I have found 2 major flaws with tripod corn feeders:
1. Even fenced off, the cows eventually worm their way in and end up knocking the feeder over and tearing it up, not to mention wasting all the feed.
2. Farkin coons shimmy up the legs and pull the feed out by hand, regardless of electrified varmint guards, razors on the legs, and every other deterrent on the market.
So, laid it all out in my head over the summer and here's what I come up with. barrel, feeder control box, all-thread, chain, cable, pulleys, and a boat winch. about $150 worth of materials.
First attempt was a flop. tried to use 1 pulley between the winch and the feeder, but bottom only gets about 4 ft off the ground before it hits the cable between the winch and the pulley.
Added a second pulley up the same tree as the winch so the cable made more of an upside down U shape instead of a V.
Had a camera on it for about 3 weeks now. the coons still come and eat the corn on the ground, climb the tree and get on top of the feeder, but they aren't getting any extra.
The base on this one is about 16 ft high, way higher than any tripod. scatters the corn in about a 75 ft diameter area on low speed. It's got 350lbs of corn in it, and I'm much more comfortable about the stability of this one.
1. Even fenced off, the cows eventually worm their way in and end up knocking the feeder over and tearing it up, not to mention wasting all the feed.
2. Farkin coons shimmy up the legs and pull the feed out by hand, regardless of electrified varmint guards, razors on the legs, and every other deterrent on the market.
So, laid it all out in my head over the summer and here's what I come up with. barrel, feeder control box, all-thread, chain, cable, pulleys, and a boat winch. about $150 worth of materials.
First attempt was a flop. tried to use 1 pulley between the winch and the feeder, but bottom only gets about 4 ft off the ground before it hits the cable between the winch and the pulley.
Added a second pulley up the same tree as the winch so the cable made more of an upside down U shape instead of a V.

Had a camera on it for about 3 weeks now. the coons still come and eat the corn on the ground, climb the tree and get on top of the feeder, but they aren't getting any extra.
The base on this one is about 16 ft high, way higher than any tripod. scatters the corn in about a 75 ft diameter area on low speed. It's got 350lbs of corn in it, and I'm much more comfortable about the stability of this one.