- Joined
- Feb 1, 2003
- Messages
- 1,221
My 8 year old son asked for a tire swing (a couple months ago when it was colder here). He was disappointed today because we tried to return a late Christmas present and didn't have a receipt, so I thought when we got home I'd hang one up for him. Found a good tree and thought it was about at the height of my tallest extension ladder, so I muscled that up there... still about 8 feet short. The branches were only about 4 inches thick at that height and I was nervous about the rest of the way, so... Got out the twine, a baseball and the duct tape. Taped one end of the twine to the ball and reeled out a bunch of slack. I'd done this before where we used to live on a branch that was about 40 feet up so I knew it was a pain to get the ball exactly where I wanted (and, on one throw, the twine wrapped around one of my fingers...
) This time, first throw, got the baseball to go almost exactly where I wanted. It caught a couple branches from a nearby tree, but they should break off over time.
I'd pre-drilled and cut holes in the tire, one at top and one at the bottom (for drainage) (I was lucky, it was an older tire that didn't have metal wire in it so I could enlarge the top hole with my utility knife).
I allowed the baseball to lower to the ground, then tied my rope to it and pulled it back up. It wanted to snag near the top but a couple yanks got it over. Pulled the twine back down, thereby pulling the rope up-and-over. I set the tire up on a lawn chair and threaded the rope through the hole and tied a huge knot in it to keep it from pulling back out. My son tested it for a bit (he liked to swing out and grab a branch on one of the other trees) After his friend came over I tested it to make sure it wouldn't snap under my weight (and would be safe for him and his friend). After I'd got done, he mentioned that he wanted one that was horizontal, instead of vertical. I thought about it for a second and that was easily do-able... then I thought that I'd have 6 kids at a time climbing on it; maybe more if big sister took her friends out there... So I decided to stay safer and leave it upright.
The other rope that I put up that I mentioned before didn't have a tire on it; it was just pulled down and knotted at the bottom. That rope we used to swing over the small stream behind our house (probably 14-15 feet high over the trickle at the highest) First time my son tried it was a mother hen. After a couple weeks, he'd go down swing if I was anywhere out in the yard; I knew he had the strength to hold himself up, and the smarts to not get caught in the middle. I used to get woke up on the weekends by groups of kids that would see others using it and invite themselves. I always would walk down and talk with them (if they didn't run), gave them the no horseplay talk and ask them to knock and ask next time they showed up.
) This time, first throw, got the baseball to go almost exactly where I wanted. It caught a couple branches from a nearby tree, but they should break off over time.I'd pre-drilled and cut holes in the tire, one at top and one at the bottom (for drainage) (I was lucky, it was an older tire that didn't have metal wire in it so I could enlarge the top hole with my utility knife).
I allowed the baseball to lower to the ground, then tied my rope to it and pulled it back up. It wanted to snag near the top but a couple yanks got it over. Pulled the twine back down, thereby pulling the rope up-and-over. I set the tire up on a lawn chair and threaded the rope through the hole and tied a huge knot in it to keep it from pulling back out. My son tested it for a bit (he liked to swing out and grab a branch on one of the other trees) After his friend came over I tested it to make sure it wouldn't snap under my weight (and would be safe for him and his friend). After I'd got done, he mentioned that he wanted one that was horizontal, instead of vertical. I thought about it for a second and that was easily do-able... then I thought that I'd have 6 kids at a time climbing on it; maybe more if big sister took her friends out there... So I decided to stay safer and leave it upright.
The other rope that I put up that I mentioned before didn't have a tire on it; it was just pulled down and knotted at the bottom. That rope we used to swing over the small stream behind our house (probably 14-15 feet high over the trickle at the highest) First time my son tried it was a mother hen. After a couple weeks, he'd go down swing if I was anywhere out in the yard; I knew he had the strength to hold himself up, and the smarts to not get caught in the middle. I used to get woke up on the weekends by groups of kids that would see others using it and invite themselves. I always would walk down and talk with them (if they didn't run), gave them the no horseplay talk and ask them to knock and ask next time they showed up.
