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zip line

H

Hoofer B

Well-known Member
Has any of you ever made a zip line? I am thinking of running a cable from a post on our hill down to our pole barn, and rigging up a pulley type aparatus for the kids to play around on. Any ideas or advice? Thanks.
 
I was going to install one as BSA effort. I will see if I still have details and drop you an email.
 
(quoted from post at 16:57:38 09/13/12) It would be a blast. You would be a great dad to make something like that.
Click to expand...

Make sure you use a harness of some find. A women around here was killed when she got scared and let go.
 
Hoofer,

Ziplines are a riot. They've been used for years and years. We built and used one at our Vacation Bible School back in 1970.

Having said that, it is just a matter of time until someone using the zipline is injured or killed. You can not make them safe enough that no one will be hurt.

Ride horses. Ride motorcycles. Ride bicycles. Play on trampolines. Ride sleds. Go skiing. Etc. etc. People who do anything are going to get hurt doing it.

Check out your insurance before you build it.

Tom in TN
 
If you do make sure you do not have it so steep as to get them going to fast. You also need to have a safe way for them to be able to slow down and stop and of course have it so they do nbot run into the pole at the end.
 
My wife and I did a zipline during an Alaskan cruise a few years ago. The thing I noticed is that safety was foremost. (While we were on the zipline, that is. The ride up the mountain in an ATV was terrifying!) If you're not familiar with rigging this sort of equipment, I'd say "don't do it".

The ziplines we rode were all double lines. you couldn't fall unless two lines broke. Everything on the harness rigs was redundant.

Once you got on the zipline platform, your harness was always shackled to something.

The trees all had plenty of guy wires to handle the zipline tension.

Two guides accompanied the zipliners. One was the first down the line, making sure it was clear. The other was the last one down, in case of any problems.

Although the zipliners were responsible for controlling their speed, the guide at the bottom was ready to stop any zipliner who hit the end of the line too fast.

I's sure I forgotten a bunch. Sure you can do it, just make sure you keep it safe.
 
I built a 90 ft one for my grandson---from up in a climable tree down to a big old pine. 1/4 cable and double clamped all cable ends.
used a sailboat rigging pulley on the cable to a rope hung seat. Used hay bales and tires at the pine tree. For the test run had a tag line on the seat to slow it down if needed. Lowered the lower end a couple of times to get better speed. Kids love it!
On the ones i road in costa rica we had a body harness and slowed down by squeezing our leather gloves on the cable.Longest run was 1100 ft over a gorge
 
When I was 14 I built one that is still up (rode it last summer) it is wire rope and 230 ft long from a 50 inch oak at 25 ft up to 8 feet at the low end to a hickory. We wore out 3 pulleys playing on it as kids. At the low end it has a 50 foot zone of drag your feet to stop smooth grass. we started with a T handle and just hung on with our hands. Not osha or playground safety approved, but thrilling. When we let visitors ride we used a school bus seat in a sling with much more confidence for city folk and cousins. Jim
 
SURE YOU GET THE PROPER WIRE LINE. A friend did this and used regular 3/8th cable,his wife did the first run went about 10ft and the line snapped. She fell 20ft on to the beach of the pond thank god. When he started asking around he found there was a special wire rope specifically for this. He replaced the rope and has been fine for 10yrs.
 
Janicholson mentioned the most important part - a zone at the end to drag your feet!

My brother put one up in his yard - minus said drag zone - kids were constantly smashing into the tree at the end - somtimes REAL hard.

No casualties - but a constant source of tears.
 
Try a sand bag on it first to make sure its not going too fast at the end. I made one when I was a kid that only ran about 75'. I nearly broke my legs when I reached the other tree. Had to drop the higher end a lot.
 
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