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View Full Version : 3/16" or 5/16" Laterals on Vacuum



SeanD
12-28-2022, 04:39 PM
I'm aiming to pick up about 14-16 taps past the end of my current mainline on vacuum. I'm going to extend my mainline about 80-90' to the opposite side of a property to get to the new trees that all dog leg right up a hill from there. All the trees are in a straight line. From top tree to bottom tree is probably 60-80'

Is it better to run 3 separate 5/16" laterals that will run on the same path - where the first lateral gets the first 4-5 taps (20'), the next lateral goes further and picks up the next 4-5 taps (40'-60'), and the last lateral runs the furthest to get the last 4-5 taps (60-80')?

Or should I run a single 3/16" lateral that can pick them all up in one go. The bottom tap will be right at the mainline, so there's little gain from natural vac, but the advantage is it's one line, one saddle, and the tap limit for 3/16" is higher, right? I have laterals like this on other property lines that I set up when the lines were natural vac only. Now that they are upgraded to mechanical vac, they seem to continue to do well.

If the parallel 5/16" laterals is the way to go, I'd like to set the new ones up correctly the first time and eventually upgrade the existing 3/16" lines when their time comes.

DRoseum
12-28-2022, 04:49 PM
I'd probably do a single 3/16 run. However if you don't have the 3/16 tooling, fittings, lines and have all or some of that in 5/16 that might be a big factor.

VTnewguy
12-29-2022, 11:31 PM
If you are already on vacuum I would run the 5/16. We have plenty of 3/16 out and it works great but it can also be finicky with chips or bacteria after the first year.