Has anyone tried making their own trekking poles, using flip locks from another set of poles?
I’ve been tinkering with making spreader bars out of trekking poles for a bridge hammock. So far, my Black Diamond poles do not seem up to the challenge, even with dowels inserted. (They have not been officially tested, but I’m able to flex them quite easily by hand. No, I’m not freakishly strong. I only weight about 160 but I do not want to injure myself with a spreader bar collapse incident.)
I’m taking a slightly different route—instead of searching for trekking poles that might work as spreaders and testing them one by one, I’m messing around with taking poles, such as Easton aluminum, that have proven to be good spreader bars and see if I can fashion them into trekking poles.
One idea I had was to start with a 36” segment of Easton poles (two 18” poles connected with the “tube” piece). For the remaining segment, which would be the handle piece ( about 13” long), I’d like to attach that to the 36” segment with a flip lock from a set of cheapie poles.
In other words, the flip lock would act as a connector between the handle of the trekking pole and the remaining 36” body, which would become the spreader bars when I remove the handle. The handle and the body segments would be flush with one another; I do not intend for the pieces to “telescope” and adjust—that’s not really what I’m after here. But if teh flip locks can only be used with poles of different diameters, I'd be OK with that, too. (As a bonus, the handle segments could act as toggles for my Marlin Spike Hitch.)
Has anyone tried recycling flip locks like this? How did it work out? Are they only designed to grab onto two poles of different diameters that collapse into each other?
P.S. I’ve asked various HF members for assistance with spreader bar questions. Everyone, especially Grizz, has been very helpful. Just wanted to say how great this site is.
-Michael (SoCal Mike)
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