Vortex High Country and UniDaptor Mods....

[16Bore]

Not much of a tripod, but I can't see dropping 5 bills or more on something fancier. JV Team, if you will. Picked up a Unidaptor and felt there was a lot of fluff with the mount and plate deal.



Yanked the ball...



Cut off the "ears" and ran a 1/4 x 20 Tap....



Threaded receiver directly to the ball. Mo better...




The spindly legs are pretty much crap so I removed the lock mechanism and the lower 2 sections, for a little more weight loss and compact unit. Took the fish hook off as well, pretty useless..



Before:


After:



15" packed, 36" fully extended. Need some bootys for the feet.

Seems to work well if you like to glass on your ass.......

 

[GibsonKuenzi]

Nice work. Could you use electrical tape for the feet? That's pretty redneck but....

 

[16Bore]

Probably could, I did use it to cover the hole where the fish hook was. Figure some little rubber jobs or maybe a spike of sorts.

 

[mtnrunner260]

Nice. If you have trekking poles that come with extra feet those could work.
I put a couple wraps of electrical tape on where the legs pivot. Seemed to give me the happy medium I wanted on stiffness. Was either to tight or loose with the allen head screw adjustment

 

[16Bore]

Trekking pole tips is a great idea. I'll have to do some digging. I didn't have much trouble with the pivot screws, the nylock nuts seem ok so far. I've been monkeying with an idea where trekking poles would be two legs of the tripod, and you'd simply carry an extra for the third or some type of mono pod. Just a matter of a plate of sorts to mount the binos and join the legs together.

 

[16Bore]

Ace is the place....

 

[Jake Leibke]

Nice idea on the ball head!

 

[16Bore]

I'm temped to knock another 1/2" off the "stem" and turn down some spike feet because I can't leave well enough alone.

 

[16Bore]

Well, couldn't leave well enough alone. Monkeyed around with it some more...


Turned down some delrin feet...


Screwed and heatshrinked...


Took the mount off the binos and attached it to the ball..


cut and threaded hitch pins....


Threaded "studs" into binos. Works like a charm...




Moral of the story: Buy the Outdoorsmans unit for $59 and save yourself the trouble. But, it's fun when a plan comes together.

And it's cold outside...

 

[justinspicher]

It looks good to me.

 

[GibsonKuenzi]

How exactly did you disassemble the legs?

 

[16Bore]

Open the lever on the lock to relieve pressure and push out the drift pin that holds it in place. There's a small "wedge" that comes off under the lever. Everything slides out.

 

[freediver111]

What's the skinny with the pin mount for the unidapter. More stable than the original?
Does it want to rotate or is it pretty solid? I assume that the ball that depresses on the pin holds it somewhat in place?

 

[16Bore]

Pretty much did it because I had two pairs of binos, one mount, and was bored that day. The ball just keeps it from sliding out. They do rotate slightly. Its definitely better to carry the binos without the adapter poking you in the gut. Version 2 hit diminishing returns. Probably should have bought the Outdorsmans and an extra stud.

I like silly projects though.

 

[d90rick]

I drilled a hole in the top of my uni adaptor & threaded it for a knob. Took a stainless bolt with smooth shank & cut the hex off it & viola! Same thing as the $70 outdoorsman unit but for a couple bucks. I have same tripod but put a $29 slik pan head on it. Like the idea of taking off the Lowe legs. Nice work & write up!