Method to tighten 5/16 lines

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
If there is any one else out there that has to take down lines each season this may help? We tap short runs along local roads and this is the method I developed to keep 5/16 lines tight, and be able to install or take them down with no tools.
At the lower end and the upper end I have installed a Loop consisting of 9 inches of 30P tubing with a CDL end ring on each end of this short piece of tubing. The loop is slipped on to the line in front of your first drop. Travel around the tree and install drops as normal. the last drop has a blind Tee to stop sap from continuing. Add a length of tubing to travel around the tree and finish with a end of line hook. This hook will attach to the small loop and then the line can be installed or removed and or tightened by moving the small loop up or down the main line. I put up approx 200 taps in about 2 hours. Some pictures.

https://i.imgur.com/LqoJSkQ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VYmINpO.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/F2NHzql.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/blGGeod.jpg

Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaker]

Additional pictures:

Lines are tight and can be adjusted for slope and or tightened up as the weather changes.
https://i.imgur.com/A5o6wCE.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/H5XIlMV.jpg

This is not for everyone but might help some folks with 5/16 end of line tightening.
The drops will hold the mainline at the desired slope when you tap.

Regards,
Chris

[blissville maples]

I think you would be better off using a flexible tubing and put a bunch of tension on it. Will never loosen up like the leader 30p. I personally cannot stand leader tubing!!

[Pdiamond]

Chris,
Thanks, that's going to help me. I am going to try some tubing this year and have been trying to figure out by watching some of the videos how it was tied off and have never been able to.

[VTnewguy]

I would try a semi rigid tubing. 30P is good but no give in the line. We always use a end of line hook that just snaps around the tubing for our lines that get taken down each year.

[iby]

This is a pretty ingenious solution... in the past, I always took a piece of hollow core braided rope, tied it to the tree, then ran the line up through the hollow core and out the side, then I pull it as tight as needed and that's it.. but for a public setting like you're in, this seems to make more sense.

[Sugarmaker]

Guys,
Probably hundreds of way to accomplish the same end result. Different stiffness' of tubing may or may not work the same if trying to use this type of tightening system? Some testing would need to be done. I know that the stiffer tubing does not kink at the tightening points where the adjustable loop sets.
Taking tubing up and down each season is not the most fun job in the world. But in the old days I would have had to handle 600 buckets, The tubing is way easier than that. And saves a lot of labor gathering too.
We just finished putting up the last 10 short runs, (200 taps).
I may get ambition and put out the gathering containers this afternoon. Tapping???? Not sure when. time to look at the weather a little harder. We have to tap sometime!
Regards,
Chris

[Sugar Bear]

Are you familiar with the Chinese Finger Trap using hollow core braid?? Which is what is mentioned in post #6.

I used it last year on 5/16 and it worked great.

[Sugarmaker]

Sugar bear,
I am familiar with it. Do you have some pictures of the product in service? Might help someone solve a end of line problem too. Thanks!
Regards,
Chris

[Sugarmaker]

Folks,
A few pictures of the sap lines coming from the trees to containers. I was able to get the 30 containers set today. I use a half of a pallet under as the base. Then bungiee bunder the container and through the pallet to hold the container to the pallet. This allows for the container lid to be opened quickly. I zip tie one side of the lid in two spots to hinge the lids so they dont have to be set aside. I also use another adjustable. LOOP to keep tension on the tubing from the tree to the container. It hooks to the bungiee and then holds the tubing.

https://i.imgur.com/dIfCbtN.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/YsmYBNC.jpg

We are just about ready to tap. As we tap, I bring the lines to the correct elevations at each tree.

Regards,
Chris

[Sugar Bear]

2066320664

Sugarmaker

One photo shows the yellow hollow core slipped onto 5/16 tubing, where about an 18" section of the hollow core is on the 5/16 tubing. The other photo shows the tubing being pulled tight with the hollow core in hand. I do this over a storage tank of either 30 or 50 gallons.

It works great because so long as the hollow core has a good grip on the tubing ( you have to work it through for about 18 inches ) you can pull the tubing as tight as you want. I do that by wrapping the hollow core around a tree and then pulling tight using the tree ( any tree ) as an anchor. You can wrap around the anchor tree a few times with the hollow core and then just do 4 or 5 wrap overs with the hollow core and it will stay tight.

Got to have the write sizes. Walmart sells two sizes of the yellow. One works great for 3/16 and the other works great for 5/16.

Not every Walmart carries the yellow hollow core.

Has to be hollow core.

[littleTapper]

With my hollow core, I use a trucker's hitch to help pull it tight. If you pass the rope through the loop (step #3) twice you can pull it tight and it won't back off easily; which allows me to then pull slack out of the tubing elsewhere, working back toward the rope.

https://www.101knots.com/truckers-hitch.html

[Arctic Fox]

2066320664

Walmart sells two sizes of the yellow. One works great for 3/16 and the other works great for 5/16.

.

The 1/4" hollow core works good for 3/16 tubing. Do you know the size that works well for 5/16?

[Sugar Bear]

The 1/4" hollow core works good for 3/16 tubing. Do you know the size that works well for 5/16?

3/8" hollow core is what you want for 5/16" tubing

[Sugarmaker]

Thanks guys,
This gives folks some good options to keep lines tight and down hill!
Regards,
Chris

[johnallin]

3/8" hollow core is what you want for 5/16" tubing

Push it together to shorten it up and open up the braid and 1/4" will work just fine.

[littleTapper]

Push it together to shorten it up and open up the braid and 1/4" will work just fine.

Some 1/4" rope will work on 5/16" tubing. Some won't. The rope I bought last year for my 3/16" runs definitely does not work on my 5/16" tubing. That rope is most definitely different than the 1/4" rope I used to setup my 5/16" runs a few years ago - that worked perfectly.