Not completely done with my upgrade - waiting for black shrink tubing to encase the aluminum stiffeners - more cosmetic than anything else. The net is taught to the max and the hoop is not making those weird angles anymore. Take 3 minutes to install them and they also fold back for packing. There are no cotter pins at the end of the Clevis pins - the velcro wraps around the whole thing and secures it all. 3 pins with velcro per section or a total of 12. The stiffeners I guess could also act to some degree as a some sort of hoop reinforcement. The aluminum strips are 3/4" and were bent by hand to match the hoop curvature. There is a pin at the center and one at each end of the aluminum strips - holes had to be drilled into the original hoop sections.
To continue with my hoop stiffeners after I received the needed shrink tubing. Works great, the reinforced hoop is straight with the net taught to the max.
Connected the whole machine to the butcher scale and it read 48lbs. Remove about 5 lbs from the total for the backpack + the hoop bag _ two pieces of thick foam to prevent the carbon fiber to damage the Cordura bag. Included are the new 4 hoop stiffeners and two Bonka. Pretty happy with the result. Only take a few more minutes to install the stiffeners and be good to go.
Nice, might do the same!
It is worth the few extra minutes to setup - the crooked hoop is a problem everyone faces and not just OpenPPG. My fix does not add much weight. The pin clips at the bottom are not needed either - the velcro secures it all.