The TurtleDog stand

[ttn2207]

I feel like I am late to the party...after purchasing an eno, we had to to cut down the trees that I had that were perfect to hang. Then I just happened to stumble upon this forum a couple of days ago, and thanks to this forum, I built mine today. It is almost done in the attached picture. FB5983A4-DE31-4015-BFBC-5C4163AAD8AE.jpg

[Draketake]

ttn nice work.

[Hydeej]

For the carry bag. Use fabric from Canvas etc.I use this fabric to produce reusable heavy duty bags foe scouting. https://www.canvasetc.com/product-ca...lon-packcloth/

[Tankosl]

After seeing your post, I may just dig mine out from the shed!!!

[CVKealey]

Maybe this was mentioned somewhere in the previous 312 pages (I haven't tried searching through them all), but has anyone tried a PVC/wood dowel laminate cross-beam? I put my own Turtle Dog stand together yesterday and for the time being, I'm using three 5' poles from a patio-style hammock stand joined together as the ridge pole. I put a couple of long wooden dowels inside them, then duct taped them together to be sure they didn't separate. It worked, but there was some sag (the poles have an ID of 1.5", but the largest dowel I could find was 1.25" diameter) and I feel like something lighter would work better.

So, naturally, I think PVC pipe. However, it's pretty flexible, so I think it needs some help to stiffen up the inside. What I have in mind is three 5' sections of 1-1/4" PVC, two 6' long, 1-1/4" wooden dowels and another 3' long dowel. The two end pieces would have the 6' dowels in them (sealed in with epoxy and end-caps glued on with PVC cement) and the center section would have the 3' dowel centered in it. This way, the dowel from the end pieces would go a foot into the center section. I was thinking of drilling through for a couple of hitch pins to hold them together, but I'm not sure that would even be needed. I mean, once the hammock and tarp are on there, the ends of the ridge pole are being pulled together. Also, to keep water out, I'll probably put some PVC unions between the sections as well.

Weight-wise, I think this would come out a little lighter than the current steel tubes I've got. Strength-wise, I think it will work with the PVC's compressive strength combined with the dowel's rigidity. Just wondering if anyone has tried this yet to disprove my logic.

[fhqwgads2005]

Hi guys! I built a version of this stand almost 5 years ago after reading these forums, but it got lost in my last move. Now I'm looking to build another one, but improve on the design. I have a little more money to spend this time

My original design used 2x2's that were lashed together rather than using hardware, and I used conduit for the cross beam. I used rope to hang the cross beam from the lashings on the 2x2s, and just looped my hammock straps over the ends of the conduit. I tied some cord around the base to keep the legs from spreading.

IMG_20160108_200545.jpg

So, definitely about as cheap as you can get.

The most obvious initial issue was that the cross beam was not strong enough, and although it didn't buckle was super sketchy, so I replaced it with 3/4" steel gas pipe, and that did the trick.

The second issue was that every once in a while, when I was getting in or out of the hammock, the asymmetric loading would cause one of the legs to lift up, allowing it to swing inward freely due to gravity, causing the entire thing to suddenly collapse and the cross beam to fall on my head. To fix this, I hung some concrete blocks with rope from the lashing on the 2x2s to act as a counterweight that would hold everything stable while I was getting in and out. Worked great, I had it set up in my apartment and used it daily for over a year.

Now I want to design a nicer one, probably using hardware, and I'm thinking of a better way to prevent the legs from swinging both outwards AND inwards. It looks like most of the designs people have posted use string or rope to keep the legs from spreading, but that doesn't prevent them from moving inwards.

I saw one photo of a stand that was stabilized using ground stakes to keep the legs from lifting, which is cool, but only works for outdoor use, since I can't put stakes into my floor.

One idea is to use something rigid, like more pieces of 2x2 or wooden dowels to keep the tripod completely rigid. But then the design would lose some portability since you couldn't fold them up.

Does anyone have any elegant design ideas?

[Tankosl]

I'm not sure if it's an 'elegant' design idea but how about some form of 'hook and eye' design?
You could have a series of hooks that latch into an eye on the adjacent leg, but fold away when not needed......

[bonsaihiker]

Come on fhqwgads, take it to the limit (the Cheat is to the limit).

Hehe.

I'm looking forward to a solution. Let us know what you come up with.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

[sunsetkayaker]

35174873-3498-445F-8859-DD1B3F888F6E.jpeg

Maybe you could cut the top like this and add a cap to keep them together once the stand is set up. I think that would effectively keep the feet out.

[CVKealey]

BTW, just to let everyone know, the "dowel inside of PVC" idea above didn't work out. Still too much flex over that span. I caved and got a couple 1-3/8" galvanized fence top rails, but have yet to do the cutting and fitting on those.

Regarding the "keep the tripods from collapsing" issue, I'm thinking of using the cutoffs from the legs (I bought 8' 2x2s and cut them down to ~6') as cross braces. Imagine the tripod is an easel. You'd have a board or shelf of some kind going from one leg to the other. Just use the ~2' sections of 2x2 there, maybe drill through-holes and use cotter pins to secure them. They don't need to support any weight, just hold the legs a certain distance apart.

This would work easily for the "inside" legs. For the one "outside" leg, you could run a similar brace from the leg to some point on the brace across the front legs and secure that with pins as well. I mean, you could also use screws and wing nuts (cheaper, but less convenient).