Introducing...The Sapmobile!

[ebliese]

My regular collection equipment, an old, much used, and sometimes abused, skid steer isn't working reliably enough to transport the sap collection pallet or lift it into the sugar house. When times are hard, we steal, er, commandeer, the wife's car! Actually, she's fine with it as we're in this endeavor together. I have dubbed it "the sapmobile!" :lol:

There's the capacity to hold eight barrels but we opted for six barrels and then four collection buckets. I thought it better to put the lidded barrels towards the front in case of mud flying up from the rear car tires. We will also turn the car off when we open the barrels (I don't know if the car exhaust would be a problem but better safe than sorry). We will fill the barrels from back to front to keep the weight closer to the trailer axle. My RO can only have 5' of lift with the intake hose so I think I may wind up hanging the RO (small, portable unit) towards the top of the ramp on the back of the trailer. I've got enough concentrate line to run to my headtank. The ground is about 2-2 1/2' below the sugar shack floor so I can't bring the sap right into the shack but I'll make it work.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/069RpFjOj3FvD6Dm_0wImpFkQ

[Pdiamond]

Daniel, If you get a chance I would like to see a couple of picture of your sugar house and evaporator.

[maple flats]

Where there's a will there's a way!

[ebliese]

As with everything new, you find out what works and what doesn't. Our car doesn't like mud. That should make the season interesting.

Pdiamond, I'll create a new thread in the sugarhouse section with some pics.