Here is another one that I made last month. Untested on the water due to a wind drought. It seems to work as planned during garage tests. I have this set up for a seat harness.
I took a typical spreader bar and cut off the ends. I heated up the tube with a propane torch and flared the edge of the tube where the line would slide through to reduce wear . I also sanded and wet sanded the edge of the tube to a smooth finish to reduce line wear.
- z flared spreader bar tube.jpg (79.5 KiB) Viewed 3364 times
Then I attached shock cord to the hook with wire ties.
- bungee hook.jpg (109.49 KiB) Viewed 3364 times
I removed the harness hooks and added a "D-Ring" to the harness adjustment straps. I decided to tie the line directly to the D ring (less than $2 each) on the static connection. I added the plastic ball (less than $2 each) so the spreader bar tube did not wear on the knot when it slides all the way to the D ring. This is probably not necessary, but, I think it is good practice. I added double layers of shrink tube to finish off the Spectra(less than $5) and shock cord. I find a double layer of shrink tube is much more effective for kite gear.
- bungee hook attach.jpg (105.31 KiB) Viewed 3364 times
I chose to use a snap hook at the attach/detach side which was relativity expensive compared to the rest of the setup. I added a red ball to the snap hook release to make it easier to grab with gloves and cold fingers. The snap cord should be tied above the Spectra on both ends. The snaphook also adds a safety feature by allowing me to disconnect and possibly get out of my harness if needed in an emergency.
- zz Whichard snaphook 2.jpg (96.82 KiB) Viewed 3364 times
Here is an inexpensive alternative method for attaching the line to the ring after each use and avoid the cost of the snaphook. Just put the yellow ball through the loop.
This hook travel is 50% greater than my DynaBar V7 which was my main goal. It also brings the hook back to center when there is no or little pull from the kite. Also, the hook naturally stays centered and up so unhooking and hooking back in is easy. I decided to go with a Wichard swiveling snaphook (~$58) to connect and dissconnect. It is rated to 2700 lbs which is overkill, however, it was the right size. There was a less expensive version for $32 but it was unrated. It was probably good enough but I chose to stick with the rated snaphook. It kind of took away from the poorman’s sliding hook goal, but, you could easily work around this feature and keep the poor man theme pure. Aside from the cut up spreader bar this set up could be easily done for less than $26 without the snap hook. The spreader bar was an extra one sitting around just begging to be modified so it was free as far as I am concerned. You could pick up a used one for $10 if needed.
D rings = $4
Plastic balls = $4
Snap cord = $1
Spectra = $5
Shrink tube and wire ties = $2
spreader bar = $10
Options
Wichard snap hook = $58
Wichard ball release modification = $2
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