Processing - separate location than sugarhouse

[Mead Maple]

Hi guys,
Was able to get a solid start to my RO adventure yesterday by picking up (2) 300 gallon permeate tanks (Thank you Bruce @ Templeton Farm!). I plan to get the season going with between 400-500 taps, using my dump truck to bring all raw material to one location where I'll be processing in my heated garage and then moving a concentrate/bulk tank into place with my tractor to the side of my sugarhouse where I'll use banjo fittings to plug in.
I'd like to know how folks have set up their processing area that is not in the same building/sugarhouse as the rest of their equipment. What works, what didn't, how can I make this temporary & seasonal set up the most efficient for what I'm doing? My garage is plenty big enough to accommodate the RO and tanks while her vehicle still gets to live in there so we can cross divorce and grief off the list (fingers crossed). Having a 50hp tractor with forks is really what makes the logistics a non-issue and even then, the sugarhouse is on the other side of the driveway so even pumping to a head tank wouldn't have been the end of the world.

Thanks for the input guys, hopefully nobody was planning any glove-less work for the weekend!

[VTnewguy]

Could the RO push it to the tank across the driveway?

[MISugarDaddy]

We process our sap through our RO in our sap storage building which is a completely separate building than our sugarhouse and let the RO pump the concentrate approximately 50' to our elevated feed tank in our sugarhouse. This allows us to run the RO and the evaporator at the same time instead of having to wait until all the sap is processed. We have done this for 8 years and it has worked great for us.
Gary

[Bucket Head]

My RO is in the basement and the sugar house is 300 ft. away and downhill from the house. I have some bulk tanks on wagon gears I put behind the house which I unload to, sap gravity feeds into the basement and then the RO pumps the concentrate up and outside. I put up (temporarily) CDL Rapi-Tube mainline across the lawn/field, using a mixture of 2x4's and pieces of re-bar rod pounded in the ground for supports. I cage tanked the concentrate the first year with the RO but then thought about the tube idea. It has worked well for me so far.

Steve

[Mead Maple]

Could the RO push it to the tank across the driveway?

To be honest this will be my first year with it so I don't know but I would assume it could. Even if it can't, I am buying a small 1" pump for moving sap that I could easily use to push across the driveway area to the head tank. I had thought about setting up a temporary line just for sugaring season that I could pump across to be able to boil while concentrating. This may be the most proactive approach to fire up (oil so that makes it easier) and also continue to process.

[MISugarDaddy]

Although we use a wood-fired evaporator, we start the evaporator as soon as we have 50 to 75 gallons of concentrate in the feed tank. From that point on we are processing sap and boiling together until we run out of sap. That gives me enough time to clean the sap storage tank and RO while we finish off boiling what is left in the feed tank. I am lucky to have a wife that feels comfortable running the evaporator and pulling syrup at the same time.
Gary

[maple flats]

I also process while I boil. My sap storage tanks are on one side of a driveway, the RO and head tank on the other side. All season, I have a 1.5" line across the driveway. The sap is gravity/RO feed pump pulled to the RO in the sugarhouse, then the RO pushes the concentrate to the head tank, on an elevated platform attached to the north wall of the sugarhouse. That head tank is tight against the sugarhouse wall, the valve for the head tank is a few inches inside the sugarhouse. From there I have a site gauge for head tank concentrate level, then a T and hose going back to the RO for when I recirculate to remove more water, then from that T the evaporator feed line goes to the pre-heater in the hood, and then to the float box. I also have a bypass line, which skips the pre-heater.
Your RO can push the concentrate easily, as long as the concentrate hose is properly sized. Boiling at the same time as the RO is running is far better, concentrate degrades fast, plus doing both operation at the same time gets you done sooner, giving you more time to check for and fix leaks. If you do pump across the driveway, be sure to prevent traffic from driving over it.

[Mead Maple]

Thanks guys, all great info that I’ll use to get my plans rolling. Got the two permeate tanks up-righted after I picked them up. Definitely puts their 300 gallon capacity into perspective. I’ll probably try and set up a temporary sugar season line to push concentrate across the driveway and into my head tank. Thinking that will be easier than firing up the tractor each time just to move it into place and obviously reducing the risk of damaging something.
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