My Stealth Hybrid - Hybrid Handle

[Skrap]

So, my family and I are leaving to go to spend 9 days with my folks on Kauai on Thursday. I am bringing my AT Pro along with my Stealth 8. I was not sure what to do about the handle issue and flying since I bought a hybrid handle and it is about 53" long. The airlines only allows items upt to 48" long or there is an extra charge which i didnt want to pay.

I contacted Chuck at Sunspot and he have me some info i needed.

Here is what i did to make my Hybrid work with the airlines as well as my pocket book. I couldnt afford to go buy yet another travel handle so I make my own.

Here is what i did. I cut the handle where you see. I then went to the local metal supply house and picked up a 24" x 1 1/4" x .120 (1/8") diameter aluminum tubing. I cut it down to approx 18". Then, I inserted it approx 10" down the lower half of the handle and used 5200 marine adhesive to secure it. 5200 is about the strongest adhesive you can buy. Went in nice and easy plus it will seal out any water and sand in the lower half. I then took some time to sand and file the other end of the handle's inside and the tubing insert outside so both surfaces were nice and smooth and that they slipped together easily as well as came apart easily. (at one point I had the handle stuck on the aluminum tubing so bad I thought the project was ruined.) Next, I lined up the two halves so they were in the original alignment and used my drill press to drill a 1/4" bolt hole to keep the top handle connected to the bottom half while in use. Used a 1/4" stainless bolt with an acorn nut. also used SS washers and most importantly I used black round rubber washers between the SS washers and the handle as sort of a cushion so the nut and bolt head dont dent the thin walled handle. I torqued the acorn nut just about one turn past finger tight. When it is together there is almost no play in the handle to speak of. The nice thin is that the handle breaks down to two pieces that are approx 30" long and will fit in my checked baggage. this whole mod only cost about $15 and an hour of time.

Let me kow what you think. Havent used it but will report back in a week and a half. Seems with the mod it only added one pound to the existing weight of the setup. Enjoy.