zipline

[VALENT]

Guaranteed to be lots of fun. I like your braking system. Where did you get the trolley?

 

[6thgpSF]

man when I think of zip lines I think of going out the 34' tower at Ft. Benning for a week ,I and everyone else was ready to move on to going out of airplanes instead of the towers,lot funner too.

 

[LBrown59]

Saw a picture of a guy with a right arm that was 3 inches shorter than his left one .
He had cut off his hand in a zipline accident and there wasn't enough flush left to attach the hand to allow the fill arm length.
Didn't look nice.

Those things are dangerous .

I don't want any thing to do with them.

 

[RobS]

Very cool! I've flown several zip lines in various adventure races. Seems they use bigger cable, but you'll likely be OK. Be sure to account for stretch via a turnbuckle or something. Usually the braking is through slack in the line so the end point isn't the lowest point in the run. One recent line I flew, the starting point was in a huge front loader bucket. To tighten the line, they'd occasionally fire it up and curl the bucket a few inches. That one went across a river, was a blast.

Enjoy, but be careful!

 

[deereguy]

I didn't know much about zip lines until I heard this guy talk at a seminar this past spring about the one they have had their farm. I wanted to inquire about his liability insurance but didn't get to ask that question. Hopefully this Youtube video link appears... Zip Line in Ostrander Leeds Farm

 

[bigballer]

i finally got it all put up and it tested out very well, we inched back each time until we were at the top and let 'er rip, what a good time. heading towards the tree at the bottom it seems you are going to hit but when the brake line tightens for the rebound your still at least 15ft from the tree so it's all good. i found out though that the brake needed to be lined with something because it was wearing away at the wood since the pull was only on one side so i added two pieces of steel angle iron and set it inside the groove i cut out of the block it forms a square slot for the cable to ride thru - this was much easier then dropping the cable and threading it through a one piece tube. the whole setup took a beating at our "zipline" party this weekend but with 25 (of 26) people taking over a 150 rides from ages 6 to 68 (yes, 68), it's holding up very well as is the cable. i might add no accidents and only one close call (and that was before launch).

Valent - i found the trolley online, it's built for zip lines. you can do a search for Petzl P24 and find several retailers.

Rob - i sent my design to a professional builder and he had some good feedback, his preference is a gravity brake as well but i couldn't get the height on the low end, plus this way you get maximum speed in the shortest distance, half the fun is hitting that brake at the end for a slingshot back up the line.

LBrown - i have built redundancy into it so in the case of a turnbuckle failure i have a backup sling, for instance. i doubled up the shock cord (thinking about tripling it), the trolley is already redundant should the sheaves break apart you still have a carbiner to keep you attached. i also threw out the idea of a "hand brake" which is likely how that poor man lost his hand, that design is very dangerous and causes accidents. of course even after all of these measures it's still dangerous. but ALOT of fun!

so here are a few more pics and a video!

the turnbuckles one on each end to allow for slack adjustment:


This the low end, it took a bit of bravery for me to get on that ladder but i got used it it, the key is balance and slow movements. i was able to reach the cable to tighten the turnbuckle with one hand and hold on with the other, i'm pretty agile so after a couple times up and down, i got used to it. some may think this is a dumb move but oh well.


also a self shot video of the first day of testing, the rope tends to twist a bit on the ride which makes it pretty exciting:

MVI_4459.flv video by PNWsnowninja - Photobucket

 

[VALENT]

quite the movie. Do you have any videos from the ground filming the fun?

 

[andrewj]

Saw a picture of a guy with a right arm that was 3 inches shorter than his left one .
He had cut off his hand in a zipline accident and there wasn't enough flush left to attach the hand to allow the fill arm length.
Didn't look nice.

Those things are dangerous .

I don't want any thing to do with them.

agree