Information on 3/16"

[Cedar Eater]

Quick Question (I think)...
I gained access to a little chunk of bush near the road, but cant plan on getting there every night... Thinking about tapping 40 or 50 trees there, this weekend, but not with buckets... I cant set up a proper vacuum pump and the property has no natural fall. I have picked up a bunch of 3/6" spiles and "T"s etc... My plan was to set up 3 or 4 plastic drums to pump from, and run a handful of 3/16" lines from each to surrounding trees (as far out as I can, while maintaining a bit of fall (Max 4ft or so) Maybe 4 or 5 taps each?).
After reading and thinking more on this thread... and the importance of creating "Vacuum", I'm starting to wonder if my plan will work at all??? I wont be creating any significant vacuum at 3 or 4 ft of fall... Will I get any decent amount of sap, pushing itself out those short 3/16" lines?? Am I wasting my time?

Hope somebody can help advise...

Thanks

You don't have to run a separate line from each tree. I strung and tapped 28 trees together during a run on one 3/16" line of about 600'. I intend to put mechanical vacuum on it next week. The line started to run. There's probably only 4' of drop from the highest tap to the last tee on the line. So I put a 48 qt. cooler under it and came back two days later as the run was ending. The cooler was overflowing. The natural pressure of the trees was pushing the sap out and down the line. I don't think I would put that many trees on a line if I didn't intend to add mechanical vacuum, but half that many would probably flow pretty well.

[BSD]

I don't think I have the time or the $$ to set up a pump, controller and power source, etc, set up this year...
If you think I will have better results with 10 taps per line, I suspect I can make that happen... Fairly thick bush and all maple.

over 10 is better for natural vacuum, you need to fill the tubing with sap to generate the vacuum, less will work if you're not trying to make vacuum.

[lyford]

How long of a 3/16 line can i put on a shurflo. Would 2 lines of 1000ft and 25-30 taps each be too much for a shurflo?