I am looking for some guidance for the upcoming season. Last year I plotted out the Red Maple trees that I planned on tapping and running tubing to. I did everything on Gravity and ran tubing to 5 gallon buckets, because of this I tried to limit the # of taps so on the heavy days the buckets would not overflow. I did have a couple instances of overflowing buckets, but it was manageable if I emptied before and after work. I ran the lines with the natural slope of the property for the most part.

http://billcarpenter4.files.wordpres...11/11/topo.pdf

Above is a link to my blog where I uploaded a pdf file of the layout I did last year. The blue lines indicate 5/16" tubing runs. The "B" indicates a bucket location. The red arrows indicate the slope of the land. I think it may make sense to tie some of these lines together either into a single main line but I am looking for opinions. I have a 35 gallon poly tank currently and would consider upgrading to a larger tank if it makes sense to have all these lines run to a single point.

I will never be larger than 50 taps, and probably always on gravity. I will need to keep some buckets for the kids but I am looking to simplify collecting.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks
Bill