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FINISHED! My 100% Home Made Double Portaledge & Rainfly
 Greetings gentlemen! I HAD to share my hard work with the rock climbing community! I spent the last 3 months researching portaledges, researching some more, buying parts, more research, building, sewing, researching, and finishing my DIY portaledge. IT CAME OUT AWESOME!  I am a rock climber who converted to the tree climbing world two years ago when I realized that it would fulfill my need for new vertical adventures between my trips to the mountains (I live in Minnesota). I have heard many people say that sleeping on a portaledge sucks. Well my response to them is they have never slept in a hammock, haha. I truly sleep AMAZING when I am up high on the rocks or in a tree. When sleeping on the ground I become anxious in the morning because I want to climb but when I wake up on a portaledge I AM ALREADY CLIMBING and there is no need to hurry! I got a lot of help from old forum threads that I found via Google, Luke from Runout Customs went out of his way to share his knowledge with me, and a lot of guessing came into play, haha. I still haven't put shockcord inside the tubes but if you want to see one of my tree camping videos for a close up of the portaledge watch this: youtube.com/watch?v=8FZCbRQ… I ended up doing a mixture of 1" 4130 chromoly and 1.125" aluminum tubes for the frame. The rainfly has two HUGE mesh windows to battle the humidity and mosquitoes in my local forests. Total price was under $350 which INCLUDES the rainfly. However, I put so much time into sewing that I understand why they sell for $700+ My question for the forum is have any of you ever sewn your own climbing slings or harness? I love making my own gear because it gives me the ability to customize for my exact needs but I have not made anything that supports my life (daisy chains, harness, anchors, etc). I would like to hear your sewing knowledge because I have a harness design that I really want to attempt but I need some professional input before attempting anything like that. THANKS GUYS! EDIT: Apparently I am not intelligent enough to post a YouTube video but here is the direct link (just add an "H" to the front): ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FZCbRQFe-s |
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Sweet build |
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Very cool. Things like that, the reward in "I made this" is so much larger than the reward in "I own this". I hope you get to use it on a big wall soon! |
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THAT'S SO COOL. |
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Very nice. Did you make plans or anything like that? |
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Impressive, looks great! |
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Awesome thanks for posting! and any close up pics of stitching or corners would be appreciated! |
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Respect! How much does the whole shebang weight? |
Jason James wrote:I'm vaguely (very vaguely) familiar with harness sewing in the skydiving and BASE jumping community. I'd imagine that it would be the same types of thread and machines. They use #5 or 6 nylon cord and has a tensile strength of 40 and 50lbs respectively. You can't use this in any home machine (and most industrial machines either?) Probably better resources, but here's this: paragear.com/parachutes/100… You probably already knew this, but might help someone elseGetting into skydiving (and subsequently BASE if you want) and hanging out with your local dropzone's rigger(s) is a great way to learn how to sew and bartack harnesses and such. After a couple/few years, depending on how committed you are, you could get your rigger's licenses (I believe there are three different ones). It's not a fast process but considering you made your own fully functional ledge and fly, it seems you'd be a great candidate for rigging in the world of jumping. Plus, jumping is fun as hell! If you haven't made any jumps before (tandem or otherwise), dropzone.com is a decent place find a place to learn to jump. Minnesota DZs: dropzone.com/dropzone/North… Congrats on the port-a-ledge, BTW! It looks great! |
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Thanks everyone for the compliments! Here are a few more close up pictures as requested:      There are a WHOLE BUNCH MORE pictures on my blog at this link: treefool.com/2014/09/07/diy… On that page you can find most of the important information you would need to build your own. I began making detailed plans but quickly realized that anyone who is planning on completing a project this complicated will be fully capable of using the guidelines on my page in conjunction with the photos to build there own. I am psyched that I chose chromoly because my ledge does not require a spreader bar. I haven't weighed it yet but will post up the weight tomorrow once I get done with work. Jason James, THANK YOU so much for the link. I did not already know that so I appreciate your input. I now have some research to do! Here are a couple pictures of my single that I built first. This was a lot more easy to build as I just used a frame from an old cot:   The finished weight of my single ledge is under 6 pounds including the fly! Haha, but the rainfly was build for tree camping, not rock walls. |
Marc H wrote: Getting into skydiving (and subsequently BASE if you want) and hanging out with your local dropzone's rigger(s) is a great way to learn how to sew and bartack harnesses and such. After a couple/few years, depending on how committed you are, you could get your rigger's licenses (I believe there are three different ones). It's not a fast process but considering you made your own fully functional ledge and fly, it seems you'd be a great candidate for rigging in the world of jumping. Plus, jumping is fun as hell! If you haven't made any jumps before (tandem or otherwise), dropzone.com is a decent place find a place to learn to jump. Minnesota DZs: dropzone.com/dropzone/North… Congrats on the port-a-ledge, BTW! It looks great!Marc, thanks! I have skydived once and found out that my ears don't pop. I love cliff jumping, probably my favorite thing in the world to do, but I can't skydive again because of my ears. It felt as though I had a knife sticking inside of both my ears. I wanted the guy who jumped with me to just cut me loose and let me fall to my death. It seriously was that painful, I thought my head would explode! haha. |
Lspade wrote:Marc, thanks! I have skydived once and found out that my ears don't pop. I love cliff jumping, probably my favorite thing in the world to do, but I can't skydive again because of my ears. It felt as though I had a knife sticking inside of both my ears. I wanted the guy who jumped with me to just cut me loose and let me fall to my death. It seriously was that painful, I thought my head would explode! haha.That's really shitty first-jump experience for sure. I had a mild sinus infection when I first started jumping but didn't think it would be a big deal. I made a jump and had excruciating pain in my sinus cavities--possibly the worst acute pain I've ever expereienced. I'll never do that again. I'm wondering if you had something similar going on--though I'm certainly not a doctor. I've never heard of anyone's body not being able to equalize the pressure when they're healthy, but again I don't have a ton of experience (~320 skydives; zero hours of pre-med classes ;). If you wanted a similar experience without necessarily having to go through the same pain, you might consider finding a dropzone with a Cessna 206 with the right pilot and do a ride along or observation ride. This is an extreme example, but some pilots are willing/able to do crazy shit like this:  If you told the pilot of your possible condition, and alerted him if you started feeling pain, I'm sure he would pull out of the dive and make a reasonable decent. Again, that pic is an extreme example of a dive and you could get a feel for a relatively sharp increase in air pressure without the commitment of a free fall. Just a thought. But if you like jumping off of cliffs into water, it sounds like skydiving and BASE jumping are right up your alley. |
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Marc I think my wife would literally die of anxiety if she knew I was even contemplating the idea of getting into another "dangerous" hobby. Haha. |
Lspade wrote:Marc I think my wife would literally die of anxiety if she knew I was even contemplating the idea of getting into another "dangerous" hobby. Haha.C'mon man, show me one dangerous thing going on in that photo that I posted! |
Marc H wrote: This is an extreme example, but some pilots are willing/able to do crazy shit like this: If you told the pilot of your possible condition, and alerted him if you started feeling pain, I'm sure he would pull out of the dive and make a reasonable decent.How the hell is he doing that? Did he spin the plane to get it in that dive? Wonder how long it takes to hit Vne like that.. Didn't know you could do that in a 206.. Learn something new every day. Not trolling, genuinely curious. Sweet portaledge! |
Simon W wrote: How the hell is he doing that? Did he spin the plane to get it in that dive? Wonder how long it takes to hit Vne like that.. Didn't know you could do that in a 206.. Learn something new every day. Not trolling, genuinely curious. Sweet portaledge!I'm really not sure but I think it's just a banked turn into a dive. I only have a few hours in the left seat of a Cessna 182; I never even made it to solo flight. |
Marc H wrote: I'm really not sure but I think it's just a banked turn into a dive. I only have a few hours in the left seat of a Cessna 182; I never even made it to solo flight.Yeah, that makes sense. The nose is going to want to drop, so if he really cranked the turn.. I've got a few hundred hours, but I've never done any acro stuff. All I know is getting a Cessna in that sort of attitude is not as simple as pushing the yoke forward! |
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Hi ! I'm a french climber, and I've discover this website last week. I want to build a portaledge, but I don't find corners at low-price. Where had you found yours ? Thanks, and have a nice day.  |
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The OP posted this in 2014 and his last visit was in 2019. Maybe someone else can help. |
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Middendorf has some good designs and there’s one that’s quite affordable I believe. https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/125506917/making-your-own-portaledge |
