Fourteen Joints and Power-Locking Feet
RAM's patented power-lock suction cups provides excellent adhesion strength on all smooth, non-porous surfaces including plastic, fiberglass, glass and gelcoat. The mechanical power-locking lever on each suction cup foot has stainless steel fittings, allowing the cup to be moistened with freshwater or saltwater for a powerful vacuum seal.
Each suction foot of the SuckerPod requires only a 3 ½ inch (9 cm) diameter of surface area. The three feet can be clustered together in a single location or spread apart to span across an area as wide as 30 inches (76 cm).
Each leg can extend over 18" (46 cm) from the center of the hub to the base of the suction foot, allowing the tripod to straddle your storage compartments, fishing crate or other obstacles on deck.
Unlike camera mounts offering two or three suction-cups fixed to a single base and requiring a substantially sized smooth surface area for mounting, the SuckerPod's legs can be spread and its feet independently pivoted to mate with your deck at tight spots between deck rigging, hatches, fishing rod holders and other obstructions. And unlike any other tripod, two of the three suction feet can be stuck to the deck to maintain position while the third foot or the SuckerPod's steel eye is pulled down to a third spot using a shock cord instead of suction to provide the stability required at the head of the tripod.
Each SuckerPod suction foot has two independent "ankle" joints, allowing the feet to meet the deck surface comfortably on plane for maximum adhesion. And by acting independent of one another rather than on a single plane, each foot can successfully mate to an area of the deck having its own slight contour.
At the top of each leg, near the hub, two independent "hip" joints allow each leg to be positioned so that the hub itself can hover at a desired location and orientation above.
The head of the SuckerPod has two additional ball-and-socket joints, enabling you to angle your camera independent of the hub.
As an example of the SuckerPod's unparalleled versatility, the tripod's fourteen independent joints would enable the tripod's feet to be adhered to the port side of a kayak while its hub hovered over the starboard deck area, and the camera was pivoted on the hub so that it aligned on plane with the watersheet.
Engineered for Kayaks and Boats
A camera mount designed for a kayak or boat must manage forces including an occasional direct impact and the repetitive, often jarring force of a craft's pitch and roll in waves or wind.
These forces are expecially important considerations if the camera mount uses suction cups or other temporary attachment methods because repetitive shock or leveraged force on a suction cup foot may have a detrimental impact on its vacuum strength.
To provide the maximum level of adhesion of each suction cup, a tripod's legs and joints must be capable of absorbing force rather than assuming an extremely rigid posture and thereby transferring 100% of force to the suction cup feet.
Working as a unified assembly, with component parts designed to function together, the SuckerPod is stable and vibration free, yet flexible by comparison with an ordinary tripod in response to the jarring forces ordinarily anticipated to impact a kayak or boat. This balance of rigidity and flexibility minimizes leveraged forces acting to dislodge each foot and maximizes reliable, secure operation of the tripod.
Because the SuckerPod is assembled using many off-the-shelf components from RAM Mounting Systems — including its suction feet, you can rest assured that those parts will be available for replacement if damaged, upgraded along with new technologies, and swapped out for alternate uses.
SuckerPod: The Multipurpose Tripod
One of the most exciting features of the SuckerPod is its ability to be adapted to securely host a variety of electronic devices and accessories.
The RAM Mounts coupler atop the Suckerpod's hub can host all of RAM's 1-inch "B" ball compatible accessories including GPS, fishfinder, iPhone and iPod cradles.
Other compatible accessories include RAM's line of waterproof Aqua Boxes® to carry any gear you need to keep handy and dry.
In addition to supporting RAM Mounts cradles and accessories, the SuckerPod head's 1-inch "B" ball coupler can hold any Kayalu accessory available for our Radpole, nClamp or ParkerMount products, for example one of our binocular mounts, submersible navigation lights or NavBeam headlights (shown in image at above right).
The SuckerPod legs can be extended or swapped with any of our Toughbar® "B" ball extension arms. One or more SuckerPod legs can be swapped out with a longer Toughbar arm (or an off-the-shelf RAM Mounts coupler) if you need to contort the tripod to allow your gear to film underwater. The possibilities for expansion are truly limitless.
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