3/16'' lateral line question

[blissville maples]

so upon thinking today I stumbled across the idea of adding a section of 3/16'' line, say maybe 40-50' onto the end nearest the mainline. this would have around 20 feet of drop maybe 30'. would this be enough column of sap to create the vacuum that this system is designed to create?? it would be nice to utlilize the 3/16'' properties, without changing much, hate to swap everything since lines are only 3 years old. pondering trying it this year since I have some filthy laterals with 50-80' of drop I may change anyways and will use 3/16'', make them 2x long as they are now, drop should then be over 100' easily

[jimsudz]

I think you would benefit by adding 3/16 even though you are already on high vac . You 'll get 27-29" of vac with a 30' drop at the last tap. .88"/ft of drop.

[DrTimPerkins]

so upon thinking today I stumbled across the idea of adding a section of 3/16'' line, say maybe 40-50' onto the end nearest the mainline.

Not sure I totally understand the question, but if you mean replacing a 40-50' section of 5/16" lateral line near the mainline (on slope) with 3/16" tubing, but leaving the rest of the line above that as 5/16" tubing, then the results won't be great. You might get a small bump in vacuum at some times during the season when the sap is flowing well. To get maximum vacuum though, you'd need to replace the entire 5/16" lateral line with 3/16" tubing.

[blissville maples]

yes tim that's correct. so if 30' of drop can make 27'', why would not a section of 3/16'' equaling 30' drop accomplish this?? im just thinking there has to be a certain amount of footage of column of sap that would put vac on everything above since it would slow in the 3/16'' and if the 3/16'' is at bottom one has to assume all else above is under vac, without getting into pdf files!! im going to try it! why not that's the best way to find out, I hate to change everything anyways

[TRAILGUY]

tried it dos not work 4 " at best. when to all 3/16 jumped to 26 " had maybe 100 " 5/16 at top before and a bust