Q's for 3/16 experts re last tap on line

[Vtmbz]

I have a great setup for 3/16 and jumped in with both feet. My gps says I have over 50' of drop from top to mainline or maybe even more.

Question: This seems to be a grey area. Lots of drop in 500', but very very little on last tree in the line. Intuition says any drop is good but will a relatively low slope at the end of about 20' hurt the vacuum up the hill? I'm worried that a relatively flat ending will plug the line.

I have some long runs between trees but in all cases a hard drop occurs somewhere along the way. Basically it's a bench above a ravine with a mainline at the bottom of a 20-30 foot drop.

So glad I didn't tap last week as its below zero this morning.

[optionguru]

Certainly not an expert but I had a similar situation on a line of 3/16 last year it still produced much better than my 5/16 on the same slope.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I run the mainline down the bottom of the hollows and if the last tap is 1' above the mainline, I tap it and works fine. Yes, you might not get much vac but you will get more sap than not tapping it. I can't justify it being cost effective to run another 500 to 1000' of 3/16 tubing down beside the mainline just to get 30' of drop. This is for 2 reasons, the extra costs of all the tubing for a tap or two and so much more tubing to repair, maintain and keep the leaks out of it. Seldom is there a perfect world scenario, just make it work the best you can. I have plenty of taps that only have 1' to 10' of drop and the lines still run great. Probably 75 to 80 percent of my taps have 30' or more drop so I don't worry about 20 to 25 percent I can't get full 30' on.

[maple flats]

I have a similar scenerio. rather flat on top, then a good slope ending with a rather flat section at the bottom. I've set it up 2 ways, one section I put 25-32 taps on each line on the upper flat, but when the steep slope started, I only tapped the upper part on 3/16. I then ran 5/16 (different lateral) and picked up the rest, before connecting it to a main with about 18" vacuum. On the second portion, I ran the 3/16 tapping all the way down and then have it tie into the main at 18" vacuum. My only way to decide is the gauges I put in, vacuum gauges at top and near the last tapped tree on the 3/16. Time will tell.

[Vtmbz]

Thanks guys! This is what happens when it's too cold to play in the woods-- you sit in the house and worry.

And by experts I meant exactly who I got to answer!