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XOP platform with a Muddy Pro stick?

flinginairos

flinginairos

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Sep 19, 2014
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Wanting to put together a platform but use one of the Muddy 20" sticks I have. Will the XOP platform mounted on the bottom side above the steps work OK? I was thinking the rope/cam would hold the top end of the stick then adding a whoopie sling made of Amsteel on the bottem ears of the XOP for the bottom half. Want to order stuff today. Any suggestions?
 
flinginairos said:
Wanting to put together a platform but use one of the Muddy 20" sticks I have. Will the XOP platform mounted on the bottom side above the steps work OK? I was thinking the rope/cam would hold the top end of the stick then adding a whoopie sling made of Amsteel on the bottem ears of the XOP for the bottom half. Want to order stuff today. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
I've been playing with that exact thing this week. I had to add a spacer between the stick and the leveling screw. The cam over works really well to get the platform portion tight, but it is really hard to get the rope tight enough to keep the top of the stick on the tree. I tried to move the top bat wing down and put it below the cleats so I could get the rope tighter and then cam the stick over. That helped, but it's still not prefect. I was on a pine tree however which is really soft and the brackets started digging into the tree which made everything loosen up.

I'm thinking of raising the seat up and then putting a really tight cam rope on the seat to hold it all in place. Basically like bass boy.

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Erniepower said:
I've been playing with that exact thing this week. I had to add a spacer between the stick and the leveling screw. The cam over works really well to get the platform portion tight, but it is really hard to get the rope tight enough to keep the top of the stick on the tree. I tried to move the top bat wing down and put it below the cleats so I could get the rope tighter and then cam the stick over. That helped, but it's still not prefect. I was on a pine tree however which is really soft and the brackets started digging into the tree which made everything loosen up.

I'm thinking of raising the seat up and then putting a really tight cam rope on the seat to hold it all in place. Basically like bass boy.

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Click to expand...
What does that set up weigh all put together?
 
This works well. I did this last year with an assault sized seat. It was very similar to cbigbears stick platform
 
Bassboys, so no probs with the XOP platform and muddy stick? Should I get the XOP tree bracket for the top of the Muddy stick and leave the stock on the bottom? I want to be able to one stick climb with this system as well. Just trying to figure out what I need before I order lol
 
No problems. It doesn't fit perfect though. It won't fold flat. See attached pic for size differences
2f33c1a977bd10376fcfcecdc7fd3cc5.jpg


Like other sticks, the stick beam is thinner than typical posts; therefore, you need additional or larger washers/bushings to get the platform to fit well.

For a single stick climber and platform I prefer a slightly longer stick that allows it to be folded flat and the fixed muddy dual step.
dcf22d83989123b7ba453f28a5ec419c.jpg
 
Awesome man thanks! Gonna get the parts and put something together. I'm sure I'll need to tweak some stuff but at least I'll have the parts to mess with


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Will I did some experimenting today. I took a longer section of square tubing and drilled holes every inch to see what happens as you move the brackets closer or farther from the seat. My intention was to see if I could find a way for the cam action of the seat to be the only thing that holds the platform on the tree.

I wanted to find a way that would keep the top of the stick tight against the tree. I used 3/16 Amsteel as the rope with a brummels hitch on one side and a couple half hitches on the other side. Here was my first try. I was able to put a lot of pressure on the rope and the platform was rock solid
4c33fb091adfa5fc1f8ad86feeb3238b.jpg


Since the lower portion directly affects how big the platform is when stored, I tried to move the lower bracket up. The higher I moved it, the more pressure was put on the lower bracket, and the top bracket began to separate from the tree. I took it apart to move the bracket back to the lowest position address trying the highest and noticed I had actually bent the bracket and flattened it out some. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the bracket in this position.


Next I started to lower the top bracket. This had a much smaller effect on the stability of the platform than moving the bottom. Here is the last position I tried.
0ab7536b8827e3d3d5519f530a448d5a.jpg



At that position, I wasn't able to see the top separate from the tree, and the pressure on the bottom wasn't such that the bracket was over stressed (I put a new bracket on)

I think these will be my final position


A couple of details. I have an extra spacer on the top boot that isn't needed. I didn't have a shorter bolt handy. There is a spacer between the leveling screw and the 1" tubing. This I feel is necessary to keep the screw travel to a minimum and also spread the load of that screw across more of the tubing.


The entire thing as shown with the extra spacer comes in just under 4 lbs. I will be cutting the extra tubing from the top as shown in the last picture and expect it to get even lighter. You probably noticed some of the webbing on the seat is missing. That is to accommodate my first attempt which was using a muddy stick and the rope cleat.
158472d16654d0980b7ee6fd94b31479.jpg


For what it's worth, that solution weighed 4.7 lbs but wasn't nearly as solid.

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My testing resulted in same findings. Split the stick into 3rds and platform mounted at 1/3 down from top was best. That was on my Dave t platform in the DIY last yr. I will be amazed if your seat doesn't bend given all the strength you cut out.
 
Great post Erniepower! Your testing method is so much more grown up then my throw-a-bunch-of-stuff-together-and-jump-on-it process.
 
Erniepower said:
Will I did some experimenting today. I took a longer section of square tubing and drilled holes every inch to see what happens as you move the brackets closer or farther from the seat. My intention was to see if I could find a way for the cam action of the seat to be the only thing that holds the platform on the tree.

I wanted to find a way that would keep the top of the stick tight against the tree. I used 3/16 Amsteel as the rope with a brummels hitch on one side and a couple half hitches on the other side. Here was my first try. I was able to put a lot of pressure on the rope and the platform was rock solid
4c33fb091adfa5fc1f8ad86feeb3238b.jpg


Since the lower portion directly affects how big the platform is when stored, I tried to move the lower bracket up. The higher I moved it, the more pressure was put on the lower bracket, and the top bracket began to separate from the tree. I took it apart to move the bracket back to the lowest position address trying the highest and noticed I had actually bent the bracket and flattened it out some. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the bracket in this position.


Next I started to lower the top bracket. This had a much smaller effect on the stability of the platform than moving the bottom. Here is the last position I tried.
0ab7536b8827e3d3d5519f530a448d5a.jpg



At that position, I wasn't able to see the top separate from the tree, and the pressure on the bottom wasn't such that the bracket was over stressed (I put a new bracket on)

I think these will be my final position


A couple of details. I have an extra spacer on the top boot that isn't needed. I didn't have a shorter bolt handy. There is a spacer between the leveling screw and the 1" tubing. This I feel is necessary to keep the screw travel to a minimum and also spread the load of that screw across more of the tubing.


The entire thing as shown with the extra spacer comes in just under 4 lbs. I will be cutting the extra tubing from the top as shown in the last picture and expect it to get even lighter. You probably noticed some of the webbing on the seat is missing. That is to accommodate my first attempt which was using a muddy stick and the rope cleat.
158472d16654d0980b7ee6fd94b31479.jpg


For what it's worth, that solution weighed 4.7 lbs but wasn't nearly as solid.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Could you give me final dimensions of what you came up with? Mainly tube length and where the seat play form is bolted on. Thanks for the info!


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The brackets are 11" center to center, and the pivot hole for the seat is 8 1/4" above the bottom bracket.

I plan to try and replace the bolt on the seat with a ball lock pin. Then I can change the location of the seat for the walk in.

Also on another note, I tried to put the bent bracket into a vise and it broke. I tried to call muddy to get a replacement and they shut me down.....
7276d2df4aff9658b8701b0ea1403b01.jpg


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I just ordered two brackets from xop. Hopefully with more points of contact, the bracket will be less likely to bend. It may turn out that the outer points are not even needed and I can cut them down a bit.

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What didn't you like about the muddy bracket? Did you try to bend it open more?
 
When I had the lower bracket to close to the seat and stood on it, the bracket couldn't handle the stress and kind of flattened out. When I tried to bend it back, it snapped. I thought about cutting the muddy brackets down so all four points contacted the tree but I didn't want to sacrifice another stick.

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Erniepower said:
I tried to call muddy to get a replacement and they shut me down...../QUOTE]
We were talking about Muddy customer service on another thread. HORRIBLE. I was shipped a box of sticks that had a broken piece in there and it made the stick unusable without me going all saddlehunter.com on it and fixing it myself. I emailed them expecting them to ship me a replacement part and got the same line as you, that they don't give out replacement parts. There is even a recording on their phone number saying so. I was pretty disappointed in them for that cause there QC was horrible.
Click to expand...
 
I'm done buying Muddy stuff. They have really gone down hill lately it seems


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