DIY Televators

[Natlife]

Some say they are worth their weight in gold. I wouldn't know, but last time I broke trail on Street & Nye, I wish I'd have some, at least to try. It couldn't be worse than the feeling of having some being inserted right into my calves.

I was curious and had some material lying around (lightweight hinges and spring steel wire from the frame of an old crib mattress), so I set out to build some myself. I looked at many of the commercial ones and built mine in the most simple way that still attemps to distribute the load on the decking. 3 oz per pair.

Handles the load fine inside, can't wait to try them in the field.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ryhs2v0koa...04855.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/76n4bjhfd9...04924.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fd51hm0pk1...04908.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kbr2keft63...04931.jpg?dl=0

[gebby]

I hope they work, but I wonder if the L in the steel will lead to fatigue with repeated use and cause it to bend out straight. Hope not. How do you prevent it from moving up and down with each step?

[Natlife]

We'll see, but the angle is such that force should apply more or less vertically when in use on an incline, and that spring steel is pretty tough.

The hinge is crimped tight on the wire so they don't move on their own, but if they loosen i'll just make a clip similar to what is used to keep cabinet doors shut. http://www.go2marine.com/docs/2/2/5/9/22591F-t.jpg

[gebby]

Since you can bend steel, I'm sure you know what you're doing!

[CatskillKev]

First, I've never used televators.

Looks like you did some nice accurate bending! I wonder though if you picked the right snowshoe for it. Those 10x34's will sit up higher on the snow than your typical televated snowshoe, and the televators telling them to stay tipped with the terrain will not give them enough traction. Plus the televators will weight the snowshoe further back. It seems like the televator has to be used on an already broken out path, but of course you don't have to use them in other conditions. 10 inch wide snowshoes won't likely fit the 8 inch trenches, but good luck.


Does the traction underneath look to be enough on them? Otherwise, you need to put all your weight on the toe. Not sure how good your toe crampon is, at that... I really doubt you'll have much use for the televator on that size snowshoe. If so, not worth the 3 ounces. I hope you figure it out soon, so you can transfer them to a better traction smaller snowshoe. Inge cut her televators off, like any good snowshoer would. :-)

2 negative reviews, but maybe they'll work.

[Natlife]

Even when flattening up, I feel the snowshoes always stay inclined, closer to the slope angle than the horizontal.

Actually, believe it or not but most of the time the snowstompers I carry are kids snowshoes.

And yes, if I plan to hike on broken trails for some time before going off trail, I'll bring two pairs. Technically, a 2 pounds a pair snow stompers on my feet plus a 4.25 pounds pair of 10x34 on my back has a lower metabolic cost than only a 4 pounds pair of evo ascent on my feet.

[CatskillKev]

You mean there's two of us now carrying 2 pairs of snowshoes? Who wants to join us?

[Yury]

Natlife, what are "2 pounds a pair snow stompers"?

[FlyFishingandBeer]

Natlife Very clever! I frequently use the televators on my 24" Tubbs and firmly believe that people who have them and don't use them are crazy, but what the hell do I know? Part of what makes televators functional is having a binding that offers enough lateral stability, which larger snowshoes with rubber/canvas decks tend not to have (larger shoes would be very uncomfortable if the binding were as stable as something like what the TRK's offer). I suspect that you'll either see fatigue where you bent the televator or from the fulcrum pushing down against the hinge and pulling on its rivets. The fatigue at the bed is easy to resolve; just tack weld in a cross-member to form a stronger triangle. If the hinge/rivets start to wear out you'll have to be more creative. Having used a pair of LG's with a similar design as the shoes in your photos, I'm guessing that all the traction is directly underneath the metal section where your foot goes? This is a great design for deep snow but in the northern ADKS where you're primarily going to be wearing snowshoes to avoid post-holing, you may want to consider switching over to a hard plastic shoe with more disbursed traction.

Nice work on being resourceful. I give you 4/5 stars for this modification.

Edit: If this design works as well as it looks, maybe consider adding a small metal tab to keep the televator locked into position? If it flops around you're going to hate life.

Edit #2: Looks you already mentioned that in your reply to Gebby.

[Yury]

What about that metal baseplate under the boot?
Have you added it?

[CatskillKev]

The toe crampon looks to be non-existent or at least not protective of the front of the binding. Is this the case? You definitely need the front crampon to dig into the snow when your heel comes up, but I can't tell its there. It just seems to be the bottom of the binding.

[Natlife]

The toe crampon is molded plastic, it's actually the bottom of the binding itself. It has carbide point inserts to bite on ice. It's similar in design to the guide series in their hybrids section, but with inserts instead of a traditional sheetmetal crampon. You see it well in the video.

[CatskillKev]

Yes, I see in the Guide video. Faber is doing a lot. I see the Guide also comes in 11x40 at only 5.4 pounds.