maple flats
03-26-2010, 08:43 PM
I have decided I must add vacuum on my biggest woods next year. I currently have 400 taps there but with vac I could add about 150 more with the use of sap ladders. On another location I have been asked for 2 years if I wanted to tap about 75 mature roadside sugars. I kept saying I will when I get an RO. after this year I have decided the Vac is mandatory for 2011 even before the RO and I will also tap those roadsides offered. I have someone lined up to buy any sap I can't keep up with but after this year of way too little sap I am determined to make better use of my evaporator. My wife is retiring in May and therefor could boil next year while I haul sap and drive school bus. The guy who will buy my extra is about a 20 minute drive from my sugar bush if the roads are good. In fact my biggest woods are about half way between my sugarhouse and his.
When I put the tubing in this bush I designed it to be a wet dry line. All of the wet lines are in except where i will cut a hill in half and run an extra branch line half way up the hill on a 300' wide section. The other section I will need to tube is the section that will need a sap ladder. I have my wet branch lines teed into the wet main and designed to just remove a cap, increase the size for a larger chamber for gas/sap separation and then elbow over and tee into the dry line. (confusing?)
I was always concerned about possible theft of a vac pump and releaser set where no houses are in sight, but I found an old cellar at the lower section of the woods that even now is dry in the bottom and is 5' below grade to block from road view. I plan to set a large tank, the vac pump and releaser in the cellar and if necessary I will have the land owner dump a berm of dirt roadside to conceal it. This is however within about 40' of the road but can't be seen from the road. From there I will use a gas pump to push the sap to my roadside tank. That tank I use my sap pump to transfer to my haul tank or tanks.
I need help designing what is needed to complete this system. The pump must be gas. I will make an oversized oil sump for protection and put a large gas tank on so I can run up to 10-12 hrs if needed. I will have no electric, what do I need to complete this? What size pump should I get? I will eventually have a max of 1000 taps in this location. To get that many i will need to tap on the other side of a busy county road and draw sap thru a culvert and up a sap ladder (about 10' climb max.) I will also be tapping about 300 trees that are now about 7-8" and I want to wait until they reach 9-10".
What do I need for a releaser? I need to plan for at least 700 taps and will get a bigger releaser when needed if what I start with will not handle more than the 700 in a few years. I'm thinking I want to design my system to run 20-22" vac but don't know much about vac yet. I have offered to help the landowner get his firewood out by identifying trees to thin and helping him actually cut and haul the logs out. He was excited to get help. This will also get my foot in the door for hunting his land. His woods have about 150 acres of corn across the road and lots of good bedding behind the sugarbush. He has other hunters who were given hunting rights in return for help with firewood work but they never showed up to work two years in a row, he now told then-no more hunting.
When I put the tubing in this bush I designed it to be a wet dry line. All of the wet lines are in except where i will cut a hill in half and run an extra branch line half way up the hill on a 300' wide section. The other section I will need to tube is the section that will need a sap ladder. I have my wet branch lines teed into the wet main and designed to just remove a cap, increase the size for a larger chamber for gas/sap separation and then elbow over and tee into the dry line. (confusing?)
I was always concerned about possible theft of a vac pump and releaser set where no houses are in sight, but I found an old cellar at the lower section of the woods that even now is dry in the bottom and is 5' below grade to block from road view. I plan to set a large tank, the vac pump and releaser in the cellar and if necessary I will have the land owner dump a berm of dirt roadside to conceal it. This is however within about 40' of the road but can't be seen from the road. From there I will use a gas pump to push the sap to my roadside tank. That tank I use my sap pump to transfer to my haul tank or tanks.
I need help designing what is needed to complete this system. The pump must be gas. I will make an oversized oil sump for protection and put a large gas tank on so I can run up to 10-12 hrs if needed. I will have no electric, what do I need to complete this? What size pump should I get? I will eventually have a max of 1000 taps in this location. To get that many i will need to tap on the other side of a busy county road and draw sap thru a culvert and up a sap ladder (about 10' climb max.) I will also be tapping about 300 trees that are now about 7-8" and I want to wait until they reach 9-10".
What do I need for a releaser? I need to plan for at least 700 taps and will get a bigger releaser when needed if what I start with will not handle more than the 700 in a few years. I'm thinking I want to design my system to run 20-22" vac but don't know much about vac yet. I have offered to help the landowner get his firewood out by identifying trees to thin and helping him actually cut and haul the logs out. He was excited to get help. This will also get my foot in the door for hunting his land. His woods have about 150 acres of corn across the road and lots of good bedding behind the sugarbush. He has other hunters who were given hunting rights in return for help with firewood work but they never showed up to work two years in a row, he now told then-no more hunting.