"Xtreme Rockets" High Power Launch Pad Help?

[RocketRev]

Hello Fellow Rocketeers,

This is probably a question for those who’ve been in this hobby for a while.

I bought a 3-legged high-power launch-pad for Tripoli Quad Cities back circa 1995, back when we were first beginning. That was before Mid-West-Power and long before we became Quad Cities Rocketry Club.

The name on the pad reads “Xtreme Rockets” and I'm pretty sure that I purchased it from the manufacturer in Three Oaks, Michigan at one of the launches there off Avery Road.

Mine weighs in at 22 pounds. It has three legs each made from 1/8” thick, 1” by 2” extruded rectangular steel. Two of them, 36” long each, are hinged with what I think are ¼” x 2.250” roll pins thru a right angled U-bend bracket welded around the central leg which is about 40” long.

There’s a 1” square vertical steel tube for mounting the rod holder (this was before rails) which was another 1” square piece of tube steel with a ¾” piece of “coupler” steel tubing between them. This piece has been missing for decades. The ¼ x 20 welded nut in one corner of the vertical holder was what at one time held the rod holder. After some years we just used it for the rod holder itself till the 1/4x20 bolt froze in place and got broke off by somebody who was a bit too enthusiastic with a wrench.

The last distinguishing mark of this pad is that it has a 1" wide and about 40" long nylon carrying strap riveted into the u-bend bracket.

Does anybody remember the person who designed, built, and sold these pads? I hope to be able to give that person the credit that’s due in a build thread I hope to write.

Any help out there?

Brad, the “Rocket Rev.,” Wilson

 

[Fade to Black Rocket Work]

That looks like a Coker style pad somebody was building. Not sure who it was making them up there.

 

[RocketRev]

John Coker eh? I'll check it out here on TRF first. What follows is what I found...... I'm doing this live....so to speak.....

I just did a search on TRF for "coker" and a couple of threads came up. The first was the "Modified John Coker Pads" that Tony started. These look great, but I was looking for the original "coker" pad, not somebody's modifications.

So I went with the other TRF search result for "coker" to the thread "Large Rail Base Build" which right at the beginning, had the link to what turns out to be the original John Coker "Rail Launch Base" webpage. https://jcrocket.com/prorailbase.shtml

That's the link that takes one to John Coker's original web-site.

John Coker's website is dated 1998-2020 and I can only go with the dates that he supplied and since it says 2020 it appears to be up to date (well close). Maybe he was designing and building them earlier than 1998, but if he was then why does he date them as 1998?

Here's the tricky part which I mentioned in my initial post for this thread. It was 1995 when I bought the pad in the pics above (originally all white) from a guy in 3-Oaks Michigan 3 years BEFORE John Coker dates the creation of his pad design. And they have a sticker on them that says (barely still readable but it is there) Xtreme Rocketry.

So I'm just guessing mind you, that the builder of the pad that I bought in 1995 beat John Coker to the basic design by at least 3 years. And the first pads that I built modifying the Xtreme Rockets design were also built before 1998 as my club was using them in 1996.

That's why I'm looking for information on the designer/builder/owner/operator of Xtreme Rocketry for the thread that I'd like to start. I'd love to get the info right, but my memory, while good enough to remember that I started TQC in 1995 does not have the info available on file about from whom I bought the pad. I only remember that it was at a 3-Oaks HPR launch back in 1995, soon after I started TQC.

So I'm still hoping somebody will have a memory/link/info/whatever on Extreme Rocketry from back in 1995 and around 3-Oaks Michigan.

Brad

 

[tfish]

Xtreme rails...?

https://web.archive.org/web/20000619165325/https://www.planetkc.com/rocketman/rail.html
Tony

 

[RocketRev]

The stickers definitely read "Xtreme Rocketry" and the pad pre-dates John Coker's design by three years, at least according to John Coker's webpage.

Interesting link to Xtreme Rail and Jr Xtreme, but these are just rails. The only pads one sees in the link are either a massive TV-antennae tower design or the pad by Larry Mills which is nothing like the pad of whose pics I posted.

And lastly, the logo for these rails is very different from the logo on my pad. The logo on the rails is obviously the shape of cross section of rail.

Brad

Brad

 

[RocketRev]

Seriously? Nobody has heard of the maker of this pad? Good Grief!

I know that I'm an old guy, but there has got to be another old guy here who recognizes this pad and the Company name "Xtreme Rocketry"

The pad is still as solid as a rock after all these years. The only thing that's wrong is that the 1/4x20 bolt that used to hold the rod in place is rusted/twisted off.

I was hoping for something other than the sound of Crickets.

Brad

 

[dhbarr]

Rick Galbreath out of Elgin?

 

[RocketRev]

Do you have any contact information?

 

[dhbarr]

Complete, absolute wild stab in the dark; was hoping someone would recognize and affirm

xtremerockets ta att tod net