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Thread: Our first yr. Bought someone out. Tubing Q's.

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2021
    Location
    NY
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    Default Our first yr. Bought someone out. Tubing Q's.

    Sugar bush has 475 taps. 3/4" mainline on 5/16" taps, laterals, drops. Gravity, no vacuum.

    My question is, how long of a 5/16 lateral can I run if I want to expand? Some are 150 yards. Can I go longer?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Oneida NY
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    11,547

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    With 5/16 laterals you will do best if the length is 100' or less and on gravity no more than 10 taps. Do you have lots of slope? If yes, then study 3/16 laterals, they can (with good elevation drop) be 1000' or more and 25-30 taps is good. I know, sounds backwards, but 3/16 can have more taps and longer laterals, but only if gravity is on your side. Ideal is 30' elevation drop after the lowest tap, but even 15' works better than using 5/16.
    On the other hand, 3/16 requires more specific cleaning, both after the season and again in mid fall, plus the Tee, and any connectors need to be changed every year, but if you do that you will reap the results, compliments of natural vacuum.
    Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
    Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
    Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
    After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
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    Hartford, MI
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    189

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    No more than 10 with 5/16? I have a 200 feet+ fence line run with 47. over 70 gal. yesterday.
    5th generation
    2 1/2 Buckets
    815 gravity
    2 new flat pans. Back pan now has 16 V's
    Rebuilt the block arch 3x12
    Homemade pre-heater,steamhood
    MES Dolly RO

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2021
    Location
    NY
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    Default

    The elevation is quite steep. Most of the laterals are far longer that 100' with some having 50+ taps.
    Were new at this, and I'm assuming the laterals are 5/16 as that's the size drill and tap. Former user didn't mention anything about changing all the tee's and connectors every yr.
    We taped yesterday, by the time we got back to the holding tanks, the sap was flowing out of the main line like a garden hose.
    There's so much room to expand, so we were thinking about adding another 100 taps onto a couple of the laterals.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Peru, Maine
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    The correct setup is what maple flats suggested, no more than 10 taps per lateral. We are redoing our bushes so they are set up correctly and are doing 5-6 taps per lateral. You can do whatever you want and it will work, but your production will suffer. We do have 1 or 2 5/16” lines that are 500’ to pick up some really nice maples. It didn’t make sense to run mainline for 10 trees so we ran 1 really long lateral. It’s really about taps per lateral for optimum production, not so much the length. Shorter lines are also easier to maintain.
    305 taps on 2 Shurflo's, 31 taps on 3/16" and 229 taps on gravity. 565 in all
    Mountain Maple S3 controller for 145 of the vacuum taps
    2x6 Darveau Mystique Oil Fired Evaporator w/ Smoky Lake Simplicity Auto Draw
    Wesfab 7” filter press

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