Double Taps per Bucket?

[ibby458]

I've finally nailed down my sugaring plans. 500 taps the Amish is going to collect for me (For 1/3 the syrup), 300 roadside at one place and 185 at another. That's pushing 1000, and that's plenty. One thing I'm trying this year is to use a single metal bucket on roadside trees, with a plastic spout and tube from the back of the bigger trees dumping in the same bucket. That halves the number of buckets we gotta dump, but doubles the taps/bucket. I'll probably loose some sap on gusher runs, but I can gather earlier and more often if we need to.

Has anyone else tried this, and are there any drawbacks I haven't foreseen?

Hoping to start tapping March 1st!

[mountainvan]

I tried that and the tubing kept coming out of the bucket and the sap ran on the ground.

[Brent]

I haven't tried it but I think we'd loose a lot on gusher days. Many of our buckets are running over as it is with one tap per bucket. We can only get a wild guess at how much we loose looking at the puddle under the tree.

I got a few 4 foot vac line drops that I'm going to run to 5 gallon pails this year to see if we catch more.

[ibby458]

Van - I was hoping I could wedge the tubing between the bucket and lid, and use a clothes pin to keep it there. Possible?

Brent - I LOVE my 5 gallon buckets with 4' drops, but they don't work good on roadsides. The wind and traffic swoosh tips them over. (I learned this from another sugarmaker's experience!) I've thought about hanging one of a hook, but that would be another wound in the tree :(

I';ve kept pretty good records, and my average gather is 1/2 gallon/tap. About twice/year I'll get a bit over 1 gallon per tap. My BEST single day was 1-1/2 gallon/tap. That is of course, averages. I've had several individual trees that fill a bucket most days. If I find that to be the case on these trees (All new ones for me), I know where I can borrow enough buckets to go to a 1 bucket/spout setup.

[TapME]

I have a friend that puts 2 taps per bucket a little different. He puts the 2 tap about an 1 1/2'' from the first on and a little down and feeds the same bucket. I've seen him do it and it works fine. If you are wondering about the trees they are all large and healthy and 100+ years old. His father has done it and his grandfather. They say that the dead area on the tree is going to be there and why not just have it in the same spot instead of having two dead spots. He said it makes finding a new spot in years to come easier. Buy putting the 2nd a little down you can fit the cover on the upper one. Just a taught.

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

I Use 5 Gal. Plastic Pails And 2 Taps On Roadside Trees Works Great Drill Holes About 1 Inch Down Slip Tubing In ,sometimes U Need A Rock Or Block Of Wood On Lid To Hold It Down. Pails Never Ran Over In 1 Day But Were Full

Rich

[lpakiz]

I also tap large trees with several taps, but what I do is this--
Tap the first tap as low as possible and hang the 3 1/2 gallon plastic pail.
Then drill the extra hole(s) and run tubing(s) to the pail lid. I drill snug holes in the lid near the edge that is the highest when the pail hangs. That way rain will follow the tube only as far as the snug hole, then run across the lid and drip onto the ground. I use only 2 of the locking tabs on the lid. To empty, I unsnap the lid and leave it hang on the tube and go and dump the pail. Return the pail onto the metal tap and re-install the lid. Works for me. If I anticipate a big run, I try to empty some before work, then again when I get home.

[sap line chewer]

If your road side trees are some what close togather we used 15 gal containers. We got the container from local farms that they get their iodine in. They clean up good and the farmers are glad to get rid of them.

[firetech]

Last year we ran plastic pails/lids and tubing but only one tap per bucket. It took over an hour to collects 66 buckets and many were not near full enough to make all the work worth it but this year it's two tapps/5gal pail and a single tap for a three gal pail.I'm also trying some tubing on the close tree groups to cut down on buckets. My buckets are all free and the taps and tubing are minimal costs, this is allowing me to put more cash to the other neccesary equipment. Good luck. It will be interesting to see who would change what after this season.

[pennslytucky]

i tapped my in-laws huge yard trees for them this year. thay are using a turkey fryer. i put in the bucket spile, then using my tubing taps, i ran 2 from either side around to the bucket. i connected the 2 tubing ends with a T fitting so it was pointing down in the bucket. i kept the tubing fairly tight so it wont move in the wind, but its easy to pull the bucket to dump it.

i put 9 taps in the one huge one that will be coming down this year. holy crap is that a handful in one buckeT!! the tubing actually RUNS out... no "tink-tink-tink" in that bucket :)

[argohauler]

I use a lot of 15L and 18L plastic pails. I put 16 - 18" drop lines into them. I drill the pail hole and hang the spile/lid and pail, then take a drop and put it up and over enough that the drop line won't come out. They work great and most of the time I can just tip them into my gathering pail for faster gathering.

[ibby458]

Mountainvan's just right. Half the tubes fell out and ran on the ground. Clothespins were worthless. What DID work was using twist ties to wire the tubes to the holes on top of the Warner spouts. A couple buckets overflowed, but most were almost full - Just right!

[mountainvan]

I came up with another solution, worked great. I used the old blue vented lamb spiles with a 5/16 adaptor and a regular hook, over the adaptor, to hang the bucket from. Yes it does hold the weight of a full bucket. Tap the tree ,Set the spile at a 45 degree angle and then attach another dropline to the top of the vented spile. I used it for smaller trees close together. It's beauty!

[Jim OK]

I use two spiles on 3' drops of tubing that meet at a Tee fitting. I drill a 5/16" hole in the lid of a 5gal bucket and push the barbs of the middle part of the tee fitting into the hole in the lid. I push the lid down on the bucket just on the opposite side from the hole so that the slid slopes away from the hole so no rain goes in the hole. If there is a lot of wind or the ground is steep you might need a rock on the lid, but that never happened this year.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

You can also add a small piece of tubing to the end of the "T" to push down into the bucket and if you drill the hole the right side, you will have a nice watertight fitting and won't have to worry about the barb on the bottom of the "T" getting broken if the bucket gets blown over.