mainline

[Al]

Getting ready for next year. Need alot of knowledge. I have a ridge in my property with about 30/40 taps behind it. I want to put a dumping station at top and run the mainline down to my road. This way I won't have to carry buckets over the ridge. Gravity feed for taps won't work because there down in a bowl but I can get on the high side with a mainline and pour my buckets in a funnel or something like that. I'll have to find between 200-250 foot of mainline. What else will I need?
Thanks

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Al,

Here is what I used to do and it worked good. Hook you up a mainline to say a 50 or 100 gallon tank and run the line down to where you can back you vehicle up to or where the line will run into what you want it to. Put a valve on the tank and dump your liquid in it. You can leave the valve open while you dump or close it and open it when you are finished.

1/2" mainline is enough because it will run plenty fast and it is cheaper and so are the valves and fittings. It will definitely run much faster than you can dump. :D The reason to put a valve on the dump container is that you may want to save the sap up for 2 or 3 days or don't have room for it somewhere else, so you can just store it there until needed. Works great and a 1/2 line will run 50 gallon out in 10 to 15 minutes

[Al]

Now that's a good idea. I have a couple of plastic 50 gallons barrel's with fittings in the garage. Boy good thing this forum is here or I'd be doing alot of things the hard way. :D

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Al,

We are on the same page I guess because I used to use a 55 gallon plastic barrel. Usually one of the plugs/hole covers is threaded with a 1/2" pipe thread, so you are already getting started. Just drill out the center of the cap and screw in a 1/2 threaded faucet or something else. The nice thing about the 55 gallon barrel is that it is light. I just laid mine on its side and cut out about a 1' x 2' section on the upper side, so it still held 45 to 50 gallon.

Good luck! It will work great! :D :D