Working with carbon fiber toggles

[Armchair Guy]

Sorry to come in with a negative but I've stopped using carbon fiber toggles. I've crushed and bent several and gave up on them. I am a big guy so it may work for some but not me.

[BigE94]

Sorry to come in with a negative but I've stopped using carbon fiber toggles. I've crushed and bent several and gave up on them. I am a big guy so it may work for some but not me.

+1 here. Arrow shafts are made to have linear strength not lateral. I'm not and engineer BTW. I too am a big fella and quit using carbon toggles after breaking a few. If I use toggles they are oak dowels. These days I use biners.

[zekedoobie]

I've also had a few carbon toggles which I've made from a broken arrow fail on me. 4 or 5 now have crushed in on themselves...thankfully not landing me on the ground but when I take it out of the marlin spike hitch they were severely damaged.

[Spaceman]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I will give them a shot this weekend and see what happens. I tip the scales at 205, so I'm hoping they are strong enough.

[weylan]

I understand that they might crush.
But I was wondering more, are we not using them right? And in the marlin spike hitch, are we not putting the hammock on the hitch in the wrong place? Causing too much crushing pressure on the toggle?

And the hitch rope needs to be more on the supporting rope?


Dreaming of camping or aquaponics and the pond.

[boatstall]

A word of unrequested caution about arrow shafts utilized as toggles.

Please do not ever utilize a broken arrow shaft. When a carbon shaft arrow incurs damage, the shock frequencies radiate, potentially breaking bonds within the fiber/resin structure. And often this damage is not visible as the stress fractures are within, and often not extensive enough to cause breakthrough on the exterior. These fractures may not show up until loaded as a toggle. Arrows are built to have linear strength stiffness, not specifically designed to withstand diameter compression, as required by our use as toggles.

Please only utilize the cutoff sections from brand new arrows, that are scrap, after an arrow has been shortened for a specific draw length. These have been thrown away daily in an archery shop.

Or buy a brand new single arrow in the heaviest weight available, and have it cut into the lengths that you want. There are wide choice variances in arrow diameters, as well as wall thickness (stiffness). I almost hate to use the dreaded "heaviest" word here, but your archery shop speaks that language.

If you are a lightweight body mass, a small diameter, thin wall arrow shaft, might work well for you. But I am a NOT a lightweight body mass, and would require a larger diameter, thicker walled, heavier arrow, to make a dependable toggle. Just remember to match the arrow strength to the body type.
Gram weight difference between thin light walled or heavy, is tiny in a 3-4" carbon toggle, but the strength difference is huge.

I would be interested to know if those who had failures using arrow shaft toggles, had utilized material from a new arrow shaft,
or whether they used toggles made from salvaged previously broken (stress fractured) arrows.

And also whether the chosen arrow shaft dimension characteristics matched the user size of the toggles.

[curlymaple42]

Drill with a good quality brad point bit. Wrap in masking tape before.

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[curlymaple42]

I hear in Texas, this also works for Brass toggles from spent shell casings.

Oh!!!!!!! I never thought of using those!!!! Time to go dig around for the right size!!

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