Lateral lines on 3/16 ? Ok or not?

[thecabinguy]

Last year was my first year doing some 3/16 gravity lines. It worked out great. I have just enough slope to make it function pretty well. This year I will be trying to improve from last year. In a few areas along the lines, it seems to make sense to have 3 or 4 trees on a short lateral line that then connects into the main 3/16 line. I tried it in one spot last season with 3 trees on 1 lateral and it seemed ok. Does anyone else use lateral lines with an 3/16 gravity system? Has it worked out or caused problems. In theory it seems like it would work.

[maple flats]

Never run a side lateral to a 3/16 lateral. The connection messes with the flow. If possible and if the total will not be over 35 taps total, design a way to pick the extra taps in series with the line you wanted to join. If over 35 taps, design a flow pattern with about half on each of 2 lines.
By the way, the lateral line is what goes from tree to tree picking up taps as it progresses down hill to the mainline or to a collection vessel (barrel or tank)

[thecabinguy]

Well, when I have one long 3/16 line running downhill to my collection barrels, that’s my mainline. I might have 25 trees on it. Each tree obviously has a tap, drop and t. For my purposes, a lateral would simply be a drop to T with more than one tree on it. Like an artery. I’m trying to figure out why that’s bad or not and why. If it were practical to just run the line to all the trees that I want to tap, I would do it. It’s just not possible in a few spots.

[SeanD]

This is a common situation in the woods - at least for me - where there's a beautiful tree or two off the path of the line down to the tank. It's too far off to zigzag your line to it, but you know it's full of sap, right?

For the purposes of this conversation here, the line running to your tank is a lateral even though you are effectively using it like a mainline in this situation. The problem with using a T to bring more taps in from the side of your lateral is that it creates a sap traffic jam at the T. The two lines will compete for the path down to your collection tank and both lines underperform. It will have a greater impact on the lateral with more taps because there's more to lose there.

I did it in one spot where it's a single tap. My thinking is it's same as if the tree were closer and it's effectively one long drop. Otherwise I don't do it on 3/16". When the outlier tree/s are toward the bottom of the run, I use separate 5/16" lines to get those taps. I switch to 5/16" there bc there's less slope closer to the bottom. In the end I get more sap and it's easier to manage than doing crazy zig-zags.

The other place I do it is on a 5/16" line where it's two taps near the top of the line. My thinking is that it's only one tap over the "limit" and it's near the top of the line where less sap is competing at the T - and it's an amazing tree out in the open with a beautiful crown. I know it's full of sap! Last year, I thought I had finally decided to give it its own line, but when I really looked at it and thought it out, it would have been 200'+ of line down to the tank for two taps vs. 25 feet of line to join it in to the lateral.

Lastly, most of my issues with adding trees on tubing were improved when I made the jump to 3/4" mainlines. Once I had that line carried into the woods, it became so much easier to pick up more taps.