Turtledog ridgepole failure

[Tyler883]

I switched from a 2x3 wooden ridge pole ( turtledog stand) to a metal fencing pipe. It worked great for 1 night. I woke up in the morning and sat sideways in it while putting my sock and shoes on. When i when to stand up, the ridge pole failed.

Ckeck out the pictures, it looks like the pipe was flexing, the outside pipe put a bend into the inside pipe until the failure avalanched

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[Woody Woodpecker]

Do you have any pictures of the setup before the failure?


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[Tyler883]

Do you have any pictures of the setup before the failure?


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Sorry. But ill try to describe mysetup.

Here's my wooden set up. I've used it a dozen time or more already. I take some tree straps, wrap them over the top of the tripod. The tree strap drops vertical to the ridge pole. I connect the biners to the same point on the ridge pole.

Basically, i have all vertical forces aligned with the center of the tripod. The biner to biner distance is identical to the pole length. From experimenting with comfort, i have settled into a 10 foot ridge.

In the photo you will see a 12 foot pole used as a 10 foot pole and i havent cut the end off it yet.

This seems to work well. A friend says his ridge pole flexs upwards, however this setup does not seem to flex at all for me

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[Tyler883]

Last weekend i used the same set up and tree strap strategy except i replaced the wooden ridge pole with a 1.5 inch OD chain link fence pipe. It was 12 feet long ( I ADD AN EXTRA 2 FEET TO MY HANG).

The pipe was 3 lengths 48" long. They had the factory made reductions so that the ends fit into each other. I duct taped them together to prevent them from pulling apart.

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[1-Hung-Low]

I've used a 3 piece ridgepole containing 2 reducers since 2013 and never had a problem. Sorry to hear about your failure, lets hope it was just a bad pipe.

[Tyler883]

Thanks for the feedback. Im going to try one more time but this time go back to a 10 foot metal pole which will make my hang droopier.but i already know im comforyable at 10 feetm

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[Woody Woodpecker]

hmmm, it's hard to zoom in close enough in the setup pic, but it almost looks like there was an additional off axial load on the pipe. If you trace the load forces backwards, any accounting for that?


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[Tyler883]

Here's a close up of what i ussually do.

The caribiner hooks onto the tree strap as well as several wraps of red rope.

The overall knot is positioned below the center of the tripod

And the whole knot is rigged so it can't slip down the pole.

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[Tyler883]

With my steel pipe, i only used a tree strap ( no rope) . I passed the carabiner through an eyelet bolt on the pipe, plus the tree strap as well. This should prevent the pipe from falling off the tree strap. And it prevent the tree strap from sliding down the pipe


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[1-Hung-Low]

Go to ‘The-TurtleDog Stand’ thread, page 162 Post #1615 for the description of my stand and Post # 1618 for pictures
3 piece Ridgepole:
2 - 10’6” chain link top rails, one cut to 6’, the other 7’.
Each of the tapered end sections are trimmed to 41” with 3/8” eye bolts set in 2” w/vinyl tubing to protect the continuous loop.
This allows the choice of a 12’ or 13’ ridgeline.