Testing wall

[WAM]

I carpeted a 4' shelf board and fitted it with a digital protractor which I used for link testing. It worked well. But carpeting seems much grippier than rock, so now I'm thinking of building something simulating rock but adjustable angle like my carpet ramp. This would actually be testing grip for evaluating foams, comparing tires and such.

Was thinking of maybe a couple sheets of 4x4 ft plywood plastered with a concrete grout material or stucco. But don't know how well it will stick and whether a thin frosting will hang in without cracking and crumbling. If that doesn't work, there's sand paint, but I suspect that will be less realistic.

Has anyone built any largish artificial "rock" walls? I'm thinking flat panels here with adjustable legs to allow variable angles. But that approach may be a little flexy.

[Charlie-III]

We commonly use a flat board covered with 60 grit sandpaper to test climb angles.

[tklatti]

Weve used burlap over diff. items covered in resin. Works great & pretty durable.

[WAM]

Originally Posted by tklatti

Weve used burlap over diff. items covered in resin. Works great & pretty durable.

I'm not building obstacles, just an adjustable angle "rock" wall. Still, it would be easy to coat plywood with fibeglass resin if that had the desired grip. Probably a lot more durable than stucco. But I don't know if it would grip like rock.

Originally Posted by Charlie-III

We commonly use a flat board covered with 60 grit sandpaper to test climb angles.

Don't you find this grippier than your local rock? I can climb much steeper on my carpeted ramp than the local slabs. I was hoping to simulate the slabs. Carpet is too much, bare plywood is too little. Maybe I could tune sandpaper traction with finer grit. 400 grit ought to be different than your 60 grit.

I'll test the sandpaper approach. I'll just take several grades of paper out to the rocks, find a rock slope that maxes out my rig and tape various papers on that same section to see if it's better or worse than the rock.

Thanks guys.

[Charlie-III]

The sandpaper board is so people can compare from one place to another as well as doing before/after tests @ home (inside where it's warm & dry!).

The Venom Creeper forum has a thread just for testing & what people can do. Sorta like comparing dyno charts on cars.

[WAM]

Originally Posted by Charlie-III

The Venom Creeper forum has a thread just for testing & what people can do. Sorta like comparing dyno charts on cars.

Link, if you have it? Searching their forum for "testing" just gave me a short thread on testing their stock tires. I assume you're referring to something bigger.

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by WAM

Link, if you have it? Searching their forum for "testing" just gave me a short thread on testing their stock tires. I assume you're referring to something bigger.

I remembered it had "steep" in the thread title....thus..... SpeedyG's "How Steep???" Creep-O-Rama!

[WAM]

Fun read, thanks.

[Mides]

Originally Posted by WAM

Fun read, thanks.

Thanks Charlie. Good read. I wonder what other things you could check out simply at home.

How steep you can climb.
How much side hilling you have.
Articulation.

Hmmmm. Got me thinking now.

[tklatti]

Originally Posted by tklatti

Weve used burlap over diff. items covered in resin. Works great & pretty durable.

Just the burlap over wood with the resin ontop of everything gives a surface much like sandstone level of grip.

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by WAM

Fun read, thanks.

No problem, my son ran a Venom Creeper until he switched to a 2.2 Bully, thus I read a lot of threads in the VC section.

[Erin]

1/2" cement board screwed to a frame. Then coat w thinset mixed with motar sand. Very close to abrasive rock and holds up well to water/freeze damage. Fairly cheap too

[Kingpin]

I would definitely think some sort of stucco solution would work. Or you can always try spray adhesive with sand. Or grout with small pebbles/rock from the garden center. Possibilities are endless, just depends on the type of terrain around you.

[C*H*U*D]

Originally Posted by Erin

1/2" cement board screwed to a frame. Then coat w thinset mixed with motar sand. Very close to abrasive rock and holds up well to water/freeze damage. Fairly cheap too

This is what I would do too if you didn't like the sandpaper idea, however I would use Wonder Board instead of cement board. Cement board makes a mess since it crumbles away every time you move it around.

[WAM]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. What I went with was covering a sheet of osb with tar roofing paper, rocked on one side. It's grey, heavily textured and a little sandpaper-ish. But very flexible. If it has excessive grip compared to the local rock, I might be able to tone it down with a little spray paint or something.