Chair Feet

[Todd T]

The engineer in me suspects the crossed straps will not work as well as straps going left to right.  When I sit in my Chair Zero, the rear legs definitely get more weight and they are always the first to sink.  So a strap between the rear legs would seem to be the most important one, possibly the only one really needed in most situations?

[JCH]

Todd – That is what testing is for :)

I have not noticed a huge difference in sinkage of rear feet vs front…but now I will pay closer attention.

[Todd T]

Todd – That is what testing is for :)

I have not noticed a huge difference in sinkage of rear feet vs front…but now I will pay closer attention.

My dropped hint worked!  :-)

It could be that my height (long legs) causes me to put more weight on the back legs than most.  Could be I’m just weird.  Regardless, I’ll be anxious to hear any fore-vs-aft observations.

[Tim (Slowhike) Garner]

Good point about the side-to-side straps Tod T. Something to look at.

[JCH]

Todd – How do you normally sit in the chair?  If sitting with knees bent. i.e. with your feet pulled up close to the front of the chair, I would expect that to shift weight to the rear feet.  In that configuration your legs may even be bearing some of your weight that would otherwise be placed on the front of the chair.  A lot of movement in the chair, or leaning back could also affect which feet get the most weight.

If sitting with legs stretched out, which is the way I normally sit, I would expect a more even distribution of body weight among the four chair feet.  I know that sitting in that matter causes the front edge of the chair to bear a lot of weight under my thighs.

Of course all of this is conjecture until proven/disproven in the field.

[Todd T]

JCH, I think most every position puts more weight on the back legs.  When sitting up, my knees are high and my position naturally pushes me toward the back.  When my legs are stretched out, I’m naturally leaning back in a “relaxed” position, which likewise shifts weight to the rear, though possibly not as much as when my knees are up.  But I’ll have to take better notice next time to see if I’m remembering the details right.

[Sharon Bingham]

Following. Very curious how this works out. I’ve been similarly frustrated by the chair legs sinking.

[Bruce M]

here ya go – 2.9 ounces, no sewing. Cheap as the dirt they will sit on:

 

[JCH]

Bruce – I actually tried that method…saw the same YT vid you posted. I found it to be way more futzy and over 3x as heavy as the golf ball hack.  Also did not, in my experience, work as well as the golf balls.  Seems to work great for YT poster tho, and might for others as well.

[Bruce M]

looks like I might need to get some practice golf balls.

Anybody make UL golf clubs??

[jscott]

“But I have been sleeping in my recliner with no CPAP and no rude awakenings for several weeks now.”

You might try a soft foam neck brace, turned around so the back rests against your chin. Some folks have what’s called “chin tuck” apnea. They drop their heads during sleep and it cuts off the air flow. A neck brace used to keep one from doing this can be effective. And since it’s almost impossible to bring a cpap machine backpacking, this is a lightweight alternative. At home, I use a cpap AND the neck brace. the latter also keeps my mouth closed so that I breathe through the nasal mask and keep pressure up.

the hammock chair looks great. much better than most packable ground chairs, ime. It gets your body up and lets you kick out your legs, swing and relax. Brilliant! as long as there are trees around…

 

[Tim (Slowhike) Garner]

Thanks, jscott.

I have not herd of the neck brace. I’ll look into that.

[Josh J]

I made something similar. Mine go diagonal between the feet, less than 1oz I’d I remember correctly.  I’ll take some pictures of how much it sinks in sand, later, not much btw

[JCH]

My cross straps are made of 1″ wide 7g/foot webbing and weigh 1.2 oz total.  I see Dutch has some 1″ wide “spider webbing” that weighs 1.5g/foot.  Wonder if it would work…looks really thin.  If so, both straps would come in less than 10g total.

Thats 1/2 the weight of the golf ball hack!

[Tim (Slowhike) Garner]

I see no reason the spider webbing wouldn’t work.

[JCH]

Calculating total constructed weight showed that replacing the straps with spider 1.5 webbing would save ~ 0.7 oz…there is not enough webbing used to make a big difference. Since we are talking about a 2 lb luxury item only packed on certain trips the weight loss was not worth the effort.

However, replacing the two 10′ polyester webbing straps used for the Chammock suspension with spider 1.5 straps dropped 3 oz.  Now the Chammock with full suspension (spider webbing/amsteel soft shackles and amsteel between the chammock hang points) comes in at just under 8 oz.  It is my go-to UL chair.

[JCH]

A quick update – the “x-straps” have proven very effective in every situation including soft sand.  In the most challenging conditions the chair will sink in a little (of course), but quickly arrives at an acceptable steady state.  IMO there is no need for a cross-strap between the back feet.

[Tim (Slowhike) Garner]

Thanks for the up date.

[DAN-Y]

[Josh J]

Wonder how long the tape will hold, great idea though. I’ve got some fabric I may try. Also been working on kydex feet.

[DAN-Y]

[JCH]

I had some of those.  They didn’t last very long…the “ring” broke off and then the foot was no better than any other.  They were kind of heavy too.

[DAN-Y]

We don’t want them if they’re heavy!

[JCH]

Allow me to elaborate…they worked well and did prevent the chair from sinking.  They just did not last long. Combine that with adding 3 oz to the chair and I feel they are not a good choice.

Full disclosure: The feet I had were from TravelChair. They claim a patent on them. The Patikil feet on Amazon are almost certainly knock-offs…note the smaller fillets under the ring and the different flutes around the tip. These might be lighter than those from TravelChair, but given how the ones I had failed, I would not expect these to last any longer.

I have spent an inordinate amount of time testing a multitude of methods to address chair foot sinkage and in terms of performance, reliability and minimizing added weight, the crossed strap modification of the solution originally proposed by Mr. Garner is the best I have found…nothing else is even close.

[DAN-Y]

Then let us make the Garner Strap. Looks like a well thought out design. Nothing else is even close.

[Author]

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