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Foldable Hitting Platform

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  • Foldable Hitting Platform

    Hope this comes in handy for someone in this group that may be building a new sim in a multi-function space.

    Just finished building my new sim platform in my garage and it turned out great. My old setup for Skytrak was just a regular 4X8 sheet of 3/4" plywood with a Fairway Pro hitting section. I ended up upgrading my sim (GC3) and decided that a whole new setup was needed....

    Bought my screen (14x9) from Carl's Place (IMO the best place to buy an affordable screen) and placed it on the back wall. Normally with my old setup I would have the front of my hitting platform about 7-8" away from the hitting screen so with my design I wanted to make sure that it was going to be the same. Thinking I'd spent enough money in the last few weeks I wanted to do it the cheapest way possible.

    I live in Canada and my wife likes to park her vehicle in the garage in the winter so me just taking over the garage for an at home simulator wasn't going to fly. I needed to find a way to make sure it could be moved out of the way for garage parking. I landed on creating a four section hitting platform that folded up to about a foot once it's all said and done.

    Like I said before, i wanted my hitting section to start at 7' so the first two sections I made 18"x48" each, the next section 48"x48", and the hitting platform 108"x46". I ripped 2 2x10x10s into 2" sections and made 80' of boards to frame out all the sections. Once I did that I connected all the frames and added 5/16" subfloor panels on the bottoms of all the sections. I purchased 2" rigid foam to insert in the middle to save on framing weight (if I were to do this project over, I would go with 1.5" frame and foam) and then added the top panel.

    Next I marked out all the sections that needed to get cut to put the hinges flush with the subfloor panels (could have done this before attaching them to the frame). While the panels were off, I also routered out where the hinge was going to go to make sure it fit in there nicely then attached and secured the panels back on. VOILA, folding platform.

    Notice I made the last section 46", that was because I added 2" casters to the bottom so when I lift it it can just roll over to me.

    That probably isn't the best explanation but I hope it helps someone. Cheers.
    Attached Files

  • #2
    I have a remarkably similar situation (also just got a GC3!)

    I think i am going to draw up a similar solution for my space.

    I wont be worrying about lefties though

    Thanks for the Inspiration!

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    • #3
      Just curious, why did you use the foam inserts? Was that to eliminate the need for additional support studs in the middle?

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      • christopherknoop
        christopherknoop commented
        Editing a comment
        Yep, went with foam to try and reduce the weight of the sections since I wanted it fairly moveable; especially the larger 9' one.

    • #4
      Here’s what I am designing for my space

      the white outlined structure will be permanent and the green stance area will fold up on top of the white area.

      my car will just fit with this configuration

      only issue is my hitting area will now only be 7.5 ft from the screen. It’s not an issue for my Launch Pro reading the shots but I always read you want at least 10 ft from the screen for safety. The shots I hit don’t bounce back and hit me so it should be fine.

      thanks again for the inspiration!

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