is an 800 ft line with 50 taps too much? Check that, I just reread grateful maples post saying he was tapping 80 taps on 800 ft of line, so 50 should be doable.

When I researched for mine I found you should have no more than 20-25 per line on 3/16. That’s why I ran 2 lines. Right now I have 22 on my 1000’ line and 19 on my 750’ line.

The weather has been great the last two days here with freezing temps at night. Saturday into Sunday I got 40 gallons of sap in 23 hours. Sunday into Monday I got 50 gallons in 26 hours! All crystal clear like water!

[lyford]

Ok, sounds like I’ll be limiting my lines to 25 taps. Do need to purchase one of those tubing tools or can I get away with using the hot water method. Those tools aren’t cheap and after buying a pan the year before last and building my shack this past summer I’d like to keep my maple expenditures to what is only absolutely necessary this year.

[psparr]

Ok, sounds like I’ll be limiting my lines to 25 taps. Do need to purchase one of those tubing tools or can I get away with using the hot water method. Those tools aren’t cheap and after buying a pan the year before last and building my shack this past summer I’d like to keep my maple expenditures to what is only absolutely necessary this year.

I took is not necessary but it makes life much easier. If you decide on a tool, I make them for $160 shipped.

[motowbrowne]

Ok, sounds like I’ll be limiting my lines to 25 taps. Do need to purchase one of those tubing tools or can I get away with using the hot water method. Those tools aren’t cheap and after buying a pan the year before last and building my shack this past summer I’d like to keep my maple expenditures to what is only absolutely necessary this year.

Pat makes a great tool. I use the one I got from him every day to fix squirrel chews (shot 6 yesterday, but there's still a lot out there). The nice thing about the two handed tool is that you can string your line up tight and then come back and install the drop lines without taking the line down. Otherwise you've got to string up the line, mark where each drop line is gonna go, then take the tension off the line and lay it on the ground to install the drops. Also, for making repairs the tool really makes life easier. You could get by with a couple of pieces of plywood with slots cut in them for the tubing and string to tension them, but I'd highly recommend the tool. Not cheap exactly, but worth it.

[SSS2017]

I took is not necessary but it makes life much easier. If you decide on a tool, I make them for $160 shipped.

I bought one off Pat as well. I think it’s a must for 3/16. I bought the 5/16 tool from him so I can use it for my drops also. All you do then for the 3/16 is this
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LwzTFFfQsVs

[SSS2017]

Pat makes a great tool. I use the one I got from him every day to fix squirrel chews (shot 6 yesterday, but there's still a lot out there). The nice thing about the two handed tool is that you can string your line up tight and then come back and install the drop lines without taking the line down. Otherwise you've got to string up the line, mark where each drop line is gonna go, then take the tension off the line and lay it on the ground to install the drops. Also, for making repairs the tool really makes life easier. You could get by with a couple of pieces of plywood with slots cut in them for the tubing and string to tension them, but I'd highly recommend the tool. Not cheap exactly, but worth it.

Especially for repairs! If you have a leak you find at a T for instance, and you’re strung tree to tree like me, the tool is a must!