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Maplewalnut
01-19-2010, 03:02 PM
Anyone have any ideas or pics of a 'pumping station' for a pick up tank. I currently have a poly tank in bed of the truck that we collect roadside buckets with and am looking for some way to dump lower and pump it up into the tank, using the trailer harness on the back of truck?
I can reach the top of the tank to dump buckets but they sure are getting heavy when you are dumping 5 gallons at a time leaning against the side of the truck with the bucket dumping over your head. Yikes

Bucket Head
01-19-2010, 04:14 PM
What do you mean your tired of doing that? Come on, sugarmakers need to be tough! LOL!

Yeah, I got tired of it too. So have many others on this site. I did'nt have to go overhead, but I climbed up into the truck to dump buckets a million times. It got old as I got older.

I have a cut-off plastic barrel mounted on a frame that goes into the receiver hitch on my truck. I fold it down for dumping and fold it up for over the road. It has a 12v circulation pump sending the sap up to the tank. Although I think I'm going to change it out and go with a Rule brand boat bilge pump. It pumps faster. Many guys on here do it this way. Some use the trailer wiring but I have a separate, fused wire harness with Weatherpack brand (watertight)connections. I did it this way so if there was a meltdown of some sort I would'nt harm the trucks light wiring.

Many guys have a plastic tote container with a bilge pump in it. There are many ways of doing it. You just have to figure out which way is easier for you or more cost efficient. Take a look at my photobucket pics, you'll see my bumper dumper.

Steve

Rhino
01-19-2010, 05:49 PM
What we use is a 50 gal. barrel on its side, mounted on the trailer. we cut a hole big enough so a 5 gal. bucket can be pushed down all the way down to about 2" from the top of the 5 gal. bucket. Make sure you get a tight fit. I have to push down with all my weight to get the bucket down to where i want it. In the bucket there is a 2" hole to put a 1 1/4 hose down into the barrel. (we use a gas pump) the outlet hose is fastened into the 350 gal. poly tank so it dosn't fly out with the pressure. Whats nice is you only have to start the pump when you have close to 50 gal. in the barrel. The 5 gal. bucket works as a good baffle inside the barrel since it is close to the bottom of the sideways barrel. We have to lift the sap a little over waist high but to do this your sideways barrel has to be mounted pretty low to begin with.

Brent
01-19-2010, 07:11 PM
Hang anything on the back that you can dump into and get a Rule 2000 bilge pump. It will empty a 5 gallon pail almost as fast as you can pour and pick up another. If you can get a smooth hose, the cripled hose they sell at marine stores makes terrible drag on the flow. You could put a float switch in, we didn't bother, just ran the pump wires to the cigarette lighter.

Sugarmaker
01-19-2010, 08:28 PM
We also use the 55 gallon plastic barrel cut in two and attached at the truck receiver Also using a RULE 3700 to pump up into the truck tank. There are some pictures on the web site in the pictures section. Any questions P.M. me.
Regards,
Chris

3rdgen.maple
01-19-2010, 11:09 PM
Don't gather sap with a truck but a setup I have on my landscape trailer for wiring might help. I run a winch on the front of the trailer which is plugged right into the wiring harness for towing. You can get a harness plug at any auto parts store from there I ran it to an inline weathertight fuse and then to a switch then to the winch. Skip the winch and put in a pump and you would have an inline switch to turn the pump on and off. Oh I picked the 12v off the parking light wire on the harness so I would turn on the parking lights to enable power to the winch. If any worries about your truck curcuit by a marine battery and use that. It will power that pump for quite awhile before it will need a charge.

Dave Y
01-20-2010, 05:01 AM
I have two trucks with dumping stations on them.They both have Rule 2000 pumps in them. the one on my dump truck is hung by chains off the tail gate, and the one on the pick up is mounted on the hitch receiver. They are both wired to the battery so the vehicle does not need to be running. I took an extension cord and cut the male end off leaving making a 30" piece. them pull the long female end along the frame and leave it exposed by the hitch. The male end get wired to the pump. and there you have a nice neat connection. Each station has a switch wired to the pump. Works great!

mapleman3
01-20-2010, 06:39 AM
look near the bottom of my pictures page on the link below... my dakota setup is still like it shows, my GMC pickup on the right has a rack on it to hold hose for a pump, I will try to get that on the website today

http://desjardinsmaple.com/Desjardins%20Sugar%20House.htm