Hope nobody minds this being posted here- but figured the best place for the intended audience and I didn't want to bury it in the bottom of the other thread.
I've been working with Josh at Rota Locura on some Carbon Fiber poles for some of my bridge models. So far so good and I highly recommend anyone looking to bump up their bridge and cut the pack weight to look into these poles. I am currently testing a set and they are doing well and save nearly half the weight of traditional poles. As I am not very familiar with carbon fiber as a material so I was picking Josh's brain on these and some of the issues that might happen with them.
A few things:
You, of course, are going to die!
Probably the most important DO NOT ALTER THE LENGTH OF THE DOGBONES.
As you shorten the dogbone lengths (a popular mod for UL minded RR users it seems) you increase the forces on the poles. If you are reasonably light (under 175 or so) you might be able to bend this rule a bit but for anyone 200lbs or so will greatly increase the chance of a failure. You're shaving half the pole weight with CF... the couple grams of amsteel saved isn't worth it the risk.
If you're 200+ consider a hybrid set.
Get a 710 pole for the head and a 600 pole for the foot. Besides cheap insurance at the cost of a few grams; The other advantage here is that you will potentially have a nesting set (foot poles fit into the head poles) if you get a three piece head pole. I was not entirely sure that this is not something Josh is doing already but it works well. This is what I came up with for the big guy bridge and I am 230lbs right now and my pole lengths in the Luxury bridge are much larger that the RR.
If you're over 225- don't do a three piece head pole. (you might be pushing it already as is). Stick with a two piece head and foot- the only disadvantage being the do not nest.
The very good news- There were some issues early on with a few minor manufacturing finer points which seem to have been resolved. So provided you're using these properly it seems that many of the kinks have been worked out by those brave enough to have pushed for these.
It sounded like there has only been one true failure thus far: which is the reason I wanted to post this thread.
A while back a forum member (name starts with an R from france?) started a thread about shortening the RR and about the metal pole socket contacting with the pole at an angle as a result. He wanted to know if this was a problem.
While not that big of a deal on Aluminum poles, I could see this being a much bigger deal on a Carbon pole. As mentioned above, shortening the dogbone length increases the forces on the pole. It also increases the angle at which the metal clip on the ends of the RR contacts the pole tips. Based on that other members pictures it looks like the angle was decreased enough so that only a third or so of the pole shaft itself was firmly in contact with the metal end. In addition, the tips on the Roto Locura sets I received were a bit smaller diameter so it's possible that there was an additional force applied (think of a small lever like a beer bottle opener) on the pole tip and the pole itself.
The failure described to me was towards the user. It could have been random chance but the pole failures I've had were unpredictable but more often than not the poles deflect upwards... not towards the user.
What I think happened was a combination of the above items causing the failure.
1- Decreased dobgone length increased compression forces.
2-The off angle of the metal bridge ends caused uneven loading and put all the load on the tree side of the pole.
3- The smaller pole tip was just enough extra torque to contribute to the failure.
Think of a bow being drawn ever so slightly and shattering.
Now all that said- I'm not looking to scare anyone away. I think this is a great option for those of us who enjoy our bridges and still want to keep things light. I encourage folks who are backpacking with their bridges to consider carbon poles as a very nice upgrade. Josh's poles are well made and I do not anticipate any failures when used as intended. While not cheap... it's not the most dramatic hit you'd pay for UL gear and the poles should easily last as long or longer than the bridge itself.
One final tip... if you would like to continue to push I would share the same advice I shared in the other thread...
If you insist on shortening the dogbone- ditch the metal clip. Larks head the dogbone directly to the bridge suspension and put the pole tip in there. That flexible connection should greatly reduce or eliminate any chance of the metal clip unevenly loading the poles (metal or Carbon). Besides... if you're shaving grams- cutting out 4 aluminum bars is a good spot, lol.
I would further encourage you to never reduce the length of the dogbone below 100% of the pole length with carbon fiber until more is known.
Josh is working with those of us here pushing the limits of things- but the truth is nobody really knows exactly how AL poles work with bridges, and even less people know how Carbon works, lol.
This is a community experiment amongst hammock forum members so please share your experiences and hang safely!
PS- these poles are not listed on the website for these reasons. You are hanging at your own risk.
Please contact Josh at Rota Locura via email to get a set made and/or see this thread for more info.
https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...-spreader-bars
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by underserviced
Bookmarks