Cycling UK Forum

We have the perfect tree up in our wood for me to hang a nice high swing from.
It's too high to lean a ladder, and it's too high and difficult to get at by climbing.

I chucked (with much difficulty) a nut and bolt on the end of a thin string over the bough and then pulled over a long length of old washing line. There it stayed for a couple of days whilst I scratched my head about how to hang a swing and how, if I hoisted it up, to secure it from the bough.

I've a ready-made swing from previously on a lower tree, so my intention is to reuse it and maybe extend the length. No seat on it at present though it is ready to fit.

I've made a loop of rope and hoisted it up with the washing line with it threaded through. This went over the bough and back through, so I have a short loop hanging with the washing line from it. The washing line is fastened to the rope with a thin zip tie, so later, I'm going to pull hard on the line and the zip tie will snap off.

Meanwhile, I've made an S shape hook from steel rod, and my intention is thread it through the top of the swing ropes and somehow get it through the loop at the top at the bough ....................... having measured the drop and extended if necessary. I have some long lengths of bamboo that I can join together to gauge the drop required.

I have no idea how to get this steel rod S shape hook and swing ropes up there.

Having a cuppa now, and thinking ...................

Pictures please

I would give up on having the connection at the top.
Use your ingenious technique to get a longer rope around the branch and do all the fixing to the swing at the bottom.
I would also use two ropes (unless you want to spin around all the time too) and use a cheap shackle (available from Screwfix for example) rather than an s shaped hook that the rope could jump out of.
If you are really fancy join the swing with a figure of eight metal connector (the sort that come with cheap swing seats) for easy fine adjustment of length.

For throwing the initial lines, small bean bags are more commonly used than bolts.

You need someone with a bit of climbing gear for good safe ascent.
Harness, rope, couple slings, few carabiners, some prusic loops(or jumars).
Use the rope you have to pull the climbing rope up and your away.

Done it!

20ft up.
I used a long extended bamboo pole system and I zip tied the S hook to the very end using a thin one. The other end of the S hook I hung the swing ropes to it and raised it up and threaded the hook through the rope loop on the bough.

When through, I pulled hard on the bamboo and pulled hard on the washing line and both came down easily leaving the hook and swing ropes dangling.

I pulled hard on the ropes and heard the bough giving a good creak! It's oak, so it should be ok.
I threaded the seat through the ropes and tied them off temporarily adjusting as necessary as when I sat on it, the bough bent a bit!
It's really for our grandson and as he's only eight-going-on-nine, and he doesn't weigh as much as me yet.

Difficult to take a photo in bright sunshine in a woodland, but I did anyway. The top is 20ft off the ground off the top of the picture, and you can see the seat isn't finished off yet.

Hero!

Great fun for children of all ages
How thick is the branch, are you quite sure it is strong enough?

That's not a wood it's a bloody great forest!

Y'know - when I first saw the thread title I thought it'd be like this:

When I saw it I thought of this
[youtube]Web007rzSOI[/youtube] .

Cyril Haearn wrote:Great fun for children of all ages
How thick is the branch, are you quite sure it is strong enough?

It's about 8 or 9 inches diameter, and oak.
It creaked a bit when I first tried it out, but stopped creaking eventually. I'm a 12st chap, but grandson isn't that heavy!

Bonefishblues wrote:That's not a wood it's a bloody great forest!

Couple of acres we own, though there's hundreds of them hereabouts.

Flower growing fields in the old days, just like many of the slopes of the valley. The industry failed in the 1950s so the fields seeded with trees from the neglected hedges. Oldest trees we have up there are 60odd years old .............. I've cut many down and counted the rings to prove it.

This was an ash I cut down last year and used a felt pen to count the rings.

Here's a photo from a few years ago ......... summer 2003.

What types/mix of trees do you have, what tree would dominate if the land was not tended?
Plus One for "unmanaged" woods

Birch, oak and willow. Ash and sycamore too, with some beech.

Dominate?
Maybe birch, but they are short-lived, so eventually they could continue to seed and keep going, but willow won't be far behind. However, ivy will take over the world eventually!

The oak, ash and beech will grow and grow and grow ............... contaminated by ivy growing up their trunks.

hire some squirrels