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veganboyjosh
Sep 26, 2005, 3:06 AM
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i have a friend who's building a swingset for his kids. he was gonna use a brand new (dynamic) climbing rope for this, which i talked him out of, if i can find the appropriate static line.
now, as i'm looking into this some more, i realize i have some questions:
is nylon kernmantle the best thing for this? is there another type of rope that's better? he's set on rope, vs chains, so i'm looking into that for now.
how much will being outside and exposed to the elements affect the life of the rope? the kids are 3 and 5, so it's not like them swinging on it is gonna wear out the rope, but it will be outside, and it would be nice for dad (170 lbs or so) to be able to swing as well...
anyone have any experience with this, or know of any resources where i could find some more info?
i tried the search, came up with nothing.
thanks for your help.
josh.
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anykineclimb
Sep 26, 2005, 3:58 AM
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I wouldn't waste money on a brand new rope, but would consider a retired one.
even better use chain. it'll last forever and cheaper. millions of playgrounds can't be wrong.
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ctardi
Sep 26, 2005, 2:57 PM
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Hardware store rope will do fine, unlees you want to make the swingset double as an ascending practice line.... :lol:
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up4climbing
Sep 26, 2005, 3:56 PM
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It would seem to me that the dynamic rope would stretch somewhat when you swing, so that when you lean back, swing your legs, and try to get that swing going, you would lose a lot of energy to rope stretch. It would kind of feel like bouncing a semi flat basketball. But, you would probably want to ask someone who didn't fail college physics.
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realdeal39
Sep 26, 2005, 3:57 PM
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I don't see why you would want to use climbing rope at all for a swing set, unless maybe he's afraid of his kids fingers getting caught in the links, which is difficult to do although I have done it once or twice. But there are chains that have a protective plastic sheath around them. The only real drawback of chains on a swing set is that if you swing really high you can get a bit of an arch in the chains at your highest point, and when you start coming down and it suddenly snaps tight it does jar you quite a bit.
If you must use a climbing rope though I would think that a static would work better because as you swung down on a dynamic rope I would think that there would be enough stretch in the rope that unless you got your feet up high you would constantly feet the ground with your feet. But what do I know, I going strictly on assumption.
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bill413
Sep 26, 2005, 4:26 PM
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Rope stretch isn't that much of an issue for a swing set. Generally you're only dealing with 10 to 15 feet of rope, and it's doubled.
The traditional, non-climbers approach would be to go to the hardware store, buy nylon or polypropelyne line, and rig up the set. You want the line to be thick enough that it's safe working load won't be exceeded by an adult in the set, but climbing rope is really "overkill."
Last time I did it, I used three stranded line, so I could make eye-splices in the ends, resulting in a strong, knot-free system. As for longevity, well, replacing the ropes after 5 or 10 years would probably be a good thing.
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thrmaln
Sep 26, 2005, 4:39 PM
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Hello,
Another option would be to use chain then sheath it with 1" tubular webbing. This way it would have the security of using chain with the soft feel of the webbing. If your still looking for a static line, www.gearexpress.com has a static line on sale for $60.
Here is the link.
http://www.gearexpress.biz/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=G&Product_Code=1891C
Best regards,
Marc Webster
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cyanamid
Sep 26, 2005, 4:39 PM
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Gearexpress Short Ropes
Almost 70' of rope for $40. Cheap, extreme overkill sure, but who cares? 1/2" static line will be plenty strong, unless his kids get fat enough to exceed the 9200 lb tensile strength....
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joshy8200
Sep 26, 2005, 5:06 PM
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Definitely go static line...dynamic climbing rope is going to do its job and stretch and then the kids' feet will be dragging the ground.
And as said there's no reason to buy more expensive ropes designed for climbing.
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