Releaser set up

[Maplewalnut]

How do most people support the releaser set up in the woods. I am assuming the piping is not enough to support it. Do you construct a stand of sorts to hold it in place?

I am figuring I am going to have to have my releaser 'dump' into a funnel and tubing set up since I don't have a zero tank. I have a stainless tank that has a lid but also has a small hole (maybe 2 inches) drilled up high in the back that I can snake the tubing attached to the funnel through to drain into the tank.

Is some sort of shelter necessary?

thanks Mike

[mountainvan]

I have mine set on top of metal roofing, cut in half with a foot between the two halfs, setting on a 300 gallon stock tank. The roofing is screwed into some 1x 2's for rigididy. As for covering, yes indeed you must. I just put a clear plastic bag, the kind the syrup bottles come in, over the releaser. I chinch up the bottom of the bag and tie off with a wire tie. Rain water in the top mechanism is bad news.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Maple Walnut,
A large volume of sap drops out of the releaser really fast. If you use a funnel system the funnel must be large enough to hold most of the volume that is dumped and drain out before it dumps again. This may be as soon as 30 seconds with lots of taps on a good run.

[Jim Brown]

MapleWalnut: we use an 18 gallon tote to set our releasers in . Cut a hole in the bottom or the end and install a 3/4 bulk head fitting (tractor supply-$4.00). It depends weather you are dropping into a tank or run a 3/4 hard line down hill to a tank. We do both. you need to set the releaser up on some thing in the tote.We had a chance to get some stainless wireway from a computer construction job and in works perfect. But you could use any thing even a cement block would work. just make sure that the area below the releaser will hold the entire amount of one dump so the valve on the bottom of the releaser has a chance to close before the tote completely drains into the tank.

This has worked for three(3) for us with no problems

Jim

[Mike]

I have mine on 2 bed frame rails bolted to the top on my 600 gal tank...I have it and the vac pump under a leen to....I also cable lock every thing together with 3-4 cables and locks.....Extra security with the thieves that are around....My vac pump is bolted on a small trailer so at the end of the season we haul it back to the house.......

[Haynes Forest Products]

I put a sheet of plywood over the tank and cut a 12X20 hole in the center and strapped it down. I wish Bernard would make a deflector that would screw over the flappers to direct the sap downward.

[ennismaple]

Our sits on 2 - 2x6's at the end of our open top tank. It's held down onto the lumber with wire.

[dano2840]

whats a zero tank???

[OGDENS SUGAR BUSH]

DANO
a zero tank is a stainless steel bulk milk tank. most of the zero tanks were built to hold vacuum

RICH

[Haynes Forest Products]

I can tell you from experiance that not all Zero tanks are Vacuum tanks. If you look at the end of the tank at the very top you will see in very light lettering about 4" long and 1/2" tall the words NON VACUUM look close they are hard to see. I sucked one of those in like a pop can that you bent in half and that was with a small Gast Vacuum pump.......OOPS

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I have a "food grade" stock tank that a releaser empties into. I found that a standard pallet fit well across the top. The grooves for the fork lift held the pallet in place on top of the tank. I cut the slats out of the middle of one end of the pallet and fastened the releaser to the other end using bungee cords allowing the flapper to hang over the portion that was cut out. Worked good for me.

[maplecrest]

i bought 2 milk house sinks at a sale. and this year i am going to have my releasers dump into the sinks that will empty into the bulk tanks. hoping for less lost sap.

[Maplewalnut]

Thanks all for the ideas!