Thread: DIY radar post
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Default DIY radar post

Bought a ten foot length of two and one-half inch diameter aluminum
pipe in a scrapyard for $10. This is the diameter of the larger
Garhauer radar poles. Got a flat plate welded to one end with holes for
cables and accessories for about $60. Had it powdercoated white for
$100. Bought three sets of radar pole brackets from Garhauer, about
$80 I think. There is a bracket that clamps around the pole and
another bracket that clamps onto the stern rail. These three bracket
pairs are connected using one inch SS tube and fittings that you use to
put dodgers/biminis together with. Maybe another $100. Two of the SS
tubes go from opposite sides of one corner in the stern rail to a point
about four or five feet up the pole. The third pair of brackets goes
straight back from the pole to the top tube of the stern rail. The
base of the pole fits into a socket I machined out of a block of
plastic. Its held down with two turnbuckles and cables. Also braced
my stern rail to the back of the cockpit with an SS tube. I can take
the whole thing down for service fairly quickly and without unbolting
anything from the deck. How long it lasts only time will tell but I
don't think it will fall down.