Best place to buy tubing?

[eye8astonie]

Hey all. I'm thinking of trying to use tubing for the first time this year... I found a nice spot on a hill where it can flow down to a tank, but my only concern is how spread out the the trees are.... if you walk a 100 yard straight line up the middle of the hill, you'll pass only about 25 trees (which is really all I'm looking to tap, since I'll have to drive to this spot to boil). But the trees are a good 30 yards apart, spread out to both sides.

Is it worth what I'll pay in tubing to set this up? When I say "worth it", I don't mean profitable... I'm doing this just because I enjoy it, obviously... but I'm wondering how much it will cost to set up. Looking for some advice from those of you who have some experience in this please.

Also, where is the best place to buy tubing? Seems like the prices can vary quite a bit depending on where you look?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give!
Duane

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Duane,

I have a couple of sections of trees that I have about 45 taps on each line and I have aprox 1500' of 5/16" lateral lines connecting each of these sections them all together and I have good slope. It is not steep, but sufficient slope and it works good. So it would cost a little bit to put tubing on them, but are you willing to walk up that hill 20 to 30 times in a seson to empty all of the trees by hand and then carry all the sap down the hill.

Another thing you could do if you don't want to use tubing it to put a dump station on at a central location on the hill and have a small pipeline which could even lay on the ground and dump the buckets into the dump station and it would flow out of it into a larger tank at the bottom at the bottom of the hill as you empty the buckets. a small barrel with the side or top cut out of it or a rubbermaid container plumbed up would make a good small dump station.

[eye8astonie]

Thanks Brandon, and no, buckets are simply not an option... both because of the hill and because it's a good 20 minute drive from my house. Not something I'd want to go do several times a week, especially in the dark after work.

Thanks for the input, and I like the idea of the dumping station.... not for this particular spot, but a good idea to keep in mind for future spots to come...

Duane

[halfast tapper]

I would run a 3/4 inch black plastic mainline up the hill and tie in with your tubing. Reason for mainline is it is cheaper to run than tubing, and if you ever want to add more taps the mainline is already there, plus it will run better with a mainline than putting 40 or so taps on tubing. Rule of thum 5 to 10 taps on tubing lateral.

[maple flats]

Rule of thumb aside I think you could tap what you describe (only if the slope is good, over 5% or 5' rise/100' absolute minimum) Just set it up as 1 line. Many maplers have run well over 25 taps/line on gravity. Doing this you could just buy 1 roll of tubing, 25 T's and 25 taps. Make your drops 30" or a little less and if you do not have to zig zag too much the 1 roll will do the job. However, if you plan to add many more in the not too distant future you should go the 3/4" mainline suggestion.

[eye8astonie]

Thanks guys. Yeah, the hill is definitely steep enough.... no worries there. Any advice on the best place to order tubing from? I assume you're talking about a 500' roll?

Thanks,
Duane

[Russell Lampron]

Check The Maple Guys prices www.mapleguys.com . They are the ones who provide this web site. Even if they are a little higher in price than someone else. You wouldn't be reading this if you didn't give them a chance.

[eye8astonie]

Good point, and thanks. The prices don't seem too bad... $60 for a 500' roll of 5/16" tubing.

The pre-made drops seem like the way to go.... they're $1.60 each and include the spout and tee (I assume that tee will fit the 5/16 tubing?) You can't buy the spout and tee separately for that price, let alone the extra 30" of tubing you get with them.

Here's a dumb question though... if I zigzag the tubing to each tree, do I attach the tubing to the tree? Or do I just attach the drop to the tubing?

Thanks for the help all. I feel like a real rookie here, but when I look at how much I knew about sugarin' 2 years ago, I've come a long way already.... mostly thanks to you guys!

Duane

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

A little zigzag is ok, but the straighter the tubing, the better it will run. You connect tubing to the farthest tree with a "Y" or and end of line ring or something similar and then you put the drops in at each tree and if it gets more then one tap at a paticular tree, put in 2 or 3 drops for that tree.

[tessiersfarm]

I ran tubing this past year for the first time. First of all I wish I had done it sooner. It is great. I chose to run all 5/16 tubing for about 75 taps and I took it all down after the season. The reason being my trees are on a working wood lot that I do not own and I don't pay any rent so I make it as easy as possible for the owner. I had about 250 dollars in the tubing this year but I too can only collect 1 or 2 times per week. I ran 15 taps into each 55 gallon drum, which seamed a pretty good capacity to me. 1 week I had 2 drums that were about full but I never overflowed. I bought all of my supplies locally. I just talked with the land owner last week and he has cleared paths to another 25 taps for me this year.

Good luck