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Sap Raider
03-26-2021, 08:35 PM
I guess I could have posted this in a couple of spots, but I hope I can explain what I need some help with. I have about 190 taps in a woods that has no power available, it is 20 feet below the road for pick up and about 350 away from the road.
This was set up from the start to be run on vacuum and with a sap ladder and releaser to a tank in the woods. The sap at that point was pumped up the hill to the truck with a gas pump.
I tried a guzzler pump into a 35 gallon tank and a shurflo to try to pump it up the hill. The shurflo barely got the sap to the top with a half inch black plastic water line to a tank at the road. Problem is battery life even though I had to solar panels to change the batteries, That didn't work as the batteries would discharge before the end of the day without a lot of sap.
I am looking for ideas on how to make it work without baby sitting batteries, the gas for the vacuum pump and pumping up the hill worked the best, but just looking for an easier way to get the sap from the woods to the road. I am considering going back to the sap ladder and a 12 volt submersible pump on a contact switch to pump up the hill. I would use a gas vacuum pump with electric start to keep the battery charged. Again just looking for a better easier way to do it, the woods really makes alot of sap so I thing it's orth the investment.

maplemas
03-26-2021, 10:22 PM
I have a shurflo hooked up on a tank this year that has 600 taps going to it . My line has about a 18 foot lift straight up at the tank and about a 1% slope to my main tank . I put a float switch on it to save on battery life, and I have yet to need to charge the battery. All I have is a 100 watt solar panel and a cheap marine battery.

Sap Raider
03-27-2021, 06:05 PM
What model shurflo? I think the issue I had was that I also had a guzzler on it also. I don't know what the amount of amps that the solar panel put out. I think you may be on to something with what you did. I can make the switch to 3/16 and put it on gravity to the bottom of the dish.

maplemas
03-27-2021, 08:02 PM
My shurflo is a 2088 .

NhShaun
01-07-2022, 07:35 AM
My line has about a 18 foot lift straight up at the tank and about a 1% slope to my main tank . I put a float switch on it to save on battery life, and I have yet to need to charge the battery.Interested in hearing a little more about that set up. Was it a half inch line running 18ft straight up from the tank to the larger tank? What are you using for a float switch?

Biz
01-07-2022, 08:33 AM
A Shurflo pump will work but probably will pump uphill at about half the rated flow. I use a 5gpm Delavan diaphragm pump for sap transfer, 550' of 1/2" pipe, 55' rise and it pumps at about 2gpm. I use one of my sap transfer setups with hi/low tank level sensors to pump it automatically to the holding so it pumps automatically.

The pumps draw near max power during the high volume uphill pumping, so if the battery is old, too small, or not fully charged then it can cause problems. A deep cycle marine battery is best but a good full size car or truck battery should work OK. The 5gpm in my setup pumps draw up to 12 amps under full load, yours is probably 6-8A max. Make sure the wiring is beefy enough, has good connections, and is not too long.

Dave

maple flats
01-07-2022, 08:54 AM
I've successfully used a Honda WX15 pump, gas powered to pump sap 900 feet, mostly across about 600' of flat ground, then it dropped about 10' in the last 300'. With just 190 taps a Honda WX10 would do well, similar pump, just 1" vs 1.5", and lighter to carry, either sips gas.

maplemas
01-08-2022, 01:37 PM
I used a 1” line to make the run and used cam-locks for the connection.. the float was a Nxtop 4M Cable Float Switch Water Level Controller , that I found on Amazon for around 15$ . I did have a couple days when sap ran around the clock that the battery died overnight. Thinking I might tie in a second battery this year .

Sap Raider
01-08-2022, 08:20 PM
I was using a 4048 surflo to try yo pump um the hill. I was also using a Mountain Maple controller with a timer to start the pump. I really don't know why it didn't pump up the hill as I had done it before.