Camping Games You Can Build

A place to discuss all activities related to the Great Outdoors & Camping
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Fire Cakes
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Camping Games You Can Build

Post by Fire Cakes »

Here are two links to a couple of games that our kids like to play while camping. The first one we had never seen before until we were camping with my parents and a family in a site next to us had one and invited our kids to join them. That game kept the kids entertained for hours. The second one is an all time favorite of ours to play at parties and while camping.

The Harper's plan on having both of these games built for NECO 08.

Ladder Ball

Hillbilly Horseshoes or Texas Horseshoes
Gearing up for another great camping season :) Camper is re packed and ready to roll.

The 2012 camping season has begun!!!!!!!!
Camping Trip Count for 2011 - 2
Camping Nights Count for 2011 - 4

BLAZER
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Re: Camping Games You Can Build

Post by BLAZER »

The ultimate camping/party game CORNHOLE!!!!.....and originated in Cincinnati, okay so the city isn't 100% worthless! Someone thought jarts was dangerous so they came up with this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornhole_(game)

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Re: Camping Games You Can Build

Post by skippy »

We used to have an old toss across game that we kept in the van for camping trips & days at the park when the kids got bored . in case you don't remember toss across was a tic tak toe game that you played with bean bags that you threw at the game to change one of the nine squares till you got 3 in a row .

this is the game & you can still get them : http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-TOSS-ACROSS ... dZViewItem
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Re: Camping Games You Can Build

Post by Herbie »

OK, I had sort of wished I'd had a Cornhole set on my last trip, but I'll be damned if I'm going to carry anything that bulky and heavy on a camping trip unless I can figure out how to turn it into a table or something (which is a subject for another post).

For now I have this question: Why is it that I've never seen a cornhole set that's made from fabric stretched taught over a frame?

Seems to me a few minutes with a sewing machine and some PVC piping would give you a couple of targets that collapsed down very small and weighed almost nothing. I see everyone who makes cornhole targets talking about how they're strong enough to stand on, but we've always done our pitching from beside the target - why overbuild?

Ladderball has some appeal just because of the chance to make a collapsing target - though I think my 2 year old would prefer cornhole. Simpler to understand and get a grip on the physics...
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Wiley
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Re: Camping Games You Can Build

Post by Wiley »

I am sure it would work, but the bounce might make things a bit more challenging...im picturing trampoline type effects, though with enough slack it may work, only one way to find out!
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Re: Camping Games You Can Build

Post by Herbie »

Well, Challenge Accepted and fulfilled. Finally found such a thing on Amazon:

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The good:
* It all breaks down quite small. The long-sides have couplers so they break down to the same length as the width.
* Relatively quick/easy to assemble and disassemble.
* Lightweight
* Cheapish - $25 when I bought mine (w/ free shipping), but list price is $45 (ouch!).

The bad:
* Cheap - I've already got a couple of popped stitches and a small tear - you have to stretch the material a bit to assemble/disassemble, leading to stress points. All the stitching is single stitched and the material is quite thin.
* There's no cross-bar mid-span, so you get a little bit of an hourglass shape (very minor)
* You pretty much have to completely disassemble it to get it into the included bag, which means all the little fittings are loose - I'm keeping mine in a ziplog inside the main bag. If the bag had been made a bit longer, you'd have been able to leave most fittings in place.
* Frame is thinner than PVC - probably wouldn't stand up to being trampled or tripped over by kids, etc.

The neutral:
* As predicted, there's a bit of a trampoline effect. Works in your favor if you're a novice player (or 2-5) years old, the target audience for this set, but not ideal if you're some sort of battle-hardened Cornhole Tournament player as the behavior will be different versus the traditional plywood targets.
* The tee fittings that fit the legs have those spring-pins so you can lock them in, but I don't see the point, since once assembled there's enough tension to keep things from moving and you have to pull the tee fitting off to get it through the sleeve anyhow.

Verdict:
With a beer in hand, it's the same old game of Cornhole/Redneck Horseshoes, but it weighs 5 pounds and packs small. The material is the biggest worry - I will definitely re-sew all the seams with a doubled reinforcing stitch, and if it continues to be a problem, I may just use these as a pattern to sew some new ones out of rip-stop nylon or something else suitably durable. It MIGHT be worth it for you to purchase depending on current price and how much time you have.

HOWEVER: I see NOTHING about this that couldn't be duplicated with a couple of yards of fabric and some PVC pipe and fittings. If you were careful about the design, you could probably even glue most of the connections except where you'd need to break it down and everything would be stronger than this product. Therefore, I say: DIY a pair of these. Just about everything about the frame construction is obvious from the picture. I'd make it such that the top/bottom pieces with the tee fittings were all just glued once inserted in the sleeves - make the long back legs remove from the tees and then just roll the material around the end-bars once the side bars were removed. I haven't figured out if it's easier to have the corners on the side-bars first then slip in the end bars, or vice-versa. Either way you're fighting the tension of the material and it's a bit of a tug of war.
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