If you're truly addicted to astrophotography, you likely have leftover gear from older equipment lying around. In my case, after my Meade LX200GPS hand controller died, I was stuck with some fine equipment that was nearly useless because of the ancient electronics. I eventually gave up on the hand controller emulator in iOS and bypass circuitry and admitted defeat. But other than the dead and ancient Meade electronics, the OTA and tripod were still in fine shape.

I went through the deforking process to resurrect my 8" OTA onto a Losmandy dovetail plate to use with an EQ6-R which was a great, modern improvement over the old fork. But I still had a perfectly good Meade Field Tripod that was seemingly impossible to use with anything.

The problem was the enormous 1/2" bolt protruding from the center of the Meade Field Tripod. Virtually nothing you want to attach has a bolt hole that large meaning its next to impossible to just use the tripod. I tried making my own contraption with 2x4s and the equatorial wedge ... it worked but it was unsightly and still difficult to universally attach different scopes to it. The next logical step is to use reduction adapters but going from large to small "adds height" which basically means without shims, whatever you attach is literally held only by the bolt without any weight distribution.

1/2" Center Bolt on Field Tripod

Fortunately, a single post on the CloudyNights forum discussing an alternative mount for the ZWO AM5 lead to a solution. Dan's Pier Plates offer a number of adapter plates for attaching mounts to piers. The exact combination you need is not actually listed on the website (and still isn't) but if you directly contact Dan through his webpage you can coordinate the necessary components.

For attaching either the ZWO AM3 or ZWO AM5, ask for part number 8290-0002 for the 8" AM5 plate (works for both AM3 and AM5) and part number 3000-0004 for the 4" riser extensions. These will have the appropriate countersunk holes for attaching either of the AM3 or AM5 mounts and the risers provide easy spacing from the tripod adapter. Part number 3015-0000 is an adapter plate for the Meade Field Tripod which actually threads onto the 1/2" center post bolt AND has cutouts allowing the legacy thumbscrews to also bolt down and further secure the plate.

Dan's Pier Plate [3015-0000] for the Meade Field Tripod

Short of crafting your own solution, the adapter from Dan's Pier Plates seemed to be the only commercial plate for making the Meade Field Tripod work with anything other than the original Meade fork. It's certainly a heavy duty tripod with enough weight to resist light breezes and resist tipping from heavier payloads. Hopefully this helps you make continued use of your existing gear.

AM3 on Meade Field Tripod Adapter