My rubber fuel line drops between the two cylinders on the way to the carb. Is there any benefit to routing the fuel elsewhere to avoid the heat from the jugs?

 

Common precaution is to run the fuel line through a section of larger hose for the portion that runs between the cylinders to help insulate it from the heat.

 

Running between the jugs is a non issue and like FL54 says doing a wear sleeve of some kind isn't a bad idea, I've used everything from an extra layer of shrink tubing to a chunk of plastic split sleeve like on wiring looms.

Oh one more thing the ever popular little glass gas filter everybody uses ? Only thing they are good for is seeing the gas flow you already have a filter in the tank.