Hello hangers, I recently made a Turtledog stand out of some 2" 6061 aluminum tubing I had at my work. This weekend was the maiden voyage at Jackson Lake State Park in Colorado. Between the Tornado warnings, rain, sand flies and wind it held up great. Here are some pics of the general construction.
Turtledog empty.jpg
All sections are made from 40" of 2" 6061 T6 Aluminum with 12" hidden connector sleeves made from 1.875" tubing. The ends that have bolts going through them have wooden plugs to keep the pipes from crushing.
eyebolts.jpg
The Tripod tops are connected with 6" fence hinges like most here. I have a quicklink connected to SS 3/8" eye bolts that are joined to the bottom eye bolts using a coupler. I chucked the coupler into my drill press and rounded out the bottom so it is easier on whoopie slings and tarp lines. The bottom eye bolt worked great for a truckers hitch line going to a rebar stake at the bottom of the stand. Last year we had gale force winds and I didn't want this flying away. I had to take the tarp down a couple of time this weekend when the wind picked up but the stand was solid.
Turtledog porch mode.jpg
The top bar is 160" long which leaves a lot of room. One of the middle connectors can be removed to make a 120" top bar which may come in handy for indoor applications. Here is a 10' square tarp with my 9' GE hammock. There is a half length bug net stuffed in the Bishop Bag at the head. For this trip I also broke in my new DIY half length Climashield Apex underquilt which was awesome. Until now I've used a pad because of a couple ripouts from lightweight DIY hammocks that left me sleeping on the ground. Now I have a reliable hammock I can confidently plan to hang without a backup plan. I slept like the dead both nights even through some rain on the second night.
Jackson lake sunrise saturated.jpg
Here's the view from yesterday morning. Pretty happy with how all this turned out. The rig is pretty heavy and bulky but its built like a tank. I'm sure I can make one that is lighter and more compact but for now this will work great. After this weekend I'm thinking about how to set up in my apartment which might require moving furniture. I had it set up for a couple days with one tripod in the bedroom and the other in the living room with me sleeping in the hallway. There's got to be a better way than that. The next version I make will probably be more compact for that reason. Thanks to all on this forum for the ideas, especially the monstrous Turtledog thread.
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Originally Posted by Rob1960
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