Sap ladders

[Bradenfish]

I plan on using 6-7 sap ladders in my system and I am wondering if that will cut down on the efficiency of the vacuum? pump is 20 cfm, 25 hg's.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

It may cut down slightly but if you have 20 cfm and 1000 taps you should be fine even with 6 or 7 ladders

[maple maniac65]

I think you lose a couple of inches of vacuum for every 12 feet of ladder. But if each ladder was on a diffrent mainline you would not be losing much. Alot depends on how tight everything else is. I have a 16 foot ladder running 23 inches of vac and I have 19-20 at the last tap becuase I have leaks that just wont quit.

[Jim Schumacher]

Could someone please post a picture of a ladder? I don't mean to sound like a total rookie, but I have no exposure to certain things in the maple world. Thanks
Jim

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Jim,
Go to Brian Ryther's pictures. He has some good pics. His ladders are pretty tall.

[tuckermtn]

also check out Royal maples you tube site...

[Brian Ryther]

I based my ladders on Royal Maples videos. My biggest ladder has 200+ taps on it. It has two 12' lifts. Each lift has two six way stars and a 3/4 tube. They work very well. If I have 25" at the releaser I will have 15" at the end of the lines. It is a pertty big drop, but 15" is a lot better then nothing. Even with the ladders I still averaged 20gal of sap per tap at this location.

[Russell Lampron]

Bradenfish,

You can see some pictures of my 2 pipe sap ladder in my photobucket album. Just click on the link that says "SP 22 and lines". It works very good. I have over 200 taps on it and with 23" of vacuum at the pump I have 21" at the furthest end of the mainline which is about 1300 feet away from the ladder and another 1500 feet away from the pump. I averaged 19.2 gallons of sap per tap with mostly red maples. I could have done better if I had new taps in my older section of woods. They stopped running about a week and a half before the new ones going to the sap ladder did.