Carbon Fiber spreader bars

[hodad]

Impressive base weight! Do you have any youtube videos or gear list posted anywhere? I'd love to see how you put your kit together.

https://lighterpack.com/r/8d7es9

[hodad]

I've had the rutalocura for 3 years now which multiple nights. I've broken two sections due to rigging the WBBridge too tight.
The best setup so far is to have rutalocura build 4 sections 15.25 inches and one section 11 inches. This allows the ability to have universal head and foot sections with an extra middle section for the head. paired with the rutalocura 2 piece hiking poles there is now redundancy at the foot section, as the pole is exactly 30.5 inches when compressed. I'm probably going to have rutalocura send two more 11 inch sections for extended treks as it's alway the middle section at the head that seems to fail in both the CF and the aluminum poles.Poles Hammock.jpg

[gunner65]

https://lighterpack.com/r/8d7es9

Now that is a light base!

[ilikemyhammoc]

Anyone tried to make their own?

[cmoulder]

Anyone tried to make their own?

I made 2 pairs of 36" CF spreader bars. #1 pair were made were 3-section with 13mm (OD) x 11mm (ID) tube with 11x9mm ferrules, 1.5mm shock cord to make them easy to deploy and metal tips. Weight was 5.5 oz for the pair.

#2 pair were some very light (3.6 oz for the pair) 2-section 36" spreaders. More detail on this very light set if you check out this post and the posts that follow.

I am really not a 'bridge guy' so I passed these along to another forum member for testing. I slept one night on the 3.6oz set and they were fine.

There is another set I made that weigh nothing, simply because I modified my MYOG trekking poles (that weigh 4oz each) to double as spreader bars.

[FireInMyBones]

I made 2 pairs of 36" CF spreader bars. #1 pair were made were 3-section with 13mm (OD) x 11mm (ID) tube with 11x9mm ferrules, 1.5mm shock cord to make them easy to deploy and metal tips. Weight was 5.5 oz for the pair.
#2 pair were some very light (3.6 oz for the pair) 2-section 36" spreaders. More detail on this very light set if you check out this post and the posts that follow.
I am really not a 'bridge guy' so I passed these along to another forum member for testing. I slept one night on the 3.6oz set and they were fine.
There is another set I made that weigh nothing, simply because I modified my MYOG trekking poles (that weigh 4oz each) to double as spreader bars.

Amazing job! I'd love a detailed how to. I use the nesting poles from Ruta Locura for my insulated bridge and like them, but the weight for your second pair is mind blowing. I use a 36" head bar and a 30" foot bar. How much do you weigh, if you don't mind my asking?

[cmoulder]

Amazing job! I'd love a detailed how to. I use the nesting poles from Ruta Locura for my insulated bridge and like them, but the weight for your second pair is mind blowing. I use a 36" head bar and a 30" foot bar. How much do you weigh, if you don't mind my asking?

I'm 170/5'9" and perhaps at the upper end for something so light. I used them only 1 night so how they might hold up long term I don't know, but with reasonable care they should be fine. Compression load is no problem but it wouldn't take a huge side load to damage them. Snug fit and clean cuts for even distribution of stresses.

I got the tubes at an ebay source HERE that I have used before and did all fabrication with a Dremel tool (cutting wheel and sanding drum) and some sandpaper, gluing with JB Weld Kwik, clean-up with rubbing alcohol.

Tubes are 1 section of 16mmOD x 15mmID at 16.75" and 1 section (same tube) at 19.25". Two 5" ferrules made of 15mmx13mm were glued halfway into the 16.25" tubes, resulting in pieces of the same length when the spreaders are broken down. (I would have used 15x14 for the ferrules but I couldn't find any.)

For a 30" foot bar you'd have to play with the arithmetic a bit to see how to get them to come out even... I'd still go with the 5" ferrule however.

The tips are a little trickier. I used leftover bits (15x13, 13x11, 11x9 and 9x7) from previous trekking pole projects and stacked and glued them like spacer rings, then glued the assembled tips into the ends of the bars.

tip01.jpg tip02.jpg tip03.jpg

[ilikemyhammoc]

wow glad I asked, this is great, thanks !

[ilikemyhammoc]

soo i made the same bars of the same size, thickness, from the same seller and they all look good (its definitely rollwrapped aaaaaand im 170lbs (just like you) and the bars will break when i sit in ;-) its close, but they will break. Fun fact, if i attach the cordage the same way you do on the other post it definitely bends more than if i attach the hammock to the bar then the dog bones to the bars (instead of the hammock to the dog bones and the dog bones to the bar)

note its not bending at the end points, its in the middle of the bar itself - worse it's definitely bending just as much in the mid section where the joint is (which has way more carbon)



also note my bars weight is 115gr (so also a bit heavier than yours anyway, but i did beef up the tips a bit). and just in case: its definitely not my first time with carbon and of course the tubes have no damage or splint from cutting or anything like that Could also be a bad batch of course.

image-20190605_205216.jpg

[sidneyhornblower]

Amazing job! I'd love a detailed how to. I use the nesting poles from Ruta Locura for my insulated bridge and like them, but the weight for your second pair is mind blowing. I use a 36" head bar and a 30" foot bar. How much do you weigh, if you don't mind my asking?

Hi Jeremy,

I'll jump in and admit that I got to play with cmoulder's carbon fiber spreader bars for a couple of months. I was dumbfounded when I first handled the 3.6 ounce set he made. I've used them several nights in a Just Bill bridge and had no issues at all. For reference, I'm about 5'9" and weigh around 160. I kept trying to think of some excuse so I wouldn't have to give them back after testing, but I couldn't come up with anything believeable. I also tested the hammock using the 3-section set, and in fact used them more often. Both sets worked without issue.