Either on the drops but it matters little where the last tap is, on the plateau or part of the way down as long as there is still a decent fall after the last tap. Even on a plateau with the last tap on the flat, it will take little time for the 3/16 to fill and start down the slope at which time it will start to pull as more sap makes it to the slope. Before long you will have high vacuum as long as you have a tight system and the drop you say is there. In fact, last season I had a similar situation and a 6" limb fell on the 3/16 tubing, pushing it to the ground just barely as the slope began. As I approached it to remove that limb it was very interesting to watch the sap/air/sap/air move rapidly from the top to under the limb and then back up a climb of about vertical 6' to the next tap and the continuing down hill to the mainline about 25' elevation below it. It seemed to make no difference that the limb was holding a section down to the ground and then had to climb back up. From evidence in the snow, the limb had been down since during the night when we had a freeze, and it had filled the line to push itself under the limb and back up to the next tap and continue down to create the vacuum to speed up the flow.
Dave Klish, I recently bought a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.