Back Story, Last year was my first year sugaring and went all in running 3/16 all over the place zig zagging grabbing trees where I could. Went a little overboard when the plan for 200 taps turned into 400 and a bunch of buckets. The days when the sap ran it seemed like it started late and ended early. The season ended in 3 weeks and left me with what to do better for the next year. I changed my runs and figured out that straight and tight lines will work better on the 3/16 picking up few more trees but running 12-25 taps per run. I want to try the shurflow 4008 vac system on one section that has 8 runs of 3/16 with limited slope, the longest run is 800ft with 20ft drop and my shorter runs drop maybe 10ft. Thinking vac will help this section produce!

1) Should I use check valves taps on vac? Is it a good idea to use check valves on my other lines that are not on vac but have better slope?

2) My plan is to use two 4 port 5/16 star manifolds that can handle 8 lines 175 taps (to much)? Have a mountain maple controller as part of this system as well.


Thanks,

Mike