Cooler vac pump

[wdchuck]

Just fer yux, I put a fan near the pump (a Surge Alamo) last night to see if it would help keep it cool. So far so good- it seems to keep it noticeably cooler according to the oil temp indicator. A former dealer told us not to run these things above 15-16 lbs or they just wont last. There's plenty of season left, so I figure it cant hurt.................

[Parker]

I have a surg-alamo 75 that I run at 15lbs,,what kind of HG do you run? The fellow who rubilt my pump said not to recirculate the oil so we set up a feed directly from a new 5 gallon bucket of AW46 and the line from the reclaimer goes into a waste bucket {and that is some pretty nasy stuff} I have run the vac many hours and used about 2 gallons of oil..Parker

[wdchuck]

Ours is a 75 also I think, but the reclaimer sits right on top of the pump and I cant not re-use the oil. Things seem to work fine though. (We run it at a little over 16 1/2 lbs.) My dad's former dealer friend also told him you can use automatic tranny fluid in these things- its just thin, high detergent oil- works fine and saves a few bucks too! Last week at the end of that big freeze-up I ran that old pump from 8pm Wed to 8 pm Sat and it never even broke a sweat- looks like with a decent freeze last night combined with lower daytime highs, rain, and a little luck, we may get to do it again! How is your season going? Has the warm weather caught up with you yet? If you're looking for a road trip, I'm guessing we've got quite a bit left.

[mapleman3]

I was just wondering how much oil per day do you go through? seems like I go through a bit more than I thought it would

[Parker]

Hi Jim and woodchuck-
Jim- I use very very little oil a day like mabey a half a pint (just a guess) and that is witout doing the recirculation thing, just dumping the used oil.............Woodchuck, Id love to check out your opperation, Where are you located?? Parker

[mapleman3]

Just wondering, I use a half pint to a pint also, thought that was alot....I want to get an muffler for it , I have the output going into a 5 gal bucket with cover, but still get"oil smoke"vapor around the exhaust.

[michaelh05478]

I could use some info on vaccum set ups? Whats a rough cost to set one up?? Id like to put 400 taps behind camp to the sugar house....It would be gravity but on the days vaccum can be used i want to be able to use it....Whers a good place to get info on a vaccum set up?? What would i need to set up a line...I will have to go gas powered pump.....Thanks....Mike

[Parker]

Here is what I did - In N.H. we have the Weekly Market bulletin Like your AgReview Just kept my eyes open till I found a vac. pump for sale,,I went with a Surge Alamo75 which draws 32 (I think) cubic feet a minute,,You need to draw 10 cubic feet per 1000 taps, so with 450 taps I was all set there, The pump will only pull15-18 inches of mercury {HG} wich was fine for me {some people run 22-30 hg}. The surge is a rotery vane pump (old milker pump) they dont pull real hard but they seem to be cheap, easy to find, and there is almost nothing to them when they break.....my next step was to hook up a gas moter,,my pump wants to be turned at 800RPM and my honda 5.5 likes to turn at 1800RPM so a big pully 7 1/2" on pump small pully (1.5") inches on moter {never did the math on that but seems to work} .made sure they both turned in the right direction then hooked the moter to the pump stand.. my pump came on a stand that had a moisture trap on it so if you get on with no moisture trap you should get one,, the trap keeps some of the moisture that gets sucked out of the line from going into the pump and its oil,,milky oil=bad..from the moisture trap I have a 2 1/2" line with a check valve, a check valve is a nesisity in my opionion caus when the moter driving the pump dies the vacume in all the lines can suck the oil out of the pump and into your mainlines=very bad..from the check valve with 2 1/2"line to a releaser,,If you dont have electricty then you will need a manual releaser which are $ but they seem to work great,I have a Glles Bernard single and love it,,you do need to keep the moving parts well lubracated on the releaser and make sure the releaser is anchoredand plumb,,I had mine wired above the tank and not plumb and the vacume would stick open after it released cause the float inside would hang up..From the releaser I went with a low budget conductor line type set up meaning I ran a seconde main line parralel to the existing mainline and teed into it about every 100'.I think this helps transfer vacume up and gasses+ sap down,,on really heavy runs you can see a BIG diffrance with the conductor line..This is just how I did it Good Luck Parker Make sure you use double pulleys

[michaelh05478]

Parker, Thanks for the info!! Ill have to look into it....What's the smallest size mainline you can use?? Do you have to have a dry line also and if so what size?? Thanks..Mike

[wdchuck]

Same here on the oil usage- maybe a half pint a day, maybe a little more- I've tweeked the oilers a bit to flow a bit more. Yeah, there's a little "oil fog" coming out the exhaust, but all those old milker pumps did that...............Parker- I'm in Cabot, Vt- 22 miles north of Montpelier or 20 minutes from ST Johnsbury and I-91. Use my e-mail in the member's list to contact me. We probably wont boil today for sure- sap flow has dropped off considerably. The last sub freezing temps were Wed AM. I'm hoping that if I leave the pump on enough will accumulate to boil maybe on Saturday. We've also bought a small amount of sap, so that might pull through as well.

[Parker]

The smallest size mainline I use is now 3/4", last year I used some 1/2 inch but after going to Glen Goodrich's seminar I was convinced to change over to 3/4 or bigger, especillay on the vacume line. as for a dry line, not really, I was going to set my line up like that but ran out of time, I had more orchards to set up and did not want to take the time to set up all the entrances to the lateral mainlins, thus the second, parralel mainline which comes off the releaser and is teed into the primarery mainline,,alot faster to do..I have a hard time believeing a dry line would run much better. With either system you still have 2 3/4" lines for gases,sap, and vacume..BUT i could be wrong,,It works well for me...The bigger the better on the mainline...I can see a big diffrance over last year on the orchards I gave a "Goodrich tuneup" to...Parker