Tuning in. I bought the sit drag last year and have all the stuff sitting on my desk to transform it, just haven’t gotten around to it. After about an hr with an awl I’m thinking a sewing machine is the way to go. If anyone wants to let me borrow one let me know!
Got all of my materials ready to go. I’m going to sacrifice an old Cabelas heavy denim shirt that shrunk on me. I will post a detailed list when I’m done to make sure what I use.
The seat is 30” long. I stuffed it with some 1” egg crate foam.
I made the bridge out of the same 1” webbing but I doubled it up. I ran a tight zig zag stitch the full length of it to be safe. The loops have a piece of rope for structure as well. The final length is 28”.
Since I had more webbing (30 feet goes a long way), I made a girth hitch tether for the saddle out of it. I tied a few bowlines to accommodate different size trees.
Set up on the tree:
I made a lineman’s belt to attach to my rock climbing harness. The zip ties are not structural. They simply hold the loops in place. The lineman’s belt is only for the initial climb since I’ll be using a lifeline as well.
The entire set up with the lifeline rope and harness weighs in at 5.2 pounds. With my climbing sticks included, I’ll be at less than 20 pounds. I think my backpack is heavier than that.
The total investment is about $150 and 4 hours of labor.
I sat in it and did some jumping to test the stitches. No popping or noise other than the tree moving as I jumped. Since I’ll be relying on the harness to save me in a fall, I will feel safe when I’m 20’ off the ground.
I will be trying it next weekend in the wood as I sneak around the lease to get new views.
That will work! I just finished one as well. I have done quite a bit of sewing so i tackled a more complicated design.
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Whoa! Definitely puts mine to shame. The bulk of my expense was in the harness and carabiners. I plan on building another saddle soon now that I’ve gotten the rough draft out of the way. My sewing progressed immensely throughout the project. I want to do one with a little more back support integrated into it.
Once you get a handle on sewing, you can make pretty much anything you want. You get better and better with every project if you make an effort. Eventually your stuff can look as good or better than what you can buy.
I was seriously considering buying a kestrel saddle. But they are just so simple and so expensive. So i just made a clone of one in about 5 hours. It cost me zero dollars because i already had all of the materials from other projects. I always try to buy more than i need when i order stuff.
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