ZIP LINE

[GAV64]

HAS ANYONE EVER INSTALLED A ZIP LINE FOR THIER KIDS ( CABLE TROLLEY BETWEEN TOW POINTS) I AM CONSIDERING IT BUT I HAVE SOME SAFETY CONCERNS, ALSO I AM LOOKING FOR IDEAS FOR SOME OUTDOOR "ADVENTURE" STUFF FOR KIDSMAYBE AND OBSTACLE COURSE. MY GOAL IT TOT TO KEEP THEM AWAY FROIM THE TUBE AND ALL THOSE ELECTRONIC GADGETS AND BUILD THEIR LOVE OF THE OUTDOORS. I WAS THINKING OF A CLIMBING WALL BUILT BETWEEN TWO TREES WITH A REPELLING SYSTEM, ANY OTHER IDEAS OR PLANS. THANKS GLENN.

[Patty]

The zip line sounds like great fun. Do you live in town? If so, turn off the tv and don't allow it to be turned back on until you say so, (same with the computers, video games, etc) put up a bad mitten net, get a trampoline, roller blades are fun, put up a tent in the back yard, ice hockey....we built our own rink at the basketball court site, but a parking lot will do fine too, bike trails are good. If you live in the country, then just send them outside and forbid the tv to be turned on until after supper...they will find plenty to do. Dad & Moms don't need to entertain the kids, especially in the country. How old are your kids? Good luck, with your projects.

[Ianab]

One thing I've seen is like a big cargo net strung between 2 trees, you could climb it, swing off it, or use it as a hammock to read a book in. Something I allways wanted when I was a kid  ;)

Ian

[FeltzE]

My Dad put one up for us kids years ago,  8) It was great fun here are some notes I remember.

Have it so that the kids can drag their feet near the bottom long enough to prevent a cartoon impact of kids with the end of the line.

Threading a tire or 2 on the end creating a flexible stop at the termination point to stop the pully on the cable will help.

Dont make it too high the kids will be jumping off.

Little ones need an extra rope off the handles to pull it back to the start. Dont put any knots and don't make it too long to tangle with the kids and hang or hurt em.

A platform to start from is better than off a ladder frame.

Attach the cable to a FIRM object and use heavier cable than you think you need. The cable is under a LOT of stress with kids all hanging in the middle (and they will double up)

Use 3 cable clamps at each end. Tape all loose ends, check for cable damage (freys) occasionally.

Give em water balloons to pelt each other with when playing... ;D

HAVE FUN 8) 8)

[pappy]

something else the kids could use   8) 8) 8)

http://www.cedarworks.com/

[Kevin]

Keep some distance between the rider and the pulley, long hair and fingers can cause some serious problems in a pulley.
Other things to consider would be a proper saddle or harness,helmet and a brake line to slow them near the end of the run.
The rope should be of good quality and tensile strength.

[Tom]

My favorite Christmas toy was a length of rope.  It was usually about 15, sometimes 20, feet long and 3/4 inch in diameter.  You wouldn't believe what fun we had with it.  To name a few games, crack the whip, tug of war, lay it on the ground and try to walk on it, whip the ends, tie knots, untie knots and replace last year's rope swings in the tree out back.  The old ropes became the portable toys.  Nobody had to show us what to do with a piece of rope.  

We used shovels and hoes to dig a maze of trails in the backyard to play Fox and Geese.  Some of the trails looped back on one another and some dead-ended.  The Fox tried to catch the geese and put them in jail. The geese could free the inmates while he was trying to catch another goose.

A water sprinkler and hose kept us busy for hours.

It's important to leave kids to devise entertainment of their own.  Don't make everything for them and, by all means, try to resist controlling, guiding, reprimanding, over-supervising  and telling them :"don't get dirty".  You'll just have to get used to a torn up back yard. :D

[Norm]

Tom's comment about a water hose reminded me of a favorite game when it was hot outside. We had a well head with a spout on it. Put on a hose with an adjustable end on it and we'd play king of the hill with it. One guy had the hose and everyone else would try and rush him. Soon there would be mud all around the well head which made it even more fun. My mom would bring out cookies and kool-aid for snacks, great fun.

[Bro. Noble]

I'd like to see a picture or diagram of a zipline.  My kids are all grown and we don't have grandkids yet,  but that sounds fun 8)  Whitepe says he's going to come back for a visit sometime and he and I could have a good time on one of those :D

Thinking back on stuff that entertained us as kids,  one of my favorites was an old junk modle A Ford that sat in the yard of one place we rented.  We drove that thing a million miles and did some fancy shifting-------all without even having an engine in it ;)

I fixed up a similar outfit for my boys which they also enjoyed.  It's still sitting over the fence from our backyard.  A friend wanted to buy it a couple of weeks ago.  I was flattered till I found out he wanted it to irritate his neighbors by putting it in his front yard.  They evidentally think he needs to spruce up his place to make theirs look better :

[Tom]

We had an old brick bar-b-cue pit in the back yard with a chimney on one end. It sufficed for a Pirate ship which we used to raid the occupants of the city in the back yard.  We also used it to fight off ships of the line.  Sometimes it was a ship of the line and we were fighting pirates.

One day, in defense of the ship, I threw a small iron skillet at charlie and opened him up from his fore-head through his eye brow, over his cheek and under his nose.  Scared us all to death and he was rushed to the doctor's office only to find that the doctor wasn't there.  The nurse put band-aids on him to the chagrin of my mom.  He probably still has the scars.

We were less than 5 years old and didn't get a spanking or anything. I guess the adults were glad it wasn't any worse and we learned from it too. .....'specially me.

[FeltzE]

An easy device is to take a good pully not too large, string the cable thru it then take an old push lawnmower handle and bolt it to the pully eye, no fuss no muss, we had a "T" handle design but a normal loop type would work just pull the ends together then bolt straigh through.

This should leave a good clean area to hold on to and not leave anything to get tangled with. Extra rope can be used as necessary but only enough to help with the retrieve no extra to tangle or get knotted up in.

ERic

[Bro. Noble]

I think I got the idea 8)

We got 100 yards of cable on our winch.  I could put a choker in a tree on one side of a valley and put a snatch block in a tree (a little lower in elevation) on the other side of the valley.  I run the cable through this snatchblock and put some tension on the cable. Then I put the other snatch block on the cable at the upper end,  attach a short rope tied to a car tire. With the right elevations and proper slack in the cable you would really fly until you got close to the end when you would be going back up hill because of the slack ;D

If Whitepe doesn't come to visit pretty soon,  I could test it with a sack of feed or something :D :D :D

It was one year ago that Whitepe and I got chased out of the headstart easter egg hunt at Cabool Mo. We need something new to entertain ourselves ;)

[Bro. Noble]

One plaything I made our kids that lots of kids of all ages enjoyed was a teeter-totter/merry-go-round.  We restored an old 31 Ford truck and had a spare front wheel, hub ,  and spindle.  We sunk the wheel part way in the ground and bolted a board to the spindle where it originally bolted to the frame.  It teetered up and down and spun around.  Used a longer board as the kids got bigger :D

We had to really emphasize safty,  but I don't remember anyone ever getting hurt on it.  The old contraption (less the board) is in an old barn and still gives me a smile when I stumble across it.

[ARKANSAWYER]

Miss Arky says to buy a load of gravel and dump it in the yard.  They can search for "cool" rocks, gold and silver and fossils.  And if they need fodder to throw at someone's dog they will have good ammo.   Add a sling shot and nothing is safe.  When kids leave home you can buy a cement mixer and start on the flower beds she always wanted.
ARKANSAWYER

[Bibbyman]

I always said if you were to set out bait to attract kids,  just make a big mound of dirt and leave it unattended for a couple of hours.  Come back and it'll be swarming with kids.

Mary and I toured the zoo in New Orleans a few years back and they actually had a man-made hill someone had donated to the park because kids in that area had never seen one.  It was at one time the highest point of land in New Orleans but it had worn down considerably by kids playing on it.

Just this evening,  Mary and I were returning home from having supper at Rose's Diner and took the long way back that past through this little town.  On the corner of a lot where a house was under construction we spotted a big mound of sand.  Two boys about 10 were playing in it.  One was buried like at the beach with only his head,  hands and feet sticking out.  He had also molded his own little "Washington Monument" there in the anatomically correct location.

Our granddaughters love to play with the trimmed off chunks of 3x4 blocking.  They can amuse themselves for hours building things.  Mary bought a new washing machine last week and the girls have spent countless hours playing with the box it came in.

[GAV64]

bro.noble,
 try google search zip line or flying fox, outdoorfunstore.com good source for a diagram. glenn

[Bro. Noble]

Thanks,

I looked at that. Some interesting stuff.

[Frickman]

Tom, your comment about the torn up backyard reminded me of a comic strip about a year or so ago. Hi and Lois's neighbor was looking across the fence while the kids were tearing around and said "You know, your grass would be greener if you kept the kids off it." To which Lois replied "We're growing children here, not grass."

A pile of dirt or rocks doen't keep just kids entertained. When we were raising alot of replacement heifers I'd keep a pile of dirt out behind the barn. Those calves just loved playing king of the mountain.

[Tom]

I like that "growing Children" line.  Sometimes it's too easy to forget that.

[Frickman]

I wish I would have saved it Tom. I have a five year old niece who comes to the farm alot. Her mother, my sister, gets upset when we send the girl home dirty. I tell her we have lots of fun and the dirt washes off easy. What doesn't wash away easy is all the good times we've had and memories we've made. This little girl has every toy known to man at her house but would rather come to the farm to feed and play with the animals. Kids are pretty good at entertaining themselves if you just let them.

[florida]

I put up my first zip line for my younger brothers and sisters over 30 years ago. Learned a lot from that one too. Use a big pulley  since the small ones give a jerky rough ride. A snatch block is best as it allows you to remove it from the cable when you need to. Over the years kids came from miles away to ride our zip line and we were worried that someone would get hurt while we weren't home. We hung a 3 foot piece of swing chain from the pulley and tied a piece of nylon cord to the end of that to pull it back to the top. Our bar is a piece of 1 1/4" pipe with a 5/16" open eye hook bolted to it. You can position the bar anywhere on the chain which makes it nice for those who want to ride but  are more comfortable sitting rather than hanging. Don't worry about anyone hitting the terminal tree. We tightened the cable with a come-a-long and still couldn't get the sag out. When someone slides down it the sag stops you before you hit anything.

Our current zip line is about 200 feet long and starts about 20 up a pine tree. No worries about hitting anything since you drop into our boat basin instead of the ground.

We've also always had rope swings and trapeze bars. We even had a trapeze bar in the family room for about 12 years. The kids loved it.



My nephew John dropping of the zip line into the water. You can see the snatch block at the top and the pull back line hanging down. The cable runs to an oak tree on the left bank way down past all the palms.


My son Andrew swinging on the rope swing. The gray thing in the water under him is a small manatee.

[crtreedude]

To see the mother of all zip-lines, go to Monteverde Costa Rica.  For about $45 dollars you can go on 11 of the things, most of them suspended over valleys about 400 feet or more deep.  They have big cable stretched from hilltop to hilltop, from the top of 100+ foot trees.  They attach you to a pulley with handles, push you and off you go.  Someone at the other end helps slow you down.

One of the 11 ziplines was 3/4 of a kilometer long.  You feel like it is never going to end.  Quite a rush.  I got my wife to go on one, she said her heart didn't slow down for hours. :D

Check out http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/canopy/tour.htm

[Furby]

Was that the one that was on The Amazing Race?
That was waaaaaaaay cool!!!  8) 8) 8)

[crtreedude]

No Idea, I missed it. Was it in Costa Rica?  There are several zip lines (Canopy Tours) in Costa Rica.

By the way, another cool place is Hacienda Baru, they have tree climbing using climbing gear.  I can't wait to go.

[Furby]

The Amazing Race zig zags around the world. In one of the races they had a really long zip line and I'm thinking that may have been it. I'll look around.