What have you found that works best when you're forced to setup on asphalt on a hot day? My legs tend to settle very quickly and throw my level off in minutes.
Maybe some short wood planks with holes drilled partway through to accommodate the tips of the tripod, and cabled together to limit the leg spacing.
You could try these - https://www.tigersupplies.com/products/sta-level-feet-tripod-stabilizer-pack-of-3
Another similar issue occurs due to uneven thawing of a dirt/gravel surface. One time this was a problem because the ideal place for the setup was half in shadow and half in bright sunlight. The shadow area was solid as the sun area was turning mushy.
I use hockey pucks with a divot drilled in the center. Set up the legs a little more vertical than usual to limit the outward spreading force. They have never slipped in 20 years of use. They work on frozen ground too, to prevent settling when the sun softens it. If there is any breeze, leg weights are recommended insurance.
You can use flat stakes, or even coins in a pinch. With reasonable care, chains or hold-down straps on the feet are not needed.
There was a product “Tri-Peds” that seems to be not available anymore. It was a rubber covered discus shaped weight with a divot and a strap on top. The idea was to provide anti-topple and anti-sink at the same time, but it was expensive, and allowed some undesirable movement on flat surfaces.
Even better pucks made for shooting practice are available with heavier harder rubber in orange color.
Can't recall ever looking for hockey pucks in a local sporting goods store. Not saying they don't carry them. They might. The frequency of having ice hard enough to support hockey is extremely rare here.
My less than elegant solution is to drive each leg down into the soft asphalt as far as I can get it to go then spank the holes I made with a sledge when I'm finished. Much faster than messing with disks and more stable when a big truck screams by.
"Set up the legs a little more vertical than usual to limit the outward spreading force. "
There are a variety of gadgets available for sale that stabilize the legs from spreading when set up on a smooth surface. Or you could make up you own from some split rings and a few short lengths of light chain. Or you can simply hobble the legs together with some twine.
There's no ice rinks in Kansas?
You might check with the https://kcmavericks.com/team/our-story; they might have 3 to spare...
I wouldn't think @bc-surveyor would have any trouble finding hockey pucks.
The Vancouver Canucks starting goaltender was born in San Diego and grew up in southern California. Hockey is everywhere. So is Amazon. There will be no problem acquiring hockey pucks.
It's just that when we seek out solutions to problems, we tend to reflect on what we may have seen others do. Way back in grade school the bases around our ball diamond were all worn out disc blades, readily available from local farmers. Nearly everywhere we went, disc blades were used for bases for softball.
That's why rail road spikes were so commonly used for survey purposes. They were everywhere and could be easily found in the ballast area of the tracks. Those of us who weren't anywhere near cotton country had no idea that a component of a cotton machine would work even better for survey purposes.
One of the great things about this site is that we all learn from each other and our minds are expanded.
Hubs- I'd just use some 6" 1x2s for "feet"- perpendicular to each leg. If you're worried about slippage (which really wasn't an issue for me but sometimes you get paranoid), you can set a pair of 60d nails on the outside edge of the hub. Throw the nails and hubs back into your bags/vest when you're done.
...It also makes sure you have an extra hub or nail in case you need them in a pinch.
While working as a rod man on a very hot day I was forced to set legs in the road so the gun could see them. They were sinking in so I used the plastic caps we topped iron rods with upside down on the points. Worked like a charm.
When I have dealt with this, I would just get a shovel full of dirt or gravel from the ditch and place it on the feet. It actually works very well….. remember to shovel it back off the road when you are done.
