lashing for a tripod??

[RescueRiley]

want to attempt bulding a teepee style shelter out of all natural material next time out...I'm decnent with point to point lashing like in a lean to but was curtious about any techniques for lashing a tripod type structure. thanks

 

[siguy]

whenever i put together a tripod and cordage isn't an issue, i use a simplified version of this:

http://www.ropeworks.biz/archive/tripod.html

i just weave the cord around the poles a couple of times and then wrap in between the poles a few times.

if cordage is an issue i just tie a few loops around the poles making a bundle, and then stand it up and it makes a decently sturdy structure because the loops are pulled tight from spreading the poles out

 

[Evolute]

I find it makes things easier if your sticks/logs still have forks where there were branches coming out of them, to help lock the structure together.

 

[zman308]

Try to find an old Boy Scout Field Guide on ebay. The "brown" covered one from the 50's and 60's. It has all sorts of lashing techniques. Even better the old "Pioneering" merit badge manual has designs of all sorts of pole structures and lashings to make them.

 

[Midwest Ninja]

Try to find an old Boy Scout Field Guide on ebay. The "brown" covered one from the 50's and 60's. It has all sorts of lashing techniques. Even better the old "Pioneering" merit badge manual has designs of all sorts of pole structures and lashings to make them.

All sage advice. The newer manuals have some lashing stuff in them, but not of the type you're looking for.

 

[Hammer27]

All sage advice. The newer manuals have some lashing stuff in them, but not of the type you're looking for.

Pioneering Merit Badge manual has all you'll need to know about lashing if you're looking into the Scout stuff.

 

[cssims]

Try to find an old Boy Scout Field Guide on ebay. The "brown" covered one from the 50's and 60's. It has all sorts of lashing techniques. Even better the old "Pioneering" merit badge manual has designs of all sorts of pole structures and lashings to make them.

I'm not familiar with the older scout manuals, but doing a search for the Pioneering merit badge I came across this.

http://scoutmaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/03/pioneering_book.html

Has what looks to be alot of what you are referring too.

 

[Thomas Linton]

Warning: Some Boy Scouts of America literature shows a technique for lashing a tripod that will not work. You need to make your wrappings at the "short" end of the poles with all three poles "pointing" (long portion/legs) in the same direction, as shown in the RopeWorks directions linked above.

Example of incorrect method:

A Tripod lashing is made by laying three spars alongside each other, with the center spare pointing in the opposite direction to that of the outside spars. i) Tie a clove hitch around one outside pole.
ii) Loosely wrap the spars five or six times, then make the frapping on either side of the center spar.
iii) Finish the lashing with a clove hitch around the outside spar.

The incorrect language is in bold. I have seen Scouts break poles -- even ropes -- trying to get the "center" pole to swing around almost 180 degrees to form the tripod.

 

[Midwest Ninja]

^^^^^That's why nobody paid any attention to the manual in my troop....

 

[Thomas Linton]

^^^^^That's why nobody paid any attention to the manual in my troop....

Following that reasoning, don't believe anything posted here 'cause none of us is perfect either.

 

[ajcz]

i use a tripod lashing http://www.scouttroop.org/nj/bsa/23/first_class_tripod_lashing.htm

 

[Thomas Linton]

i use a tripod lashing http://www.scouttroop.org/nj/bsa/23/first_class_tripod_lashing.htm

Not if you are building a tripod, you don't. A catapult, sure, if you use nylon rope. A tripod, no way.

A tripod lashing is simply a shear lashing with three poles instead of two.
Once the frappings are well-tightened, you can rotate a leg maybe 25 degrees. If one leg starts out 180 degrees opposite of the other two legs, either you break a pole or the ropes long before you get all three legs on the ground in a tripod. Nor can you follow the instruction to "spread the legs of the tripod into position" if one of the legs is lashed 180 degrees in the opposite direction of the other two. The BSA simple has it wrong - some of the time. (Sometimes different printings of the same edition of a BSA publication show the lashing both the correct and the incorrect way.)

If the frappings allowed a rotation of well over 90 degrees -- to perhaps 160 degrees, they were not tightened nearly enough and the entire lashing is insecure.

This reality has not changed in the 37 years I have taught pioneering.

The error originated in the BSA literature years ago and every time we get it corrected, it pops up again. The error was not made in the UK, Canada, India, or Australia where, apparently, the books are written by people who actually do pioneering.

So use the method shown here:

http://www.ropeworks.biz/archive/tripod.html

or here:
http://www.23rdandoverscouts.org.uk/Lashings.pdf

or here:
http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/hqdocs/facts/pdfs/fs315080.pdf