Teeing into 3/16 Tubing

[DrTimPerkins]

With that said I think one perspective that we all may want to consider in these tubing scenarios is the operational level of the producer and whether the operation really requires peak performance. I know for myself, and I suspect several others asking questions in this thread, I don't need absolute optimum production, I just want less labor.

I completely agree, however, it is important to know what proper practice is, and what the trade-offs are for deviating from those in order to make informed decisions. This is especially true if it impacts the economics of the situation.

[buckeye gold]

I agree Dr Tim, we should know what proper practice is and the +/- of deviations. That is how we make informed decisions and decide what is best for each application. It makes us all better.

[markcasper]

I agree Dr Tim, we should know what proper practice is and the +/- of deviations. That is how we make informed decisions and decide what is best for each application. It makes us all better.

In all honesty and in respect of everyones opinions, including mine, I think we all have more to learn about 3/16". In fact, I don't think the surface has been scratched yet. I don't know about everyone else or maybe its just me, but I don't really "trust" even the recommendations on the number of taps per line yet. I don't think anyone can say with 100% proof yet what the optimum number of taps should be. It took 40-50 years for the 5/16" system to get perfected. I mean when they first started all the drops were to be 5 feet long, vented spouts and the lats laying on the ground. I look back at some of that old literature I have and just shake my head thinking how silly they were, yet they thought they were ahead of times. And gravity 3/16" seems to be more ahead based on the scientific, non- artificial way of achieving vacuum. If I were to put in a new woods, I'm really not fully confident at this point to go all 3/16" with pumped vacuum. Just saying.

[sugarsand]

There is no clear-cut answer for this. In this case, if the alternative was running another line and spending a good amount of $ to do that, I'd probably go with one "long" drop, but with the realization that this is not "best practice" and you will likely get some reduction in yield because of it. In general though, this practice should be avoided, and you definitely don't want to put tees or wyes into the system all over the place and expect them to produce well. Again, going back to the road analogy, we've all seen those intersections on a busy road where another road comes in, and traffic backs up on the side road due to the difficulty (resistance) in merging. In terms of tubing, except for drops, all merging (tees or wyes) should be done in a mainline OR the road (tubing) should lead directly to the destination (a tank).

Dr Tim, using roads as an anology was interesting, but something popped into the back of my head after reading it and sitting here picturing a road with sap running down it. Wouldnt a road without entrances just be a empty road?
Sorry, not trying to be sarcastic just trying to keep my mind off the -33 degrees this morning.

[wnybassman]

Last year I had four trees that didn't fit in with any other run so I linked those together and came into the nearest lateral a good three feet high and dropped straight down into it like a drop would. During times of sap flow there was always a foot or so of sap above the T waiting for its turn into the lateral. Not sure how much loss there was, but I figured whatever I gained was better than not tapping those four trees at all. This year I rerouted lines further down the hill and was able to eliminate that situation.

[BSD]

getting back to the negative elevation and siphoning up hill. it does work. extremely well if you have no leaks and a good amount of sap in the lines and elevation drop to draw it over the rise.

last year was my first year using 3/16 and had to create a lift to get over an access road. I dug through some of my old posts and I had 8' of lift on natural vacuum. Most of my lines maintained 24-26" vac with no pump. Old thread here ->http://mapletrader.com/community/sho...r-Layout/page2