The TurtleDog stand

[old4hats]

I have used a shackle between the hinge and the eye bolt in the top rail with much success, wasn't particularly hard to get set up. Some times I use an amsteel loop to be able to adjust the height of the top rail from the ground without moving the tripod legs. Its all fun, easy to try, what works wonderful for some seems to bother others. My advise is to try whatever you come up with, knowing that it is so very easy to change to something else.

[hppyfngy]

Didn't work real well for me. Angles kinda wrong, and much more difficult to set up. I made a couple continuous loops of amsteel and hooked them through my shackles. They just stay on there. When I set it up, I pull the loop through the eye bolt toward the end then pull the loop under the top rail.

I think that you had some difficulty with your shackle and everything fitting in there because you have that third leg on the inside of the hinge. I can see that it would fold up flatter the way you've done it, so I guess the choice is fold flat or use the shackle. There are clearly many many ways to do this stand.

The 'arm' that the rope makes is key to a good/gentle swing. If you make the attachment to the ridge pole too short/ridged you loose the swinging motion.
Happy, to make a higher stand, would I just add an equal length to each leg to keep the same spread angle?
Example: to make a 1 foot higher stand would I add 1 foot to the two long legs and add 1 foot to the short leg?
What I want to do is keep two legs at 8' and I'm thinking the short leg would be then be 2 3/4" shorter.

Without knowing exactly what your setup is, I'd say yes. Add the same length to each leg to start with. If that makes a proper tripod, you're done. If not, you can always take a bit more off the short leg if it makes it more stable. Longer legs at the same angle = wider tripod which should be more stable.

BTW, I'm very interested in this "leg lengthening" technology of which you speak. I could have used that many times in my carpentering days.

[oldpappy]

Thank-you, of course I will be making a new stand using new 8 foot 2x2's.
I agree that long legs are a good thing, but I never had to worry much about adding length to a short leg:>)

[Chigger]

Lets try some pics, should explain better:

+ 1 on the location of the back leg. Just unbolt and put hinge on inside of back leg and you should have enough room to work the shackle.

[Womble]

So I had the wood since last autumn, but a period with plenty of trouble kept me away from building the stand. But now its done...




I did a overnight in it and it stands solid...though my wife looked quite skeptically at it, she knows about my building skills.

Please don't look out for closeup details, I'm not happy with my finish and will surely build another stand when I have time (), but it will probably be a stand based on galvanized tubes, so that it can stay outside all year through.

[hppyfngy]

Well good for you Womble, but another case of putting the third leg on the inside of the hinge?



If you move the leg that's on the long part of the "T" to the outside of the hinge, the tripods would fold up properly.

Unless you have it configured this way for some reason I don't quite understand... which is entirely possible...

[Womble]

Yeah, well...my wife knows why she doesn't trust anything built by me...

Though I probably would have noticed it next week-end when I have to move it to pass with the lawn mower

[gothmog]

I just put it inside so it would fold up/store flat.

[hppyfngy]

I just put it inside so it would fold up/store flat.

Yep, I can see that. As is, if you put a 45 / on the top of it, it might be enough out of you way so that the shackle would be easier to use and you wouldn't lose structural strength.

Either way. hyoh.

[SouthernExposure]

Here is my interpretation of the Turtle Dog Stand. I will be using this rig on the playa during Burning Man this year. I have read through most of the designs and put this together based on what seemed to be the easiest and most efficient approaches.




Here is the set-up with cords limiting the travel of the tripod legs. The hammock is one of the crinkle taffeta tablecloth, gathered-end designs with dogbone lines larksheaded to the gathered ends and a structural ridgeline for supporting the UQ. I have included a set of bath-puff snakeskin for general housekeeping ease.




I attached a quick link to the hinge to attach the continuous loop that holds the crossbar. I added a length of old bicycle inner tube to each end of the crossbar and tucked the remaining tail end inside of the tube end. I wrapped the Amsteel continuous loop on the padded ends of the crossbar and cinched them down.




I made the dogbone line with an end loop large enough to easily loop over the ends of the crossbar and position them to rest on the wraps.




Here is the complete setup with the UQ suspension attached to the sliding Prussicks knots on the SRL to allow me to adjust the UQ from the hammock without having to get out.

My next small project for this will be to make a strapped carrying case for the components. Thanks for looking!

SE