Best tubing setup for roadsides?

[mi-maple]

I typically run drop lines to individual buckets on my roadsides. I bought several 20 and 30 gallon barrels this year. what is the best way to hook up 3 taps per tree on 5/16 to a barrel? also for the roadsides that are somewhat close, how would you run 2 trees to a barrel in the middle? I've got some ideas but wanted to see what you guys thought. thanks

[SeanD]

Set it up like a lateral where you have one line (the lateral) and your drops T into it. Each drop should have it's own T, not shared. Then have the lateral(s) go into the bung of your barrel. The barrel is laying on its side.

I have a 2 gallon bucket cut and fit into the side of the barrel. I lift that out and pump from there. Before I had a pump and a truck tank, I set the barrel higher and put a 1" valve on the lower bung and filled 5-gallon buckets to transfer.

This year I think I'm going to drill holes into the side of the 2-gal bucket for the laterals rather than go through the bung. That way, I can use the top bung as an overflow to a second barrel.

[maple flats]

Years ago I had little tubing systems into roadside barrels. On each barrel I had a roughly 8x10 cutout and had rounded covers that were attached to the barrel by a cord and bungee around the barrel. The barrels laid on their sides. I had holes drilled by that cover to tightly fit a 5/16 line in. I had up to about 8-10 taps on a 55 gal bbl. Then I pumped the sap from the barrels to the truck tank. I remember one that overfilled the barrel once so I tee'd a second barrel at the same elevation. The tee was just on the 5/16 feeding the barrels. That likely had more than 10 taps.
Correction, I thought more about how I joined the 2 barrels, and then recalled that I had a 3/4" fitting near the top of each barrel (the original top before it was laid flat) and I used a 3/4 male adapter on each with a piece of 3/4 tubing between them and all of the sap ran into the first barrel, when that was full, the 3/4" overflow started filling the second barrel.

[blissville maples]

Use a 5/26 drill but and the line will fit in it nice and snug

[mi-maple]

Thanks for your replies. How do you keep the line tight if the barrel is between two trees spaced maybe 25 ft?

[Sugarmaker]

We run approx 600 road side taps. 33 locations with about 12 to 24 each stop. I have developed the features to keep the lines tight between trees and the final container. Use all 5/16 tubing fittings from different suppliers.
PM me if you need info. It can work. I have several locations with the collection container between trees too. Just put in a tee and a length of tubing from there to the collection point.
Regards,
Chris