Crow Busters Forum

So, after my favourite one man pop up hide broke (after 4-5 months of almost daily use) it has been consigned to the attic in bits for the last two years, so as they are no longer available in this exact design, I decided to see if I could repair/improve it.

i decided I wasn't going to use the original design £2.50 fold up Chinese beach camping chairs, as it seems that that is the weak link in all these pop up hides. They use a £2.50 chair in an £80.00 hide, and then wonder why the people stop buying them ? 

Read on

This hide was my favourite. Unfortunately, it broke towards the end of the first season, after 4-5 months of almost daily use. 

It's Achilles heel (as with almost all one and two man pop up hides), is they use cheap £2.50 fold up chines chairs as the base of the system. An £80.00 hide (plus £20.00 p&p to NI at the time three years ago) and the chair breaks where the rivets and bolts go through the tubes.

But, after 2 years of it sat in the loft, in bits, I decided I would attempt to repair it. 

Had they still been selling this model, I would no doubt have bought another, as even setting up in the middle of a field with it, I've had corvids and pigeon land on it and around it, with me SAT IN IT.

Had many doubles and trebles out of this hide, so was determined to get it working again. 

Read on 

So, my favourite pop up hide is functional again. Not totally finished, BUT, it now has the canopy attached to the deck chair, and two brackets to stop the rear hoop falling forward onto my head :) 

An £80.00 pop up hide that utilised a £2.50 fold up chair was doomed to fail, and unfortunately, nearly all these pop up hides, no matter how expensive, use the same chairs. 

They inevitably break where the rivets go through, and the tubing then snaps at that point.

So when mine snapped (after just 4-5 months of use, I decided as the outside was still good, I would repair it, using a deck chair type chair instead of the really cheap fold up ones,

So, £10.00 for a deck chair, 2x70mm bolts with some washer nuts and some Loctite to keep the front hoops in place (drilled and bolted through the plastic armrests). Then 2x50mm bolts and washer nuts to keep the rear hoop in place (drilled and bolted through the rear upper type sections), and 2x 3x3" right angle brackets, drilled to 5.5mm to accept 5mm bolts, and cut to 1x3" and then bent backwards, and ground the edges to take the sharpness off. That prevents the rear hoop folding forwards over my head. 

Total cost to repair so far about £20.00 including p&p :) 

Now awaiting a metre of aluminium 19mm box section, which will be attacked to the foot rails and increase the height of the seating position by 3/4" which should be back to original height then, and it will then be all finished (just cut it to 2x50cm to go across the bottom foot rails) 

Better than throwing away an £80.00 pop up hide, and I bet it lasts longer than that £2.50 chair that was originally fitted. 

NO! It doesn't squeeze up into a 20cm dia bundle anymore, BUT, it does still fold flat, so easy enough to drop into the car or trailer . 

Shown is how it is erected, how the clasps are fitted to stop the rear hoop coming forward, and also how it is collapsed now 

just waiting on a one metre (39") section of 19mm (3/4") square section aluminium tubing, which will be cut into 2x 50cm (18") sections to attach to the bottom of the foot rail, and increases the height of the chair accordingly 

I might just just yet also paint the white plastic, metal, and seat sections green or black, although I doubt the birds will see the White with me sat on the seat