gmcttr also offered this advice, over on the TurtleDog Thread, but I gave up trying to add segmentation, after my failed efforts. It seemed to put all the stress on the connection point of the ridgepole, meaning it's going to need to be very secure. I kept wondering if a sleeve could fit over the connection to reinforce it even more. The thing is, that when the RidgePole is that long, the whole thing bends a LOT when I try to mount the hammock. The entire RP bowed a LOT before bending the stud-connector I bestowed inside of it. I made sure to maintain my 30º hangle, so I am completely dumbfounded.
Before I went to the conduit ridgepole, I was using a photography backdrop pole, which has four segments, but they are long internal, solid pieces that twist-lock together. It held my body weight just fine when I used three segments, but whenever I added the fourth segment to get 12.5 feet length, it lost all it's rigidity and would bend like a wet noodle. I'm not sure if 10 feet is the magic number, but every time I tried to go longer, it has been disastrous.
It would be great to see others build this stand and I hope you'll post pictures. Maybe it could evolve into something better, with segmentation.
Here's a picture of the segmentation that totally worked on my Prototype Ridge Pole shown in the first "Test Hang" in my video. It's not a DIY thing though, as I bought it this way. This one is aluminum and really light. It came with a nice bag that holds all the segments in their respective sleeves. I'd love to have a Turtle Stand with these attributes, but I'm not capable of creating it alone. I'm hoping the ideas will come from other people's contributions, synergically advancing its evolution.
It might be hard to see, but the male end has a notch, that "locks" into the female end's divot. Each section is 37.5 inches long, making all four sections equal twelve and half feet long when assembled. At full length, it wanted to snap when I tried it. Using only three sections, for 9.375 feet length worked amazingly well and fully supported my 212 lb body weight.
I switched to the conduit ridgepole, because I prefer the eyebolts at the ends, instead of my janky fuel hose inside the holes in the end. Tonight will be my forth night in the ten foot conduit eye-bolted ridgepole that I like very much.
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