Mmm, chill Lee.
Anyways... I've wraped bike tubes around tripod legs and it helps to protect them plus keeps your hands a bit warmer. But I haven't found that they offer much padding. It is cheap though, especially if you happen to ride a bicycle often and have heaps of old tubes... What I do is take a 26" mountain bike tube and cut out the valve. Then I take the rest, try to avoid any large holes (it is a used tube afterall) and cut it open so the tube then lays flat. Then on a seam I will cut the now flat piece in half length wise. Then I simply wrap one of those long pieces around the tripod leg nice and tight and overlaping a bit as I go, and secure it with electrical tape at the ends. You also will want to wash the piece though, it usually has a powder on it which prevents it from sticking. If you want it to really stick to the tripod leg, you can also try a little hairspray. I think I used one tube to wrap maybe 2 of the legs on a Bogen 3021.
I would imagine the more you overlap on the wrapping the more padding you will get, but I don't think it will make much difference overall. On the plus side, it is very weather resistant.
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