New to tubing drop line question

[mcgeec]

Hey,

I took the plunge today and now own 500 ft of semi rigid 5/16 tubing from FW Webb, 100 taps and 100 t connectors. I hope to set up a small sugar bush in tubing this year. My plan is four lateral lines into a barrel. Here is the question:

The semi rigid tubing is . . . well . . . semi rigid. So if I make the drop lines from that stuff, won't it be too stiff? Was I supposed to get some other tubing for the drop lines?

[lakeview maple]

Mcgeec ,you will be fine with semi rigid ,just make sure you cut your drops at least 24" I cut mine at 30" so they will have plenty of flex. I think you will find out that you might be a little short on tubing for 100 taps on a 500 ft roll ,my experience is close to 10' of tubing for every tap if Im lucky. Good Luck ,Al

[mcgeec]

First off, how much do I love mapletrader?

Second, thanks for the advice. I will go with 30 inches.

And thanks for the heads up on the capacity.

Chip

[lakeview maple]

Glad I could help,you will find there are a lot of great people here who will gladly help ,Al

[Joust7.1]

Urban Mapler,

I also started out with a 500' roll of the semi rigid in my first year with about 40 taps on a 1/2" mainline all gravity. Once I made up the drop lines I was surprised how much tubing I went through and I didn't make the drops anywhere near long enough. I was basing the drop length on the size of my trees and figured I could make them either 12" or 18" and have more tubing for laterals. Don't skimp on the length of your drops. This all came down in year two and I chalked it up to a learning experience in the real world. I think I even had to go back and get another roll if not two of tubing to just finish this set-up all to come down 10 months later. So much good information and resourceful people on hear, I guess I just need to learn the hard way as a newbie. Best of luck! I think the best piece of advice that reoccurs on hear all the time is to do it right the first time.

[adk1]

When I started out I measured everything meaning my mainline length then got rough measurements of lateral line lengths from the mainline to my end trees for the lats. I ended up with 1300 feet of mainline and 3000 feet of lateral,line. That didn't include the drops. I bought max flow grip and flex for my lateral lime and drops

[maple flats]

I've used flex for drops, but have gone back to semi rigid for everything. It works fine. In my early years I made my drops 24", then I went to 28", now I use 32". At this time I plan to continue at 32", but who knows, 36 could be even better at some point.

[mcgeec]

Thanks all.

Joust, let me think through this. I expect to do just 24 taps on tubing this year. I bought 100 because the bag had 100 in it. So if I have 25 2.5 foot long drop lines, that makes 62.5 feet of drop line. Leaving 437.5 for lateral line.

Assuming mistakes I think I will be lucky to have two 200 foot lateral lines with 12 drops each.

Thanks again.




Urban Mapler,

I also started out with a 500' roll of the semi rigid in my first year with about 40 taps on a 1/2" mainline all gravity. Once I made up the drop lines I was surprised how much tubing I went through and I didn't make the drops anywhere near long enough. I was basing the drop length on the size of my trees and figured I could make them either 12" or 18" and have more tubing for laterals. Don't skimp on the length of your drops. This all came down in year two and I chalked it up to a learning experience in the real world. I think I even had to go back and get another roll if not two of tubing to just finish this set-up all to come down 10 months later. So much good information and resourceful people on hear, I guess I just need to learn the hard way as a newbie. Best of luck! I think the best piece of advice that reoccurs on hear all the time is to do it right the first time.

[BlueberryHill]

Watch out that FW Webb does not give you Rigid instead of Semi-Rigid. They had a bunch mis-labeled and I got 8 rolls of Rigid a couple days ago when in fact I ordered Semi. Now I gotta go back to swap them out. Moral of the story is don't send the wife to pick up maple stuff at a non-maple place and expect to actually get what you need.

[mcgeec]

Hey,

How do you know if it's rigid? Maybe mine is!



Watch out that FW Webb does not give you Rigid instead of Semi-Rigid. They had a bunch mis-labeled and I got 8 rolls of Rigid a couple days ago when in fact I ordered Semi. Now I gotta go back to swap them out. Moral of the story is don't send the wife to pick up maple stuff at a non-maple place and expect to actually get what you need.

[BlueberryHill]

It's printed right on it. It'll say Semi-Rigide or Rigide on there. They spell it Canadian-like, haha.

I could tell it was the wrong stuff from across the room because the color is just a bit of a different shade.

[Sugarmaker]

Good luck with your tubing system. I made a lot of mistakes the first year trying to conserve, and using my own ideas.
Second years I changed most of it back to more conventional. I had some "y's" in the drops, some drops to short and did not have a good way to tighten the system. I just took out some drops yesterday that were a little on the short side. All the new ones are now 30 inch. I used the Leader max flow for drop lines. I like the extra flexibility compared to the stiff 30P drops. I did come up with a design to allow the main lines (5/16) tight.
Regards,
Chris

[mcgeec]

How do you keep it tight? Tricks? Ideas?



Good luck with your tubing system. I made a lot of mistakes the first year trying to conserve, and using my own ideas.
Second years I changed most of it back to more conventional. I had some "y's" in the drops, some drops to short and did not have a good way to tighten the system. I just took out some drops yesterday that were a little on the short side. All the new ones are now 30 inch. I used the Leader max flow for drop lines. I like the extra flexibility compared to the stiff 30P drops. I did come up with a design to allow the main lines (5/16) tight.
Regards,
Chris

[VT_K9]

I run the complete lateral line and then go back to put the drops in. After a few I check to make sure the line is still tight and make the necessary adjustments at the end (the t's will lengthen the line by about 1/4" or so).

Mike

[Joust7.1]

Watch out that FW Webb does not give you Rigid instead of Semi-Rigid. They had a bunch mis-labeled and I got 8 rolls of Rigid a couple days ago when in fact I ordered Semi. Now I gotta go back to swap them out. Moral of the story is don't send the wife to pick up maple stuff at a non-maple place and expect to actually get what you need.

My guess is that if your wife saw this post, you won't have to worry about her picking up the wrong stuff again. BTW, what do people use rigid for? Just lats? I would think that semi-rigid is the way to go for everything. P.S. FW Webb has been great for me. They actually drive by my house twice a week and can drop anything that they have in stock. That's saying something when I live 2 hours from their closest warehouse.

[Joust7.1]

The math sounds good to me. However, my trees always end up further away than they seem or more than my initial estimate.


Thanks all.

Joust, let me think through this. I expect to do just 24 taps on tubing this year. I bought 100 because the bag had 100 in it. So if I have 25 2.5 foot long drop lines, that makes 62.5 feet of drop line. Leaving 437.5 for lateral line.

Assuming mistakes I think I will be lucky to have two 200 foot lateral lines with 12 drops each.

Thanks again.

[mcgeec]

The math sounds good to me. However, my trees always end up further away than they seem or more than my initial estimate.

I swear, my trees move each year, a little further away.

[mcgeec]

Watch out that FW Webb does not give you Rigid instead of Semi-Rigid. They had a bunch mis-labeled and I got 8 rolls of Rigid a couple days ago when in fact I ordered Semi. Now I gotta go back to swap them out. Moral of the story is don't send the wife to pick up maple stuff at a non-maple place and expect to actually get what you need.

Thanks! Just switched it myself. Made the same mistake.

Now I have 25 30 inch drops ready to go!

[maple flats]

And my trees get closer every year. I then need to tighten the lateral. Often not a problem, because of repairs. I just remove enough when repairing to get back to a tight lateral. That's where a 2 hand tool is real handy.