Evaporator Damage in Shipment

[OrangeAgain]

I am thinking about buying a Smoky Lake Maple's Silverplate evaporator and am concerned about it getting damaged in shipment. Smoky Lake Maple has a White Glove Carrier Network option which may be how I would have to have my Silverplate shipped.

SLM has told me "Any evaporator over a 2x6 will not fit in a truck bed." So, picking my evaporator up at their facility is not an option unless I rent a trailer. Even a 2x6 would be a tight fit in my 6.5' bed F150 I'm told.

I would great appreciate anyone's experience with having a Smoky Lake Maple evaporator shipped by either their White Glove Carrier Network or a common carrier.

How are SLM evaporators packaged for shipment? Palletized? How much assembly required by me?

[TapTapTap]

I don't own a Smokey Lake but I do have a couple of comments:

- I wouldn't consider renting a trailer. It could be a rough ride all the way from Wisconsin. I have a little trailer and I wouldn't put anything fragile back there. It would also take a fair amount of binder strap tie-down forces to keep the equipment from shifting around - which could cause damage themselves.

- I personally would consider working with one of the many dealers here in Vermont. I expect they would deliver with their own trucks and you wouldn't need to worry about shipping damage - if it's damaged then reject it. There would be other advantages like having the dealer more accessible to help you out. Plus, starting a relationship with that local dealer with result in many advantages down the road.

Just my 2 cents.

Good Luck,

Ken

[motowbrowne]

I agree with Ken about buying locally. Lots of fans, especially in the hobby arena, will disagree with me, but there isn't anything particularly special about a rig from Smoky lake. Sure they're nice, but so is any new cooker with an airtight arch and a blower. Honestly, you can probably save a pile of money by checking with half a dozen local dealers. Check brands like h20 innovation, d&g, Leader, cdl, etc. My buddy got a quote last spring from Smoky lake and ended up ordering h20 pans during their substantial spring discount and saved thousands, plus now he's got a dealer within 45 minutes instead of across the state.

[220 maple]

Buying from a privateer is always cheaper! The owner probably has a ax to grind with the big four! It’s all good until the groundhog is delivering the privateers mail! Will they still be in business! Doubtful, Maybe, who knows, my 2 cents worth
Mark 220 Maple

[motowbrowne]

Buying from a privateer is always cheaper! The owner probably has a ax to grind with the big four! It’s all good until the groundhog is delivering the privateers mail! Will they still be in business! Doubtful, Maybe, who knows, my 2 cents worth
Mark 220 Maple

Smoky lake may have been cheaper at one point. Nowadays, not so much!

[DMF]

We bought a 2x6 Corsair raised flue evaporator with single side reverse flow, auto draw, with everything swapped to the opposite side (draw-off on the left, sap entering on the right, etc.) due to the configuration of our sugar shack. It was shipped to our location in Massachusetts. We bought lids for the evaporator, filter press and steam bottler as well all at the same time. We live 1/3 mile off the road so the semi parked at the bottom of our driveway and I met him down there with my tractor with forks on it to unload it all. Everything was packaged very well and nothing was damaged at all. I believe there was an option of having it delivered with a lift gate truck as well but I didn't need it.

I understand everyone's comments about buying from a local dealer and for the most part I completely agree. At the time, CDL and Leader were my only local options and I looked at many of them in use in my area when I was in the market. What made zero sense to me was why you needed to build a mortar "box" under the Leader fireboxes. I don't know if that's changed now or not...? Just seems like extra work/cost to me. I also didn't like the style of the "American" pan that Leader and CDL offered. I wanted a crossflow pan. My original 2x4 semi-homemade evaporator I started out with was set up that way with the draw off on the front corner. The hottest part of the pan was always where the arch angled back towards the rear pan, in the back of the syrup pan, not the front. I wanted to be able to draw off at the rear of the syrup pan with a cross flow set-up. At the time, the only company that was offering this was Smoky Lake. I was able to get what I wanted, at a significantly lower cost than going local and settling for something I didn't want.

Jim and Angela are very quick at getting back to me with answers to my questions for the most part. That being said, I do wish they had an East Coast or better yet a New England distributor who I could contact or have come out to our farm. This is something that Leader does very well in my opinion.

As far as cost goes, I do think their prices are going up, however I sent out requests for a custom lid to be made for our CDL 100 gallon head tank to many different companies. CDL said they don't make a lid for their sap tanks and didn't offer to quote it. Leader, Sunrise, and a local sheet metal place all gave us a quote. Smoky Lake was cheaper than all three. Lapierre didn't respond to my request until a month after I had placed my order and they were actually cheaper by a few dollars, but their quote came back too late. Oh, and the lid for the head tank was shipped to me as well and came in with no damage whatsoever.