Anyone know what these are?

[SAR-EMT40]

I saw two of these on Rt 16 north of the Rocky branch trailhead IIRC. They are about 3.5 to 4 feet on a side. I think you can see the black pipe attached on the top. There is a spicket on the bottom. I could find no markings on the the sides that I could readily see. I have an idea but am hoping to find some body that knows for sure what they are. This is a picture of one of the boxes. Both are on the west side of the road. The other is about another quarter mile farther up the road on the same side and from the quick drive by looks the same.

Keith

 

[Lawn Sale]

That's a 275 gallon HDPE (high density polyethylene) tote. We use ours for transferring bulk chemicals or storing them when we need to clean a tank and originally ours originally contained a non-ionic polymer. In the northeast woods I have seen them used primarily by maple syrup producing facilities, where the lines terminate at the tank to collect the sap. They either collect the tank or pump/drain it off into a vehicle mounted tank, they can be picked up from any side by a forklift or tractor with tines, and two people can easily load an empty one in the back of a pickup. I have used them at a lot of worksites but every one originally had a polymer derivative in them.

Can you tell where the lines originate nad/or terminate?

 

[Waumbek]

I would agree, LawnSale. The tanks are probably gravity fed by tubing from a source higher up, either other tanks or the tapped trees themselves. The HDPE models must be a lot cheaper and more mobile than the stainless steel gathering tanks I see around here, if less durable and possibly more absorptive. My "sugaring" friends say that this has been a great season after a very dubious start.

P. S. Would this be what's called a "cage tank"?

 

[jade]

maple sap storage....if you took a walk further up off the road, you would most likely see plastic tubing running from tree to tree or the old fashioned sap buckets hanging on individual trees....the large containers are placed closer to the road for easy access....
Lots of small sugar shack operations have rustic eateries where you can pleasantly indulge in a tall stack of pancakes smothered in freshly steamed maple syrup--I indulged last week, yummy!
....Jade

Waumbek....You beat me to the punch!

 

[Lawn Sale]

P. S. Would this be what's called a "cage tank"?

I have only ordered them as a reinforced tote, and the name the suppliers use is just "tote", but it may have a more specific name I'm not aware of. There are places up here that get rid of them for free after a certain amount of time. The HDPE doesn't leach into the product, or the product into the HDPE, but DOT does have a limited lifespan for over the road transport (UV degradation), which is why you can find used ones for free occasionally. In addition to sugar houses using them, farmers use them to transport water to remote sites in the back of a pickup, where 2 of them fit easily. They clean out very easily with the valved drain on the bottom that happens to be the same thread as standard PVC pipe. The cage over the outside is aluminum, which makes the whole assembly very light. The tote being translucent creates another potential problem though as the product inside can be susceptible to algal growth, so it must be removed occasionally or an algicide added.

 

[Jazzbo]

Sap Collection it is

Not much more to add except I agree as well. The time of the year is right although maybe it's getting to be late for collecting. We made some of our syrup this year from sap collected from a red maple in our backyard. We managed to make enough for 4 pancakes one for each of us. It was tasty indeed!

I'm in the water treatment business and we use these tanks and other sizes all the time. If you got to certain maple syrup web sites you can see them offered for sale along with all sorts of other equipment they use.

 

[SAR-EMT40]

The piping goes up the side of the hill far enough that I couldn't see any individual feeders but that is what I thought it was. Beats the hell out of my friends brother who used to collect all his with the piping all emptying into his sugar shack and collected in a bath tub. Seriously.

Thanks for the confirmation.
Keith

 

[C.Tracy]

Yes, this is a Sap gathering container as explained by the gentlemen above. You will notice the black "main line" coming in from the left ; gravity feed. Maple producers in my area use these type containers allot.

 

[arghman]

if you're hiking with anyone from outside New England and see a sapline, just tell them we pump chemicals uphill into the trees, that's how we get those nice fall colors.

 

[woodstrider]

Ident photo?

Maple Syrup collection

 

[Pucknuts61]

Central Air units.

They're going to air condition the entire WMNF to make visitors comfortable this summer in the Mt Washington area.
It'll help attract more tourism.