Home made hanging tree stands

rubberdown

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Any of you guys build your own hanging tree stands? I havent hunted deer in 6 or 7 years and all I ever had was a home made stand my father-in-law gave me and it worked just fine. I was looking on ebay and saw some hanging stands as low as $50 U.S. shipped to my U.S. addy and saw how small they were so decided to build my own. So far its got about 27' of material into it at a cost of about $30 and a couple hours playing with my welder. I added the supports under the base just for added support because I'm a big guy, and will add either chains or aviation cable for the main base supports. I still have to put the expanded metal floor on it, and a buddy is making us padded water proof seats. And I need to weld on some pointed bolts on the 2 rear spins to dig into the tree and that should be about it.

Base is 24" x 25.5" and seat is 12" x 14".

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there is nothing wrong with making them your self .but unless you get the metal for free you can buy the stands cheaper then you can make them .it is nice to make your own and know how strong thy are .Dutch
 
from my steel fab background, the design looks decent enough but I'd be gussetting the angled lowers before trusting my life to it , other than that, looks good so far.
 
from my steel fab background, the design looks decent enough but I'd be gussetting the angled lowers before trusting my life to it , other than that, looks good so far.

The long gussets I have below the base are just "extra" anti flex supports, there will be steel cables connecting the 2 outer forward corners to the 2 rear vertical bars or to the midway side point of the seat frame. I have added the little spikes to the back side (tree side) of the stand and welded on the heavy expanded floor. At this point without the padded wooden seat its about 22.5 lbs.

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there is nothing wrong with making them your self .but unless you get the metal for free you can buy the stands cheaper then you can make them .it is nice to make your own and know how strong thy are .Dutch

I have $45 into it as you see it in its most recent pics, add a can or tremclad and the cable and its finished, the seat wont cost me a dime. The advantage of this one is I enjoyed making it, and I know it is going to be good and solid and NOT squeak like a lot of the reviews claimed on the cheaper store bought stands. Not to mention, the really cheap ones are made in China and probably welded by a 7 year old LOL, and they had a much smaller base on them.

I will be making a second one for a hunting buddy, and likely another one for moose camp, and another one for myself, and another one for another hunting buddy!
 
What will you be using to secure that to the tree? Some ratchet straps?

Does your hunting location require you carrying that any distance, or can you get a vehicle into wherever that is going up?
 
Nice! That's a real pro build. We used to make them out of 1/2 and 3/4 conduit. None of us could weld, so we bought a bender and used 3/8 bolts and 1/8 cable, to keep everything together. Either a ratchet strap or a chunk of chain was all you needed to hang them. Wow, there's a blast from the past..
 
Nice work!

I built similar type stands.

On mine, I put a key-hole in the metal frame at the top. I would put a lag screw in the tree. Then pull the stand up and drop the stand onto the lag bolt. The key-hole works really good; the stand would never come off it. Then I'd add a second lag screw at the base, so it couldn't kick sideways, when getting on or off.
Finally, I would put a chain around the tree, and I used a long eye-bolt, with a wing nut. I could tighten it as much as I wanted. Extra insurance in case the lag screws ever let go, although I doubt the chain was really required... I'm paranoid, I guess.
 
What will you be using to secure that to the tree? Some ratchet straps?

Does your hunting location require you carrying that any distance, or can you get a vehicle into wherever that is going up?

I will use 2 heavy duty 2" wide ratchet straps to secure it to the tree, one just under the seat, and one just under the base. Then a security chain, grade 80 so it cant be cut with bolt cutters and stolen. Once its up, it will stay up for the season. As far as the distance to get it to my tree, its about a 10 minute walk tops, mostly easy walking. Since we will be setting up 2 stands, there will be 2 of us carrying the 2 stands and an aluminum extension ladder, shouldnt be to bad to get them out there and set up. We "could" beinf them out there on one of the ATV's but dont things it really all that necessary.
 
That stand looks really nice, and should work well for you.
I'll probably be making myself a similar stand for next season. I already have enough material on hand so most likely it wont cost me anything to make other than my time. I'll make it so the floor & seat fold to make it a little easier to carry in and out of the bush.
 
One thing that has always annoyed me to the point i would rather sit in wet leaves is, that the seat is always too close to the tree, might be that im a fat hunch back but it seems like i can never lean back and relax because it feels like i sitting on the very end of the seat .
 
I used our home made Baker style stands for 25 years.... it does not make financial sense any more, because stands are so cheap... I bought four at CT on sale for $60 each and they are well made and easier to use than my home made jobs. Yours looks good and solid... also looks like a beeatch to carry... and with the extra large seat, there is less standing room... personally, I don’t need much room on a stand and I am a 6'4" 260 bowhunter... most gun hunters can make do with even less space.
 
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