Worth running tubing?

[skillet]

We have 80 taps on 5gal buckets. Most of the trees are in clumps of 10-15 taps. This is spread over 3 or so acres on a decent slope. The problem is that the road is on top of the hill. Meaning the collection tank will be at the bottom. The tank would be about 300 yards away from the road. This is in the snow belt of western ny about 300"s of snow each winter. Now we (about 3or 4 guys)carry 55 5gal buckets to the truck. Which is not that bad if we can get down the drive way (snow/mud). Could add another 20 taps in same area.what about bears and other animals damaging tubing? Know a guy you had to change 1000 droplines damaged by bear cubs (so he thinks?)
What do you guys think. Is it worth adding tubing for 100 taps. Would like to get up to 300 to 400 taps in a few years. The problem the more i tap the further from the road i get. Oh i do have a 53 jubilee which i hope to have paths cut though the woods for next season? Have to get a trailer for behind the tractor.

Any thoughts
skillet

[markct]

yea i think its worth it for 100 taps, last year i had only about 40 taps, 20 of which were on tubing, and it took alot longer to collect the 20 buckets than the tubing ones! this year i have over 300 and there all but 5 are on tubing. i had a simular dilema to you with the downhill part not accessible, i have alot of taps on a mainline that follow a brook in a deep gully and the tank is in the gully, so to pump out the tank i have a 3/4 inch black poly line just laid on the ground that goes about 60ft up the hill to where i can park the truck with gathering tank. it has camlock fitting on the end so i just carry my 1 inch gas powered pump down to the tank and couple the two line on and pump it up the hill, there is a ball valve above the connector so that you can turn it off, disconnect the line and drain the 4 gallons roughlyin the pump line into a bucket

[Russell Lampron]

I put a 1" pipe on wire so that it drains back and won't freeze up. I pump my sap 900' back uphill to my sugarhouse. The elevation change is somewhere in the 35 to 50 feet range. It works good but is slow. I have access to my tank with a four wheeler and haul the 40 gallons of sap that drain back down the pipe with that. If you set it up right and get a quart per tap that is 25 gallons of syrup. Is 25 gallons of syrup worth it to you?