New to tubing drop line question

[mcgeec]

Hey,

I took the plunge today and now own 500 ft of semi rigid 5/16 tubing from FW Webb, 100 taps and 100 t connectors. I hope to set up a small sugar bush in tubing this year. My plan is four lateral lines into a barrel. Here is the question:

The semi rigid tubing is . . . well . . . semi rigid. So if I make the drop lines from that stuff, won't it be too stiff? Was I supposed to get some other tubing for the drop lines?

[lakeview maple]

Mcgeec ,you will be fine with semi rigid ,just make sure you cut your drops at least 24" I cut mine at 30" so they will have plenty of flex. I think you will find out that you might be a little short on tubing for 100 taps on a 500 ft roll ,my experience is close to 10' of tubing for every tap if Im lucky. Good Luck ,Al

[mcgeec]

First off, how much do I love mapletrader?

Second, thanks for the advice. I will go with 30 inches.

And thanks for the heads up on the capacity.

Chip

[lakeview maple]

Glad I could help,you will find there are a lot of great people here who will gladly help ,Al

[Joust7.1]

Urban Mapler,

I also started out with a 500' roll of the semi rigid in my first year with about 40 taps on a 1/2" mainline all gravity. Once I made up the drop lines I was surprised how much tubing I went through and I didn't make the drops anywhere near long enough. I was basing the drop length on the size of my trees and figured I could make them either 12" or 18" and have more tubing for laterals. Don't skimp on the length of your drops. This all came down in year two and I chalked it up to a learning experience in the real world. I think I even had to go back and get another roll if not two of tubing to just finish this set-up all to come down 10 months later. So much good information and resourceful people on hear, I guess I just need to learn the hard way as a newbie. Best of luck! I think the best piece of advice that reoccurs on hear all the time is to do it right the first time.

[adk1]

When I started out I measured everything meaning my mainline length then got rough measurements of lateral line lengths from the mainline to my end trees for the lats. I ended up with 1300 feet of mainline and 3000 feet of lateral,line. That didn't include the drops. I bought max flow grip and flex for my lateral lime and drops

[maple flats]

I've used flex for drops, but have gone back to semi rigid for everything. It works fine. In my early years I made my drops 24", then I went to 28", now I use 32". At this time I plan to continue at 32", but who knows, 36 could be even better at some point.

[mcgeec]

Thanks all.

Joust, let me think through this. I expect to do just 24 taps on tubing this year. I bought 100 because the bag had 100 in it. So if I have 25 2.5 foot long drop lines, that makes 62.5 feet of drop line. Leaving 437.5 for lateral line.

Assuming mistakes I think I will be lucky to have two 200 foot lateral lines with 12 drops each.

Thanks again.

Urban Mapler,

I also started out with a 500' roll of the semi rigid in my first year with about 40 taps on a 1/2" mainline all gravity. Once I made up the drop lines I was surprised how much tubing I went through and I didn't make the drops anywhere near long enough. I was basing the drop length on the size of my trees and figured I could make them either 12" or 18" and have more tubing for laterals. Don't skimp on the length of your drops. This all came down in year two and I chalked it up to a learning experience in the real world. I think I even had to go back and get another roll if not two of tubing to just finish this set-up all to come down 10 months later. So much good information and resourceful people on hear, I guess I just need to learn the hard way as a newbie. Best of luck! I think the best piece of advice that reoccurs on hear all the time is to do it right the first time.

[BlueberryHill]

Watch out that FW Webb does not give you Rigid instead of Semi-Rigid. They had a bunch mis-labeled and I got 8 rolls of Rigid a couple days ago when in fact I ordered Semi. Now I gotta go back to swap them out. Moral of the story is don't send the wife to pick up maple stuff at a non-maple place and expect to actually get what you need.

[mcgeec]

Hey,

How do you know if it's rigid? Maybe mine is!

Watch out that FW Webb does not give you Rigid instead of Semi-Rigid. They had a bunch mis-labeled and I got 8 rolls of Rigid a couple days ago when in fact I ordered Semi. Now I gotta go back to swap them out. Moral of the story is don't send the wife to pick up maple stuff at a non-maple place and expect to actually get what you need.