Pan setup advice

[Gobear]

Hi, long time reader first time poster.

I am pulling a hail mary and whipping together a last minute oil tank evaporator for this season. I was headed towards a 2x4 flat pan for our batch boils but recently found out it might not be here in time. The local CDL advised that he had a 2x3 pan coming this week. The 2x3 is probably better sized for our operation (35-40ish taps) but I now have a 1 ft section of arch top to fill.

I could add a warming space behind the 2x3 at the back but was also considering trying to fit a small 1x2 pan over the fire box that I could move reduced sap into to be able to finish more product throughout the boil and keep adding new product to the 2x3 pan.

Any thoughts if this would be a waste of time, or if greater efficiency would be had by having the 2x3 upfront with a 1x2 space for pre warming?

[ir3333]

One approach would be to make the 1 ft. steam pan your front syrup pan and the 2 x 3 your rear sap pan.That steam pan will be about 24 gauge
and will boil like crazy.
Keep adding to it from the rear 2 x 3 until it is about 218 degrees and then take the pan off and pour into a smaller pot to finish on propane later.

[Pdiamond]

Get a pan for pre heating sap and when time comes for the 2 x 4 you'll be ready.