mainline thru a culvert

[Mark-NH]

I have a situation where I have to take a mainline across a 1 lane road. It would not be easy to suspend the line above the road. I'm wondering if I should run the line through the culvert. I can keep it at the top of the culvert and above the water.

The concern is in freezing of the line. Will it take too long to thaw or possibly not thaw at all? Or will I be ok if I use black mainline as the colvert is only about 15' long and the line will be off the ground and out of the water?

Anyone have experince with this situation? Thanks in advance.

Mark

[chipa]

friend up the road has two mainlines through culverts; so far so good.
He has one with a single 3/4 line . This one will sometimes freeze up but thaws pretty quick. The other one is a dry/wet line setup (2 pipes ) so if the wet line freezes up,it will run in the dry line (there are boosters one either side of the culvert)

[Valley View Sugarhouse]

I also have had lines under roads and the biggest problem I had was keeping the snow away on both sides if the line is not burried then it will thaw pretty quick..

Andy

[H. Walker]

If the water in the culvert never freezes the line might be better down in the water.

[mountainvan]

I had a problem last year with a line under the road being frozen. This year I put drains at the down slope side of the culverts, I go under for sections of two bushes, when the saps flowing the valves are closed, it gets to freezing I open them up. No problem so far this year.

[Mark-NH]

Montainvan.

Now putting a drain on the line at the low point through the culvert is a hell of an idea. Perfect example of how sharing information can help. You propose a simple, inexpensive solution that I had not considered.

[royalmaple]

Go super hi-tec and put in a 12v solenoid valve with a temperature switch. Leave a deep cell battery right there. normally open valve should work, set point at freezing or slightly above. Or just use a 3.00 ball valve and a T.

[jemsklein]

now you are going high tech

[SBClorite]

One of our main lines goes through a patch of hemlocks. It is always the last to thaw.
We manually run our vacuum to suck the ice down the line and see if we can draw some warmer sap through the ice. If the the sap is flowing, it should thaw through pretty quick, unless it is frozen rock solid.

[PATheron]

CBClorite- Do you have pics of your sugarhouse? It looks beautiful. Theron

[mountainvan]

Thanks, I do have my moments.