Recommendations needed 5/16" or 3/4"

[Maple River Sugar]

I will be converting several sections of trees from bags to lines and would like recommendations. The length of runs vary from 240' with about a 6' drop to 440' with about a 7' drop. The number of taps range from 30 on the 440' run to 40 on the 240' run. These will be three individual runs along a road with no pump option. I was thinking 3/4" to handle max flow. Thanks

[VTnewguy]

3/4" mainline would work for sure.

[whity]

Have you thought of setting up solar powered sureflow pumps?

[Maple River Sugar]

Have you thought of setting up solar powered sureflow pumps?

I have, but I'm just not financially ready to do that for this location. I also have concerns of theft or damage to the equipment.

[VT_K9]

I would make sure you can keep the 3/4" tight. While it can handle the sap volume, if it freezes you might be in a jam. I am switching away from 3/4" and going 1" to reduce full pipe blockage.

Mike

[Maple River Sugar]

I walked the stretch where i was going to place 3/4" tubing and now I'm questioning what to use. The land specs are: 222 foot run, 28 taps, 4% grade. Do I just use 5/16" or bump up to 3/4".

Thanks

[SeanD]

Another factor to consider is the tree location. The 220' is a straight line which will be good for doing the math on your mainline, but if you are running a single 5/16", you'll likely be zigging and zagging all over the place which will lengthen the run and you might not be able to get all the trees without adding lots of tees which is inefficient. Then there's the PITA factor of pulling that line to all those trees and maintaining your slope. It will depend on how spread out the trees are.

I started out doing tubing that way and I'm now upgrading the last of those old setups to a mainline with laterals. Maybe the 5/16" or a few of them could be the way to go. Walk it again with some flagging tape and imagine/draw where the 5/16" line(s) would run.

[Maple River Sugar]

Another factor to consider is the tree location. The 220' is a straight line which will be good for doing the math on your mainline, but if you are running a single 5/16", you'll likely be zigging and zagging all over the place which will lengthen the run and you might not be able to get all the trees without adding lots of tees which is inefficient. Then there's the PITA factor of pulling that line to all those trees and maintaining your slope. It will depend on how spread out the trees are.

I started out doing tubing that way and I'm now upgrading the last of those old setups to a mainline with laterals. Maybe the 5/16" or a few of them could be the way to go. Walk it again with some flagging tape and imagine/draw where the 5/16" line(s) would run.

Good points, the trees are mostly within 15 feet of the mainlne, not much zigzagging probably. Thanks for the advice.