60+ Foot Swing

[Fireaxman]

Here is a little different concept on a swing. I put it between 2 pine trees. The tie in points are at 75 feet. The swing ropes were 65 feet before knots. To "Power" it I have a block set in a third pine tree in front of the swing 15 feet high. The child holds one end of a 5/8 rope while I pull her towards the block. She turns loose of the rope at whatever height she desires (max 15 feet right now, at the block, but I plan to go higher) and starts swinging. The horizontal travel from 15 feet high is 57 feet; the arc, of course, is a little longer but I dont know how to calculate it.

This has proven to be a popular past time for children from 6 to 59. "Coolest swing I ever saw" according to one 15 year old. The first day I put it up a dozen kids accumulated around it in less than an hour. I was pleased and a little surprised I could get that many of them away from their computer games so quickly.

 

[treemandan]

I was at the playground today thinking i would like to do the same. I would like to try to turn around at every crest.
Oh and I would wear a helmet and some joint pads before I got near that thing! Maybe even a neck brace! YEEFNHAA

 

[kennertree]

Cool swing. Be careful in this sue-happy world, that swing can become a liability.

 

[Fireaxman]

One last perspective on it

It is pretty stable just for streight swinging, but with a little body english you can get it to turn around on the peaks. Another popular pastime on it is to wind it up before you pull it up, making it "Swing and Spin" simultaneously. BYO Dramamine.

 

[Fireaxman]

Cool swing. Be careful in this sue-happy world, that swing can become a liability.

I hear ya, and yes it is a concern. Obviously I cannot leave it up unsupervised, "Attractive Nuisance". But with the tie in points established and with the friction savers in place I can install or dismantle it in about 15 minutes.

 

[kennertree]

Seeing that swing makes me wanna go put up a swing.

 

[treemandan]

It is pretty stable just for streight swinging, but with a little body english you can get it to turn around on the peaks. Another popular pastime on it is to wind it up before you pull it up, making it "Swing and Spin" simultaneously. BYO Dramamine.

You got that right! Maybe I will skip the swing and just watch you. Makes my tummy jump these days.

 

[moray]

You are the Pied Piper of your neighborhood.

A technical question. From the first photo it looks like the right-hand TIP is slightly higher than the left. It would seem that any sort of asymmetry in the anchors would produce some odd oscillatory behavior in the swimg. Do you notice anything like that?

 

[Lawnmowerboy48]

Looks like a lot of fun, couple things I noticed though. The caribiners at the top, particularly the two connected to the rope snaps, looks as if they could potentially be loaded in three directions at once: from the rope snaps, the rope connecting the two sides and the downward pull from the weight of the person on the swing. Also from the angle of the 5th picture its looks as if the rope connecting the two sides could ride up the biner and possibly unlock it. Just some things I noticed though stay safe.

 

[Treetom]

excellent pics

And that last one is awesome. Nice work on the swing, too.

 

[ClimbinArbor]

Looks like a lot of fun, couple things I noticed though. The caribiners at the top, particularly the two connected to the rope snaps, looks as if they could potentially be loaded in three directions at once: from the rope snaps, the rope connecting the two sides and the downward pull from the weight of the person on the swing. Also from the angle of the 5th picture its looks as if the rope connecting the two sides could ride up the biner and possibly unlock it. Just some things I noticed though stay safe.

yeah good call. i would get some biners with atleast a 50kn on those, and maybe look for another idea.

 

[Fireaxman]

You are the Pied Piper of your neighborhood.

A technical question. From the first photo it looks like the right-hand TIP is slightly higher than the left. It would seem that any sort of asymmetry in the anchors would produce some odd oscillatory behavior in the swimg. Do you notice anything like that?

The tie in points may not be exactly level, but they are pretty close, as close as I could "Eyeball" in the tree and from the ground. Close enough that the swing is quite true. There is no noticable asymetry in the arc of the swing.

Answering Lawnmowerboy about the loading on the biners, they are indeed lightly loaded in 3 directions, and I am cautious about that and I am watching them very closely. But they are in no way loaded across the axis. They are 11,000 lb fixed eye steel triple acting biners with pin lock gates loaded well below their working limits, and the 3/8 New England Stay Set (double braid) closest to the gate has no tendency to ride toward the gate because of the tension maintained between the trees. The double acting swivel snap hooks are set in the fixed eye part of the biner, so that the biner cannot roll out in a fashion that would cross load it. I thought about using big delta links instead of the biners, but after load testing and watching them through many cycles I am confident that I am over-engineered well enough to keep everybody safe.

If for some reason the 3/8 should fail the only thing that would happen is that the swing ropes would spread farther apart. That would give me the warning to lower the rig and see what went wrong. Everything else is 1/2" arborplex or better.

 

[Highclimber OR]

The swing is cool for what it is. Of course some know it all is gonna say that this is a bad idea or find some spec in the pic that they don't like, or tell you to rethink your swing. I say right on, and if someone thinks they can do better, then show us all instead of finding problems with this one.

 

[scottbaker]

Here is a link to another very wild swing built by Michael Garnier the Tree Houser.
I rode it once...Yikes! You get pulled up to the start by a madman in a golf cart!
I heard that he saw a similar swing in Costa Rica...
http://www.treehouses.com/ (link to swing video is on main page.)

enjoy...Scott

 

[moss]

Here is a link to another very wild swing built by Michael Garnier the Tree Houser.
I rode it once...Yikes! You get pulled up to the start by a madman in a golf cart!
I heard that he saw a similar swing in Costa Rica...
http://www.treehouses.com/ (link to swing video is on main page.)

enjoy...Scott

Totally mad swing. I see they added a trigger release for the second ride, good move. Also very good to put the riders in a harness.
-moss

 

[scottbaker]

Moss...
The trigger is optional ...for weenies...the handhold method has a plus....free chiropractic adjustment.
When you let go you fall free for some distance before the rope catches you and yes...harnessed (Out n About uses New Tribe) and clipped in and high enough off ground so that even if you flipped you would not hit.
Anyone who has not visited this place should try to drop by!
SDB

 

[futureshock]

Great swing!

Hi! I found this site by searching google for swings, preferably really tall swings. I can't find them anywhere!

Does anyone know where I could buy a really huge swingset, higher than 16feet?

I'm in Massachusetts.

Thanks.

 

[Lawnmowerboy48]

Not quite a rope swing but...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaktlZxsS_4

 

[Treetimer]

Swinging Saddle

I really like the design and fun factor. In thinking about the saddle safety suggestion, this could also be a way for kids (of any age) to become more comfortable with a climbing saddle. Use a saddle instead of the swing seat.

One would need to give some thought on how to secure the saddle to the two side ropes as this would depend somewhat on the style of saddle and the desired swing experience. Simplest method would be to attach the the two swing ropes to the saddle's climbing line attachment point. This would then become a more classic rope swing. To retain the "playground" swing experience, one could simply attach the flipline anchor points to the swing lines with the rider still using the swing seat as before. This of course would not have the advantage of experiencing the saddle for support. Removing the swing seat and using only the flipline attach points would be interesting to try with various saddle designs and riders of various thrill levels.

 

[ClimbinArbor]

cant find it but there was a couple posts on here about how being suspended for more than 30 minutes will cut off the blood circulation to the legs and quite quickly kill a person, so dont get to thrill happy lol.