210 gallon pick up poly tank

[devils11217]

Recently purchased a new 210 gallon only pick up truck tank from norwesco. I am confused but maybe I am not understanding it. It has the “ L” pipe on the inside of the drain which is a siphon tube I presume. However, what angle should this pipe be? StrIght down or slightly canted on a angle? The drain is 2 inches above the bottom and the tank doesn’t drain fully leaving about 50 gallons on the bottom when draining by gravity through the 2 inch opening. Does this set up only work after necking down the 2 inch drain and running through a pump to drain the tank fully? Kinda disappointed if I can’t drain this strictly by gravity

[mol1jb]

Ya I have some similar tanks with that setup. There are a couple ways that I have tried that can improve on what you have. First is have the tank on an incline surface with the drain side on the low part of the incline (only need 10-15*). This will help get you down around 5 or so gallons left in the tank, which is generally enough to keep fresh sap coming in good as long as the outgoing sap was in good shape as well. The other way that I have found works the best is using method one (incline base) and putting a new bulkhead outlet (with a weldless fitting) on the bottom of the tank just below the original side fitting. Doing it this way makes it so you only have 2-3 gallons left after emptying the tank. I used a 2 inch Banjo bulkhead fitting and it sealed well and has not leaked. Let me know if you have additional questions.

[maple flats]

Devils11217, make sure you clean the new tank well. I bought one 550 gal (also Norwesco but that likely makes no difference) and I just rinsed it once then set it out roadside to collect my gravity tubing sap. I then pumped the sap into my truck haul tanks and put it into my ss head tank, which had also been cleaned. The I made some syrup, that first batch ended up as commercial grade because it had a plastic after taste. The haul tank had been used the year before and was well cleaned, it had not been the problem. I then hauled the 550 tank to my home and used the hose and some original Clorox rinsed well, then mixed a pound of baking soda in about 3/4 tank of water and I used a brush to repeatedly wet and wash the area above the waterline in the tank. Then I drained it, added some fresh (city water) and let it set a day, then I got a sample out to taste it, the water tasted good. I then took it back and put it into use collecting sap again. I never had a repeat of the off taste again from that tank. I concluded the new tank had made that syrup taste off. That was a costly education, it had made good colored medium amber syrup into something I ended up selling as bulk commercial grade syrup.