Super simple, strong, fairly cheap, very quick bipod style stand.

**Vanner** · 05-28-2016, 15:58

In the first two pictures I had just gotten out and was getting ready to break it down. I put the fixed loop on the eye bolt just for the picture. When I was hanging I had the fixed loop around the ridgepole between the eyebolt and back leg.

On the picture hanging inside with the 5 ft legs I have the loop around the end of the ridgepole before the eyebolt. I'm not real worried about it slipping with the force pulling towards the center of the stand.

**Ratdog** · 05-28-2016, 16:20

Originally Posted by Vanner

In the first two pictures I had just gotten out and was getting ready to break it down. I put the fixed loop on the eye bolt just for the picture. When I was hanging I had the fixed loop around the ridgepole between the eyebolt and back leg.

On the picture hanging inside with the 5 ft legs I have the loop around the end of the ridgepole before the eyebolt. I'm not real worried about it slipping with the force pulling towards the center of the stand.

Do you have any limiters to prevent the legs from spreading?

Works without it when the legs are close together, as the legs approach an equilateral triangle, it becomes necessary or the legs will spread and collapse.

**Vanner** · 05-28-2016, 21:23

Originally Posted by Ratdog

Do you have any limiters to prevent the legs from spreading?

Works without it when the legs are close together, as the legs approach an equilateral triangle, it becomes necessary or the legs will spread and collapse.

Currently, no. I haven't noticed any separation while hanging inside today. I plan on putting a limiter on I just don't know how I want to right now. I will probably make it with S hooks and cordage.

**Hammonkey** · 05-29-2016, 02:02

Originally Posted by Ratdog

I guess it wouldn't depending on where you drill it.

Wonder if drilling the L would put a lot of stress on the clevis pin and ridgepole at the point of contact. The method I used allows for a little movement, not much but some.

Either way will allow for an extension presuming it's the swaged end that is inserted and then I could drill that and pin it with the same clevis.

Been caught up with yard work for an elderly neighbor and now it's skeeter time. Project work will have to wait until tomorrow.

I picked up some 1/4"x 2" hinge lock pins from Lowes today. I did the drilling and pinning this afternoon with a 1/4" drill bit after using a center punch to start off where I wanted the hole to keep the bit from walking. I loaded up the pole into the L-fitting and tightened it down with the eyebolt to keep the pole from spinning. I drilled straight through both sides and it really went much easier than I expected. Next I filed out the holes to deburr them and make the fit of the pin nice and smooth. I finished up by using the corner edge of a flat file to make grooves in the end of the pole and L-fitting to help make assembly go much easier and to identify each pole to the corresponding fitting.

**Taildragger** · 05-29-2016, 07:04

Has anyone tried using the mitered L as the outside leg fitting? Curious what problems you ran into. Thanks. Great thread by the way, have enjoyed watching your projects progress.

http://tarps.com/images/138mitreL.jpg

**Ratdog** · 05-29-2016, 09:10

Originally Posted by Taildragger

Has anyone tried using the mitered L as the outside leg fitting? Curious what problems you ran into. Thanks. Great thread by the way, have enjoyed watching your projects progress.

http://tarps.com/images/138mitreL.jpg

Check spurtle stand threads...there's one linked to in here somewhere

https://hammockforums.net/forum/show...hlight=spurtle

**Hammonkey** · 05-29-2016, 10:43

The issue i see with using the mitered L fitting for the outside leg of a bipod stand is that it separates thd legs from eachother and puts some weird forces on the toprail. No idea what it would do to stability. I imagine that it would make hanging a tarp a little more constraining.

**Ratdog** · 05-29-2016, 14:50

So I went ahead and drilled my pass thru L brackets and as it happens, I have those same 1/4" x 2" clevis pin/hinged lock pins gizmos.

Got lucky with the drill press, the fitting on the bracket drops right into my press table and didn't have to line anything else up, just drilled. Started with 1/4" and then oversized a little. Figure a little play is better than none. Turns out I would need more than a little.

Parts being parts, some pieces like to go together better than others so for sure there wound up being a sweet setup that snapped and pinned together more easily. I'll be marking the legs, rails and brackets. Like the little notch idea but I might go color coding at some point.

Now I did hit a gotcha with my setup. Because my toprail is effectively one solid piece by virtue of the snap lock joining the two top rail pieces together, there is a specific orientation to the toprail when it is pinned in the L brackets. This I did not consider prior to drilling so I had to leave one end pinned free of the bracket as shown in my above pic, that way I could rotate the rail, or the L bracket holding the leg. So I do wind up needing a limiting strap on one end.

Also, by pinning both ends, if you have a continuous toprail, you should consider which way you are going to pin the brackets, both on the same side or on opposite sides. You'll want the flexibility of moving the legs to adjust for terrain, leg length and toprail height.

So for now, I'll leave the L pass thru bracket at one end pinned to the top rail and the other end free to rotate with the pin being a stopper to prevent the pass thru L from slipping off the end and use the limiting strap to stop the inward slide.

When I loaded the hammock with one end pinned, the other not and no limiting strap, the legs walked in almost 20". I should say slid in a bunch when I got in the hammock and then walked in a bid more with movement of the hammock. This applied considerable downforce to the top rail, enough to bend one piece which I replaced with my 'leftover' piece from the leg assembly process. So there is definitely non trivial compression going on, even with the hammock suspended between the legs as opposed to outside the legs.

**tangara** · 05-29-2016, 20:19

[QUOTE=Taildragger;1634314]Has anyone tried using the mitered L as the outside leg fitting? Curious what problems you ran into. Thanks. Great thread by the way, have enjoyed watching your projects progress.

I made one a while back using 2 of the 1 inch High Pitch Reinforced Right Corners. You only have to buy 2, and they have a 30 degree spread. The drawback is that there is one extra arm that is unused, but you don't have the issues of needing spread limiters on the legs or using some kind of tensioner for keeping the two L brackets from walking.

**Ratdog** · 05-31-2016, 13:00

[QUOTE=tangara;1634492]

Originally Posted by Taildragger

Has anyone tried using the mitered L as the outside leg fitting? Curious what problems you ran into. Thanks. Great thread by the way, have enjoyed watching your projects progress.

I made one a while back using 2 of the 1 inch High Pitch Reinforced Right Corners. You only have to buy 2, and they have a 30 degree spread. The drawback is that there is one extra arm that is unused, but you don't have the issues of needing spread limiters on the legs or using some kind of tensioner for keeping the two L brackets from walking.

I like that approach but my concern is all the torque placed on the single T's at the bottom of the stand. All side to side motion is limited by these T's and you are totally dependent on the welds. The welds on the tarps.com brackets aren't anywhere near as beefy as say those on the Meck stand. That and you need pretty level ground to setup the stand. Even so, it was the first stand I built, happened to use plumbing supplies instead of brackets from tarps.com.