Shop vacuum pressure

[SteveB]

I am going to use a rolling Shop-Vac (trade name) and 2.5" hose. I want to use it to pick up pecans to be easier on my back, and to put them into a 55 gallon barrel, making them more effective to handle. I know that some shop vac systems have piping that goes a long distance. I would ideally like to go two sections of hose, and that would be 40 to

50 feet depending on the hose. How much drop of suction and efficiency would I experience through that length, with only one opening at the end of the hose?

thanks

Steve

[Bill]

Just thinking out loud: How many pounds of pecans can you fit inside of

40 feet of hose? One pecan at at time should work just as well as with a short hose, right (or no?)

Bill

[woodchucker]

Wow, this came back like a boomerang... we had this discussion last year..

Did anything change ??? Did the info from last year age out because the pecans changed size... did they get bigger.

[Keith Nuttle]

I do not have pecans, but gum balls. A leaf blower is adequate to get them all in one area. You still have to pick them up. Shovel??

I have used it a couple of season, I decided it was not a good idea to clean the underside of my mower with gum balls.

[phread]

Don't know about the info aging out, but I hope he keeps us posted on anything he finds that works. From what I've tried, a vac picks up leaves, twigs, dirt if it's dry and loose enough and some pecans that aren't well filled. If they've been pressed into the soil at all, no way (I'm on clay). I tried first extending with a 25 foot pool cleaning hose and worked backwards to just the stock vac. Result - all the debris, too few pecans. What works for me is the rake, lift-and-separate, sit-down-and-pick-up method. Have tried with some success stringing a tarp at an angle so that lighter debris stays behind and the pecans roll down to the bottom. Also tried with some luck a big piece of 1/2 inch screen aimed into a bucket with the leaf blower behind to blow away debris. Both methods still require the raking, you just don't have to separate as much. I think one difference between pecans and gumballs is that the pecans are being collected and saved for use. The aerodynamics are different, too. Pecans are smooth while the spikes on gumballs offer more resistance to air from a leaf blower so they can be blown into piles. I got over 500 pounds last year. This year I've been enjoying the shop and it's an off year so less than 100 so far.

-J

I do not have pecans, but gum balls. A leaf blower is adequate to get them all in one area. You still have to pick them up. Shovel??

I have used it a couple of season, I decided it was not a good idea to clean the underside of my mower with gum balls.

[G. Ross]

I could not tolerate sweetgum balls in my yard. If the tree is large enough, the wood makes beautiful bowls. Not much good for anything else.

[Markem]

Actually the gumballs make good mulch for plants that slugs like.

Mark

[Lew Hodgett]

---------------------------------------------- Do they do a better job than stale beer in an aluminum pie pan?

Lew

[Markem]

Yes the slugs do not slide along because of the texture. But we had an abundance of them at our previous house.

Side note when burning gumballs in the driveway in a Weber kettle make sure the wind ain't howling, but the zoysia came in real nice that spring.

Mark

[SteveB]

Nothing changed. Your life is still so small that you can remember these minute threads from a year ago. It HAS to suck to be you. In the meantime, there could be new people here, new ideas, new slants.

I really like the idea of the lengths of pvc or abs rather than the irregular surface of the hose. IIRC, that was not brought up last year in that discussion.

The world is flat, and the patent office still needs to be closed because we have invented everything to be invented. Now off with your chucker ..................

[SteveB]

It is getting to the tree, and working around the tree that make a longer hose advantageous to moving a getting heavier all the time large Shop-Vac with 40-60# of pecans in it

[Bill]

I realize that. I was just suggesting that maybe there was no drop in suction--just that, with a longer hose, you would have to limit the number of pecans "in the pipeline" at one time. It must be great to have so many pecans to eat! : )