Quick Disconnect on Mainlines

[TapTapTap]

Does anyone have experience with quick disconnects on mainline? I'm setting up a new woods on land I'm leasing. A provision of the lease is that I remove any lines crossing a horse trail. There is no layout that doesn't require at least 3 mainline crossings. At this time I'm moving forward with a layout using traditional layout guidelines that will require 7 crossings.

I've seen 3 options - Banjo plastic cam lock, stainless cam lock, and stainless ferrule clamped fittings. The CDL sales person recommended the clamped ferrule fittings which is my plan. It's not a cheap option but seems to make sense since the clamp should form a good seal (o-ring) and provide good strength. I assume I can release and reset the disconnect by destressing the mainline. I've got some good anchor trees nearby the crossings to allow for the adjustments without dropping the entire line.

What are others using and how do you configure it?

Ken

[wiam]

I use pvc unions. The ones with an oring seal.

[sugarman3]

I use all banjo and been using them for 10+ yrs with no problem

[hogisland42]

I also use banjo fittings and have not had a problem

[DrTimPerkins]

We use Banjo fittings in a few places. You don't want to put them under too much tension or they will leak vacuum. We use bungees to tie them back and keep them relatively level.

[maple flats]

I never had to allow that much height. I did have a lease where I needed to get 7.5' clearance, which might be close to what you would need, to get that (I only needed to get it in the off season) I let off 2 side ties on each side of the trail, then I had a post to lift the over trail part. Those posts were on 1x6 boards 10' long. The mains were suspended from the posts using plastic ladder link flat chain (used in stabilizing newly planted trees). I just lifted the main each side of the trail by using those posts. One such location was adjacent to a 60-70 degree turn on the wet/dry lines. For that I never tried lifting the wet/dry at the turn, I let off tension on the line enough so I could get the needed height just using posts on one side and I moved the trail about 5' farther away from the turn anchor tree.

[PCFarms]

We use SS sanitary couplings - you can put as much strain on them without them leaking under vacuum. The Banjo's leak if you are looking for a lot of tension.

In a few places we have installed permanent path crossings - we do a wet/dry system around the path, the wet line will freeze overnight, but we still get vacuum and flow overtop on the dry line, with a minor drop in vacuum upline as the vacuum needs to suck the sap up and over. Once the wet line thaws, there is no drop in performance in any way. We just need to pull it out of the snow before the first flows.

[collinsmapleman2012]

use the SS ones, they will last forever. MES has them at less than half the price of CDL. i've had the banjo ones leak and plug before, a real pain.

[ennismaple]

I have one that's the SS ferrule clamped and several that are plastic Banjos and both work fine. The Banjo's you can put up yourself but the clamped ferrule fittings normally take 2 people to get them together.

[PCFarms]

We typically put them together with the mainlines loose, and then put a side tie with some 14 gauge to pull it really tight once they are coupled together.

[TapTapTap]

Thank you everyone for your responses. There's some pretty clever ideas out there.

The new sugar bush is 7 acres and almost entirely large and tall 150+ year old hard maples. The following google earth screen shot shows how intense the stand is. The image was taken May 13, 2015 which is when the sugar maple leaves really pop out. I call them broccoli at that time of year as you can see from the color and shape/texture in the satellite photo.

Ken

21777

[therealtreehugger]

Nice broccoli! Just curious, how big are the canopies of these? Edge to edge? Are there many non-maples in between? I have a bunch of smaller tall thin maples, and I’m trying to figure out how to thin, if to thin. Thanks!

[TapTapTap]

Nice broccoli! Just curious, how big are the canopies of these? Edge to edge? Are there many non-maples in between? I have a bunch of smaller tall thin maples, and I’m trying to figure out how to thin, if to thin. Thanks!

I would say that most trees have a drip edge of at least 20 ft and up to 30 ft measured from the center to the outermost branches (40 to 60 edge to edge). So the spacing varies but is probably about the same on average with numerous clusters of 2s and 3s.

Attached is a photo of my taller sugar maple stands on my own property (although the skinnier/dark barked one is an oak). The new leased property consists of similar trees.

21785

[maple flats]

lots of tension on either a banjo or SS cam lock is a recipe for a frozen line. A micro leak with vacuum creates the venturi effect which radically lowers the temperature at that point, thus freezing any sap. Thus, if you use cam locks devise a way to hold tension on the locking halves from leaking, as said above the PVC unions with O-ring ( and with fine thread screw nuts) might be your better choice.

[therealtreehugger]

Those are some big trees! I should go out with a measuring tape to see what I’ve got.
Thanks Ken and Sherry!

[TapTapTap]

Those are some big trees! Yup, they are huge. I have about 400 taps on these with another 50 trees or so untapped. The leased property is about 600 to 700. Here's a couple more pictures.

21805

2180621806

[Father & Son]

Look around for whatever type of fitting you use. They also make a camlock in white food grade plastic. You will find that whatever type of fitting you buy the prices at the maple dealers are always the highest.
Try these two sites.


https://www.banjovalves.com/banjo-stainless-cam-lever-couplings.aspx

https://www.jmesales.com/pt-coupling-1-in-food-grade-polypropylene-quick-couplings/?sku=PT2771110&utm_source=google&utm_medium=surfaces&utm_campaign=shopping_feed&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0rSABhDlARIsAJtjfCeILm3IG7Br2KAYrAmL 9RL-BOpR5718i7MIYGHfJTozRTYMcxBodawaAsUfEALw_wcB