Another invention

The EV rig is great, but without a base it doesn't help me much for groundwork on land. Team Southern Charm (you can find them on facebook) has plans for a base for the EV rig that looks quite promising, but I haven't gotten around to asking Scott if he'd be up for making one, so in the mean time, I'm exercising my creativity. ;)

I was at Target last night getting some odds and ends and saw clothing racks on sale - they are freestanding and fairly tall (5 foot ish), so for $9 I figured I'd give it a try.

This is what I came up with:

 This is the full set up.  The bumper is secured to the two ropes with binder clips and the ropes are adjustable by either the sliding knot near the top, or by untying the knot and tying the ropes shorter.

The base of the rack is supposed to have wheels, but since this is something designed to be as stationary as possible for my uses the wheels are still in the box.

I did have some trouble with the rack falling over when Kes pulled the bumper off the first few times, but that was solved by attaching the bumper lightly so it released more easily. You could also stake the rack down fairly easily using tent stakes and the base's cross bars.

Here's a close up of how the bumper is attached.  The bumper *is* moth eaten thanks to Kestrel's kill shaking prior to the video - I'm very glad I used the already damaged one for this!


The binder clips work so well that I may switch to using them instead of magnets on the EV rig too - even when barely holding the bumper strings, the bumper doesn't fall off with slight movement, an issue on the EV rig, and it also means there are no heavy pieces of metal on the ends of the bumper that Kes can bruise me with. ;)

Video to come later today or tomorrow - both Aeri and Kes got to try their paws at working with the new set up and I'm thrilled I got it on tape!

They're here!

The bumpers arrived speedily from Dokken in MN! The bumpers do NOT have magnets attached, so some finagling with attachment options was required.  I tried two main versions, pictured below:

Attachment type 1: Metal D rings tied to ropes

Attachment type 1: The D rings worked ok, but there was so little metal in contact at any one time that they didn't stick very securely to the magnets on the arm of the rig. Tying required a lot of the rope as well, making the bumper hang a bit closer to the arm than I would've liked.

Attachment type 2: Metal rope clamps

Attachment type 2: This ended up being the method I stuck with - the clamps were a bit tricky to put on securely (you need tools, not just your own fingers LOL), but once on, the additional metal in contact with the magnet makes this more secure. I do still need to play around with magnet placement to ensure maximum contact on the arm, but it's serviceable for now.

A note to those using these bumpers - they are NOT very durable.  Kestrel had one in pieces within a few minutes of bringing it to shore after a retrieve. Make sure you have a good "drop it" with your dog or you will need to buy a gross. ;)