Moonboard OR Kilter DIY NOOB questions

Background: I never considered a home system board, nor did I ever use one consistently, but a friend is giving away his DIY home wall and turned out my wife is ok with me setting it up in our living room, which was a huge surprise. Its specs are: 8' wide, 11' tall without the kicker. At 27 degrees its about 10' tall.

Due to this turn of events, if that's a possibility, I would love to set up a GOOD long term home training wall. I am thinking something like the moonboard (I saw 2016 hold set for sale for $750) or kilter. First problem, is that I do not boulder very hard at the moment and am afraid that Moonboard will be too hard. Hardest problem I've done in the gym, when I was at my peak was a v8, but now it takes me a few tries to do v4-5, since I've been mostly trail running and alpine climbing in the last couple years. Would it make sense to set up a Moonboard at a lower angle (maybe 20-25 degrees) and using the same problem base they offer in the app? As I understand moonboard is fixed at 40 degrees overhanging? So though problems will be obviously easier if it is set up at 20 degrees, I will be able to fail on plenty of them and the point is doing hard moves/failing...

Can I set up the LEDs on a home DIY wall, or do LEDs work on commercially made walls only, such as Lemur or Grasshopper? Are there any free standing, commercially made walls that do not cost an arm and a leg? I feel like I will end up installing this DIY proj, but I would love to have the LEDs because they will make the whole experience much more enjoyable and problems easier to see. I feel like to actually use a home climbing wall, it has to be something I am psyched on. 

I have a crash pad already, would it make sense to buy a commercial padding, some sort of a mattress (LOL) or just add another crash pad to cover most of the floor?

Any other considerations?

If your wall is only 11 feet tall then you won't be able to set up the standard 8x12 Moonboard, Tension, Kilter, etc. All of those companies sell shorter/smaller versions of their flagship boards if space is an issue. But the OG 2016 Moonboard set would not fit on an 11 foot board. Also, Kilter is an order of magnitude more expensive than Moonboard (at least 10x the cost of the MB holds you quoted).

What kind of height constraints do you have for your space? If you have 10 ft ceilings, you could fit in a 40 degree 8x12 board with a ~9 inch kickboard. For the long term I would absolutely go steeper than 20-25 even if it feels too hard for you at the moment. You will adapt to the steepness. For my first home wall, I put in a 35 degree Kilter board and after a year or so, I found it was not steep enough and the holds were too good at that angle. I ended up spending lots of $$$ to rebuild it but now I have a 12x12 TB2 at 40 degrees I'm super happy with.

You can set up LEDs on a home wall you build yourself. My home wall was custom built by a local builder and I did the LEDs just fine. The LED wiring is completely separate from the actual wall frame, and is simple to do - literally just poking LEDs into holes and snapping a few wires together. As for commercially made wall frames, a lot of people use the adjustable walls from Onsite. They are not cheap and require quite a bit of assembly yourself, but still a lot cheaper than Lemur/Grasshopper.

I think commercial padding is totally worth it, I have 2 of the Asana drag pads for my setup, but it is really expensive especially when considering the cost of the system wall holds and LEDs. A lot of people are fine with just using crash pads and/or mattresses.

Thank you Prav, that is super helpful!

I will try to see if making it 12 foot tall is not TOO hard, I think it shouldn't be. My ceiling in the living room is fairly tall, so shouldn't be a problem with height. If this proj goes well, I will try to add a compact campus board next to the home wall. This coming winter should be more fun :)

Have you considered the mini moonboard as well?

SirTobyThe3rd M wrote:

...and turned out my wife is ok with me setting it up in our living room, which was a huge surprise...

She decided to go fully indoors? RAD

Prav C wrote:

If your wall is only 11 feet tall then you won't be able to set up the standard 8x12 Moonboard, Tension, Kilter, etc. All of those companies sell shorter/smaller versions of their flagship boards if space is an issue. But the OG 2016 Moonboard set would not fit on an 11 foot board. 

I believe you can fit a full size Moonboard with 10' ceilings. Moon's specs for the wall are 10.3'x8' at 40 degrees with a ~15" kicker.

Will O wrote:

I believe you can fit a full size Moonboard with 10' ceilings. Moon's specs for the wall are 10.3'x8' at 40 degrees with a ~15" kicker.

Yup, I was referring to the vertical length of OP's board not his ceiling height. You need a board that is 12 feet in vertical length for a full size Moonboard. 

Not sure if OP is still looking but I'm selling a COMPLETE 2024 moonboard setup (holds, LEDs, panels, everything.) My post here if you're interested https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/126295900/fs-entire-moonboard-2024-setup-located-in-the-front-range-colorado. I'm located in CO!

SirTobyThe3rd M wrote:

Thank you, I’m all set, finished last week! So nice to have it at home!

Looks great! Congrats!